Other Ripken Swinging Just Fine

Cal Ripken streakmania was all well and good, but now that it has subsided, isn’t it about time somebody noticed that Bill Ripken is quietly having a very presentable season at second base?

Don’t expect him to back it up with giant run-production numbers, but the littlest Ripken has been one of Baltimore’s most consistent hitters, batting .260 and failing to hit safely in just five games since May 20.

“He hasn’t had that big productive day driving in runs, so you have a tendency to overlook him,” Manager Frank Robinson said. “People have a tendency to think more about guys like Randy Milligan. They seem to forget about Billy the past two months.”

It wasn’t his bat that got him to the major leagues, but it recently has won him a greater share of the playing time at second base than he would have gotten if he was just getting by on his solid defensive ability.

Tim Hulett also is swinging the bat well, but he is getting some of his playing time in place of Craig Worthington, who has been very inconsistent with both the bat and the glove the past few weeks.

“Now, in the seventh inning and later, unless it’s an extreme circumstance, I don’t even think of pinch hitting for Billy because he’s swinging the bat so well,” Robinson said. “There was a time when I wouldn’t even hesitate. For him to be up around .260 at the bottom of the lineup -- that’s a big plus.”

Ripken has driven in a few runs, but he is more proficient at doing the little things that don’t show up in the headlines. He leads the American League in sacrifice hits with nine and has one of the lowest strikeout-to-plate appearance ratios (17 in 181) on the team.

He probably will have to play in his brother’s shadow throughout his career, but for the first three months of the 1990 season, Bill Ripken has been the favorite son.

Eye Spy Revisited: The Orioles, who blew the whistle on the Chicago White Sox’s electronic sign-stealing system a few weeks ago, were also the team that raised the issue at the recent owners meetings in Cleveland. Much heated discussion ensued before the owners voted to ban electronic communications between managers and off-field coaching personnel.

“Roland (Hemond) and I brought it up,” Orioles president Larry Lucchino said. “We wanted some clarification. It was a frank exchange. But it wasn’t just directed at the White Sox. It was a league-wide issue.”

The White Sox figure to be most affected, however, since eye-in-the-sky Joe Nossek is recognized as the pre-eminent sign-stealer in baseball.

“It’s ridiculous,” said an angry member of the White Sox organization, who did not want to be identified. “We’re being penalized because other teams are either too lazy or too cheap to do what we do.

“It’s like the Wilt Chamberlain rule. The NBA widened the free-throw lane because he was so good. That’s what has happened with Joe. He’s so good they had to put a rule in. They should call it the Joe Nossek rule.”

There doesn’t appear to be any bad blood between the Orioles and the White Sox because of the sign-stealing controversy. The two clubs are still cooperating on a plan that would allow the Orioles to play several home games at the Sox’s spring training stadium in Sarasota, Fla.

Lucchino said that the schedule will include at least four Orioles home games at Ed Smith Stadium, as well as a similar number at the Pittsburgh Pirates facility in Bradenton.

“The White Sox have been completely supportive and helpful to us as we resolve our spring training situation,” Lucchino said. “We owe them one.”

White Sox General Manager Larry Himes said that it wasn’t a totally unselfish gesture. The temporary arrangement helps pave the way for the Orioles to settle in the area permanently, which will cut down on travel time.

“I think they (the Orioles) are going to locate between us and Fort Myers,” Himes said. “That would make it very convenient with Texas in Port Charlotte, Minnesota in Fort Myers and the Pirates in Bradenton.

“We’ll accommodate them (in 1991), but I don’t want any black and orange colors hanging in our stadium.”

The cash transaction that sent designated hitter Ken Phelps to the Cleveland Indians last week left room to wonder why the Orioles weren’t involved in the bidding for a proven left-handed power hitter.

Phelps, after all, has one of baseball’s best home-run-to-at-bat ratios. Since the start of the 1986 season, he has averaged a homer every 14.8 at-bats. By comparison, Mickey Tettleton has the highest ratio of any Oriole over that period, hitting a home run every 20.5 at-bats. Cal Ripken is second at 26.1.

But there is more to the story than meets the stat sheet. Phelps is 35 and he has only eight home runs in his last 268 at-bats (dating back to the start of the 1989 season) -- which works out to a home run every 33.5 at-bats. Either he’s getting on in years or he was getting rusty on the Oakland bench.

“He’s got some barnacles on him that need to be chipped off,” Indians president Hank Peters said, “but he’s still a very dangerous type of hitter -- particularly if you’re managing against us. He can affect the way you use your pitching. He’s the kind of left-handed hitter we haven’t had on this club.”

Cecil Fielder is winning friends and influencing ballgames wherever he goes, but he has yet to convince Oakland A’s pitcher Dave Stewart that he is the most dangerous hitter in the American League.

Stewart intentionally walked shortstop Alan Trammell to get to Fielder last week, then gave up a two-run single to the Samurai Slugger that decided the game.

“He’s just another hitter,” Stewart said. “Trammell is a much tougher hitter. There are five, six, seven hitters in the league I’d rather stay away from than him.”

Fortunately for Stewart, a number of them play for the A’s.

Detroit Tigers hitting coach Vada Pinson doesn’t exactly wax nostalgic at the thought of Nolan Ryan pitching a no-hitter, though he was a teammate of Ryan’s during the 1970s and played in his first two no-hitters.

“It doesn’t even seem that long ago,” Pinson said, “because you look at him and he looks the same as he did back then.”

California Angels pitcher Mark Langston has yet to deliver the numbers you might expect from the guy who signed the richest guaranteed contract ($16 million) ever given to a pitcher, but don’t let the 4-7 record fool you.

He has a no-decision and two losses in his last three games, all of them 2-1 losses. He has given up four earned runs and struck out 33 in his last 24 innings. He has pitched into the seventh inning or later in seven of his last eight starts and reached the sixth in the other one, but has only one victory to show for it.

“Mark Langston can go to bed with a clear conscience,” manager Doug Rader said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Kansas City Royals reliever Mark Davis has not been so fortunate. He signed for a higher average salary ($3.25 million) than Langston, but has not lived up to $13 million worth of expectations since leaving the San Diego Padres.

Which is why the Padres have to love the way a lower-priced Craig Lefferts has emerged as their stopper since bolting from the San Francisco Giants to sign as a free agent during the off-season. He’s 5-1 with 10 saves in 11 save opportunities.

“I bet they (the Giants) wish they had him back,” said a gloating Padres manager Jack McKeon after Lefferts saved the game Tuesday night that ended the Giants nine-game winning streak, then got a victory Wednesday.