BASEBALL MISCELLANY : NAMES AND NUMBERS

The Candidate: Ballot stuffing got Oakland Athletics catcher Terry Steinbach and his .217 batting average into last year’s All-Star game, but Steinbach has been a bonafide All-Star ever since. He won the Most Valuable Player Award in last year’s game with a home run off Dwight Gooden, batted .302 over the second half and was hitting .346 as the A’s entered a weekend series in New York. His composite average since last year’s All-Star break: .319 with six home runs and 50 runs batted in.

Oakland Oddities: Steinbach’s reversal isn’t the A’s only interesting twist. First, there’s Carney Lansford, who was batting .402 last June 4, then hit .196 over the remainder of the year to finish at .279. Lansford is on a tear again, batting .370 entering the weekend and .452 in May. Then there’s Mark McGwire, who should be playing for the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field. McGwire, since the start of the 1988 season, is hitting .306 in day games and .221 in night games.

Power Source: Minnesota Twins pitchers are doing their best to boost baseball’s sagging home run totals. They have given up 52 in 44 games through Thursday. And among those who had homered off the Twins were: Jeff Kunkel, who hit three in three days after never hitting more than three in a season; Willie Wilson, who had gone a full year without one; Torey Lovullo and Joey Meyer, who have since been sent to the minors, and Kurt Stillwell, who bats ninth for the Kansas City Royals and hit two in the same game.

Great Scott: The Houston Astros’ Mike Scott has won six of his last seven decisions with the Pittsburgh Pirates after going 0-8 against them. Scott pointed out that Willie Stargell and Dave Parker are now gone and that he is a different pitcher as well. Said Andy Van Slyke, who is one for 32 against Scott: “It’s a good thing he wasn’t born triplets or I’d be pumping gas at (teammate) Glenn Wilson’s station.”