Baseball / Ross Newhan : Reds Will Have Choice: Bristol or Helms

“A contingency plan is not needed.”

General Manager Murray Cook of the Cincinnati Reds apparently said it with a straight face the other day when asked if he and owner Marge Schott has discussed a replacement for Manager Pete Rose if Rose is suspended for his gambling activities or associations.

Don’t believe it. Reds’ management has discussed a variety of contingency plans throughout the Rose investigation.

And now, with attorney John Dowd scheduled to deliver his report to Commissioner Bart Giamatti Wednesday and a decision by Giamatti expected a week or two later, the Reds’ contingency plan seems to call for a choice between coaches Dave Bristol and Tommy Helms.

Had it happened earlier, had there been a need to replace Rose before the season or in the first week or two, the Reds might have gone outside the organization, choosing, perhaps, from among several candidates still being rumored as in line: Chuck Tanner, Hal Lanier and Jim Fregosi, among them.

Fregosi, idle since he was not retained as the Chicago White Sox manager, has been touted to Cook, former general manager of the Montreal Expos, by Montreal Manager Buck Rodgers, a longtime friend of Fregosi.

Now, however, the likelihood is that management will respect continuity and stay within the family, choosing between Bristol and Helms, if a choice is necessary.

Helms would seem the logical choice, having replaced Rose during his 30-day suspension for the run-in with umpire Dave Pallone last year, but logic does not always work with Schott.

Helms recently went through a sticky divorce, and Schott is intent on projecting a family image.

It is believed that she is leaning toward Bristol, if a manager is needed for the remainder of this season, and that she is determined to try to bring Sparky Anderson back to Cincinnati if she does not bring Rose back.

Schott reportedly did not want to rehire Rose for 1989 but bowed to pressure from her minority owners and the fear of public reaction. Rose has a two-year contract but it is unlikely he will be retained by Schott if there is any kind of suspension.

The flu kept Rose in Cincinnati Wednesday and Thursday when his Reds played in New York, under the direction of Helms.

Of the media onslaught Rose would have faced in the Big Apple, Met Manager Dave Johnson said: “If he was sick, he’d have gotten a lot sicker here. I know the feeling.”

Alluding to the Reds’ decision to put Eric Davis on the disabled list, Helms displayed a way with words.

“Right now, when you have your key dog out of there, you have to try and find the right combination,” he said, hoping a platoon of Herm Winningham and Rolando Roomes is that combination.

The Mets’ Kevin Elster extended his streak of errorless games to 86 Saturday, a major league record for shortstops, but he was almost wishing it would end. The graduate of Marina High in Huntington Beach said he thinks it is affecting his hitting, of which he hasn’t been doing much.

“I’m not saying that’s the only reason I’ve struggled,” he said of his .241 average. “I’m not swinging the bat like I can. But it has had an effect on me. It’s always there. I’m thinking about it all the time.

“Like, if I have a bad at-bat, I’ll say, ‘It’s OK. I’m doing the job on defense,’ instead of getting ticked off and going out there next time and making up for that at-bat. The problem has been that I haven’t been bringing a plan up to the plate. That’s what I have to do.

“I’m not saying that when I make an error I’ll bust out with 10 straight hits. But it has been on my mind.”

A former shortstop and manager and now a scout with the New York Yankees, Gene Michael said of Elster: “He’s the best shortstop I’ve ever seen, as far as catching the ball. He’s got such great hands and is always in position to field the ball.”

Responded Elster: “That’s nice. Who’s Gene Michael?”

With three hits in his last 24 at-bats through Thursday and his batting average in the depressed neighborhood of .200, the Hit Man was depressed.

“It’s frustrating, frustrating, frustrating,” Don Mattingly, New York Yankee first baseman, said. “I feel lost. I’m in a black hole and I can’t see any light. Usually, I struggle in April but still hit .240 or .250 or .270. But this . . . I’d just like to put it behind me. Play the next 140 instead of thinking about the first 20. Can we start over again? Can we call the league president?”

Mattingly broke out of it with three hits Friday night.

Similarly at a loss is designated hitter Larry Sheets of the Baltimore Orioles, once considered one of the American League’s most promising young hitters.

That was when he was 27 and had 31 homers with 94 runs batted in and a .316 average in 1987. His inexplicable drop-off last year was the biggest in baseball: 10 homers, 42 RBIs and a .230 average.

Sheets is still struggling. He was three for 18 with runners in scoring position through Friday with a .216 average, seven RBIs and one home run.

“I can sit on a pitch, get the pitch and still not hit it,” he said. “I’m so frustrated I feel like I’ve never played the game before.”

Al Campanis trod on dangerous sociological ground again Wednesday night, when he visited Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda and wound up as a mediator in the Lasorda-Pedro Guerrero peace talks. Campanis alluded to Guerrero’s spring criticism of Lasorda and said:

“Sometimes Latin people may say something when they’re distraught and may not mean it.”

Campanis, of course, lost his job with the Dodgers when he appeared on the TV show, “Nightline,” and said, among other things, that blacks may lack the necessities to manage in the majors.

There is more to applaud Glenn Davis for than his single-handed attempt to carry the Houston Astros’ offense.

KTXH in Houston, the station that televises Astro games, uses a beer commercial every time a Houston player hits a homer.

Davis, about the only Houston player who ever homers, told the station: “Don’t do it with me.”

Davis said he gave up alcohol after he was involved in an automobile accident as a teen-ager in which alcohol was a factor. He said he didn’t like a message implying that beer was a reward for hitting a homer.

Baseball, hypocritical in its verbal crackdown on substance abuse while encouraging beer sponsorship, could learn a lesson.

The Kansas City Royals’ 18-10 record before losing Saturday represented their best start. Can they keep it up without George Brett? He is not expected back until mid-June after tearing a ligament in his right knee, the 16th time he will have missed eight or more games because of injury.

“It’s different from years past,” Manager John Wathan said. “Before, when George would get hurt, people would sit there wondering how are we going to win without him. I don’t sense that now.”

The reason for Wathan’s optimism is Luis de los Santos, recalled from Omaha to replace Brett. De los Santos was voted the American Assn.’s most valuable player last year when he hit .307 with 86 RBIs.

His two-run single in his first game Tuesday night enabled the Royals to defeat New York on the anniversary of the end of Lou Gehrig’s streak of consecutive games. That prompted the Royals to needle Brett about being the new Wally Pipp, suggesting that he has lost his job permanently to de los Santos.