Baseball / Bill Plaschke : McGriff Not a Household Name, but He Has Lots of Clout

For most players, home runs are measured in feet. For baseball’s unknown slugger, they are measured in shock value.

First baseman Fred McGriff of the Toronto Blue Jays, who has hit more homers this season than anyone but San Francisco’s Kevin Mitchell, leads everyone in sudden impact.

One of McGriff’s 31 homers traveled 450 feet and struck a window of the restaurant that overlooks center field at Toronto’s SkyDome. A woman seated near the window was so shaken, she walked away from an expensive dinner.

Another of his SkyDome homers went more than 400 feet to right field, landing against the window of the soon-to-be-opened Hard Rock Cafe. The crashing sound caused victimized New York Yankee pitcher Walt Terrell to turn and glare.

“I was wondering where they were going to put that nightclub,” Terrell said later. “Now I know.”

One day, maybe as soon as this season’s playoffs, everyone might know McGriff. For now, he remains relatively overlooked.

At age 25 and in his third season, nearly half of his major league hits (336) have gone for extra bases (163). Since the start of the 1988 season, McGriff leads baseball with 65 home runs.

“The guy is incredible; he is going to be the next player to hit 50 homers, easily,” said teammate and mentor Lloyd Moseby this week. “He’s more powerful than (Jose) Canseco, more powerful than (Darryl) Strawberry. Everybody looks at them when they should be look at Fred.”

McGriff, who doesn’t talk much about his home runs, admits to an identity crisis.

“That’s what happens when you play in Toronto,” McGriff said. “Everybody thinks you’re Canadian.”

The Tampa, Fla., native, even though he’s 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, also admits to surprising himself with his power.

“A lot of times I am surprised about what happens when I hit the ball,” McGriff said. “I’m not trying to hit a homer. I’m never trying to hit a homer. My goal is to be a .300 hitter.”

While he must wait to achieve that goal, he has already accomplished something that many players dream about. He has shown up Yankee owner George Steinbrenner.

In the winter after the 1982 season, Steinbrenner desperately wanted Toronto reliever Dale Murray. He offered outfielder Dave Collins and current Dodger pitcher Mike Morgan.

Toronto General Manager Pat Gillick said that it wasn’t enough. Gillick was interested in a little-known Yankee prospect who had been drafted in the ninth round in 1981. Gillick had only seen him once, in a Florida rookie league game, but in that game the kid hit the ball out of the stadium. Gillick knew the kid had spent two years in that league, and how Steinbrenner was impatient with players who didn’t quickly advance.

Gillick told Steinbrenner he would make the deal if McGriff were included. Without checking with club officials, Steinbrenner agreed.

“Steinbrenner’s minor league people hit the roof,” one scout said. “Steinbrenner has consulted them on trades ever since.”

It has been this kind of year for the Cincinnati Reds:

On their first West Coast trip this season, an earthquake shook their hotel in Los Angeles. Last week, on their second trip to the coast, an earthquake shook their hotel in San Francisco.

When the first earthquake hit June 12, pitcher Scott Scudder had just been sent to triple-A Nashville. As he was leaving his meeting with General Manager Murray Cook, the room shook.

“Does this always happen when you sent somebody down?” Scudder asked Cook.

Last week Scudder, back in the major leagues, was sleeping when the earthquake hit.

“My bed started shaking and I thought, ‘This must be a sign that I’m going down,” Scudder said. “So I woke up and took the phone off the hook.”

A bumper sticker showing up around the Pacific Northwest this summer reads, “Lefebvres Belebvres.” And it’s not only the Seattle Mariners’ fans and players who are believing first-year Mariner Manager Jim Lefebvre.

The Mariners recently split a 14-game stretch with the American League West-contending Angels and Athletics, and have leading contenders for two postseason awards--Ken Griffey Jr. for rookie of the year and Jeffery Leonard for comeback player of the year.

Despite being disabled since July 24 with a broken finger, Griffey still leads all American League rookies with 13 home runs, and is second with 45 runs batted in. He should return to the lineup within a few weeks.

After 105 games, Leonard had eight more homers (18) and eight more RBIs (72) than he hit last season.

Now, if the rest of the Mariners could quickly gain experience. They have used 10 rookies this year, and once played five at one time.

It isn’t that nobody wants to win the AL East. It’s that nobody is physically able.

Take the Milwaukee Brewers, who recently put an eighth player, Rob Deer, on the disabled list. Deer has a strained tendon in his right leg that he tried to ignore for two weeks because the Brewers cannot afford to lose him.

