BASEBALL / HELENE ELLIOTT : A New Game Awaits Manager Joe Torre

In the six years since Joe Torre last managed, baseball’s salary structure has changed so dramatically that Torre wonders how much leverage managers have over multimillionaire players.

He will find out soon enough, having agreed on Wednesday to leave the sanctuary of the Angels’ television booth to succeed Whitey Herzog as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.

“The game is different,” said Torre, who followed a successful playing career by managing the New York Mets from 1977-81 and the Atlanta Braves from 1982-84.

“The players are making a lot of money and have a lot of guarantees, and that makes managing tougher. You can no longer threaten guys to make them play. I know when I managed the Mets and you’re out of the pennant race in August, you’d have to get them fired up. Now there’s no such thing as ‘have a good year so you’ll get a big contract next year,’ a salary drive, because it’s all long-term contracts. When I was managing, at that time the top dollar was only a million dollars. Only. “

Torre’s strengths in his two managerial terms were his ability to communicate with young players and his calm demeanor. His Braves won the National League West title in 1982 despite a stretch of 19 losses in 21 games and an unimpressive staff of pitchers that included Joe Cowley, Larry McWilliams, Rick Mahler and Phil Niekro. They were close again in 1983, Atlanta’s last winning season, but fell out of it in 1984 when Bob Horner was hurt.

Torre, who interviewed for jobs in Pittsburgh, Chicago and Houston before settling into his broadcast career, inherits a team that stands to lose eight free agents after this season. The biggest names are outfielders Vince Coleman and Willie McGee, pitchers Ken Dayley and John Tudor, infielder-outfielder Denny Walling and third baseman Terry Pendleton.

Torre wouldn’t say last week which players the Cards will try to sign, but Coleman and McGee were both on the trading block this season. Waiting at triple-A Louisville are promising outfielders Bernard Gilkey and Ray Lankford.

“Whether a player is making $3 million or $3,000, I expect the same thing out there as far as effort,” Torre said earlier this week. “You manage according to the team you have, not the team you wish you had.”

His managing philosophy will be tempered by what he has seen from the broadcast booth as well as by working with friends. Cardinal General Manager Dal Maxvill, who was on Torre’s coaching staff in Atlanta and New York; and Ted Simmons, the Cards’ director of player development, were Torre’s teammates in St. Louis.

“Working with Maxvill and Ted Simmons will be the first time I’m working with somebody instead of for somebody,” he said. “It can only be ideal.”

One question remains about the conditions imposed by Commissioner Fay Vincent on former New York Yankee boss George Steinbrenner.

How can Vincent--or anyone--keep Steinbrenner from conversing about team matters with his son, his designated successor?

It’s almost an invitation for the elder Steinbrenner to cheat. Perhaps that’s the desired end: catching Steinbrenner violating the terms and then banishing him entirely.

Success has come late for San Pedro High School graduate Brian Harper, but he’s savoring it all the more.

Harper’s hitting streak with the Minnesota Twins reached 23 games Thursday, the longest in the American League this season and the equal of a streak by Philadelphia’s Len Dykstra as the longest in the major leagues. Harper’s success has propelled him into the ranks of the American League’s top hitters with a .325 batting average, late blossoming for a catcher-infielder who has played in 15 cities since the Angels chose him in the fourth round of the 1977 free-agent draft.

Harper made his major league debut with the Angels in 1979, playing one game. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tim Foli in December, 1981, and from there bounced to St. Louis, Detroit and Oakland--and various minor league cities--before he signed with the Twins as a free agent in December, 1987.

“I probably couldn’t have done this earlier because of some of the things I learned in the minors,” said Harper, 31 in October. “I learned a lot about my personal life and my baseball life, everything. The struggles make me appreciate this more.”

Made the Twins’ regular catcher last August, Harper has richly repaid Manager Tom Kelly’s faith in him--and his own faith in his talents. Only once did he consider retiring, and he has never regretted staying in baseball.

“In ‘87, I was in the minor leagues with Oakland. I was on the bench and things weren’t going well and I started thinking about doing something else,” he said. “It came to a point where I had to make some changes. I took a lot of priorities off baseball and put it in the Lord and my family. The baseball part took care of itself.”

Few people followed Nolan Ryan’s pursuit of his 300th victory with more interest than the Angels’ Bert Blyleven.

With 279 victories, the 39-year-old right-hander is closer to 300 than any other active pitcher--but his chase is progressing slowly. Blyleven was 6-3 by mid-June but has been hit hard recently and was 1-3 with three no-decisions in seven starts before Saturday. In those seven starts, he allowed 34 earned runs and 57 hits in 34 innings.

With those woes to deal with, earning his 300th victory isn’t foremost in his mind.

“If it comes, it’s nice, but I’m worried about winning one at a time,” said Blyleven, whose contract was extended by the Angels in April for slightly more than $2 million in 1991 with options--at the Angels’ choice--for 1992 and ’93. “If I’m at 299, then I’ll concern myself with 300. My main goal now is to pitch consistent. I just want to get back there and the wins will come.”

The Mariners continue to pile up firsts: This is the first time they have been so many games over .500 this late in the season, the first time they have been as high as third in the standings so late in the season, etc.

What does this mean--other than that the Mariners have had some awful seasons in the past?

“It doesn’t mean anything when it’s the end of July,” veteran pitcher Matt Young said. “It’s a steppingstone to a goal we have of improving. We’ve been playing really good all all year, but we haven’t won more than three, four in a row. We’ve been playing good, solid baseball all year. I think we’re ready to go on a streak of eight, nine in a row or 10 of 11.”

That could help get the Mariners cut a double-digit lead the A’s built over them after taking two of three at Oakland this week. But it still may not be enough for them to seriously challenge the A’s and White Sox.

“They’re solid, but we’re pretty solid, too,” Young said. “We’ve got great arms and a good defensive ballclub. We’ve been doing this without anybody hot the last couple weeks. (Ken) Griffey (Jr.) had been struggling and until the last couple games, the only guy hitting was Edgar Martinez. But Harold (Reynolds) is getting on base and we’re doing the little things. We just need to get a couple of guys hot.”

Are the Orioles making a move in the American League East? They certain seem to have made a good personnel move in acquiring Ron Kittle from the Chicago White Sox for the disgruntled Phil Bradley, who had called Baltimore’s offer of a $1.3-million contract for 1991 humiliating.

The Orioles get game-breaking power--Kittle had led the Sox with 16 home runs--but it’s tough to figure what the White Sox get aside from a bit more speed. General Manager Larry Himes has made so many good deals that it’s difficult to doubt him, but this one is curious.

The Orioles face a potential dilemma: Bob Milacki’s arm problems. He was put on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, although nothing specifically ails him. Fatigue is believed to be a contributing factor. He has started 60 games since the beginning of last season.

Strangers in strange lands: Milwaukee second baseman Paul Molitor, recovered after another stay on the disabled list, rejoined the Brewers’ lineup at first base. Jim Gantner was playing too well at second for Molitor to dislodge him, and Molitor played his first game at first last Monday.

When Minnesota’s Kent Hrbek was shifted to third base in the ninth inning of the Twins’ 11-5 loss to the Angels Wednesday, it marked the first time in 12 professional seasons Hrbek had played anything but first base or designated hitter.