“I tried everything--shots, pills, whirlpool, everything,” said Deer, who was hitting a team-leading 25 homers with 62 RBIs.

Five of the Brewers on the disabled list are starting pitchers, four of whom were supposed to be in the rotation--Bill Wegman, Juan Nieves, Mike Birkbeck and Bryan Clutterbuck.

Ask pitcher Jerry Reuss about the injury plague. In his second start since being acquired from the Chicago White Sox, Reuss injured his left hamstring while in the middle of a windup.

“That is the first time anything like that has ever happened to me,” Reuss said. “Ever.”

Surprising as it may sound, look for the Detroit Tigers to be a factor in the AL East race. They have 31 games remaining against East opponents, and have just welcomed Jack Morris and Jeff Robinson back to the rotation.

“If we had not been so banged up all year, we still would not be leading this thing; we still don’t score enough runs,” Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson said. “But we’d be in the race, because anybody can be in this race.”

When Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles was ejected while batting in the second inning Monday night, it broke his string of 1,003 consecutive innings played.

Rene Gonzales, who replaced Ripken at the plate, became the first man to pinch-hit for him in seven years, since Jim Dwyer batted for Ripken on June 5, 1982.

Ripken has missed 18 of 11,928 possible major league innings. He has still played in 1,203 consecutive games, and next week should catch Steve Garvey (1,207) and move into third place on the all-time list.

The reason he was ejected Monday night? He was arguing a called second strike.

When former Dodger Pedro Guerrero hit a home run Tuesday for the St. Louis Cardinals off Bob Walk of the Pittsburgh Pirates, he flipped his bat and took 37.2 seconds to get around the bases. He was mad at Walk, who struck him out in his previous at-bat by throwing five consecutive curveballs even though the Pirates led, 5-0, at the time.

“I know he didn’t like what I did, but I didn’t like it when he threw five breaking balls to me,” Guerrero said. “Now we’re even.”

Said a confused Walk: “I apologize for the breaking balls. Next time, I’ll throw it underhanded.”

Baseball knows no passion like that of a Chicago Cubs fan involved in a pennant race.

Of the 25 remaining Cub home games this year, there are tickets left for two of them. Scalpers are getting $25 for bleacher seats. Salesman are hawking $7 T-shirts outside Wrigley Field reading “What The Hell Is An Expo?”

“You can’t call our fans front-runners--we never won anything,” Cub Manager Don Zimmer said.

But you can call Zimmer excited. When his team swept the Expos this week to move into first place by three games, it was strangely similar to the scenario in 1984. They swept the New York Mets on Aug. 6-8 to move into first place by 4 1/2 games, and stayed there the rest of the season.

“If I were a dancer, I’d dance down Michigan Avenue,” said Zimmer, a manager of the year favorite. “This is my most gratifying year ever. We’re catching every break we can catch.”

As an example, reliever Pat Perry had a string of 21 scoreless innings when he went on the disabled list. His replacement, Les Lancaster, reeled off 31 scoreless innings, including winning three games in relief of Mitch Williams, the team’s top reliever.

Nobody in the San Diego Padre organization questioned last year’s decision to make pitcher Andy Benes the national No. 1 draft pick. But nobody can agree about what to do with him.

Against the wishes of some club officials, Benes was brought along slowly this spring. He was not invited to major league camp, unlike most other top picks. While other top 1988 picks actually started the season in the big leagues--Jim Abbott with the Angels and Gregg Olson with Baltimore--Benes started at double-A Wichita.

Because of his small-town background and raw skills--he grew up and attended school in Evansville, Ind.--the Padre player development officials want to bring him along slowly. But he quickly dominated the Texas League, going 8-4 with a 2.16 ERA, and there were cries for his promotion.

Last month he was finally moved to triple-A Las Vegas, where he was overmatched. He went 2-1 with an 8.10 ERA, giving up 44 hits in his first 26 2/3 innings.

But with injuries to the Padre pitching staff and a pennant race looming, there were cries for another promotion. Last week, Benes was brought to the big leagues.

In his first start, Friday night against the Atlanta Braves, he lasted just six innings, allowing six runs on six hits, including two homers. The shelling did not come as a surprise to his Las Vegas teammates, who reportedly had started a pool on how long Benes would last.

“Just let the kid pitch,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “Everybody asks why he isn’t in the major leagues, then we bring him to the major leagues and everybody wants to know why he’s here so soon. You guys (the media) put too much pressure on the kid.”