BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : National League Wants Division Rivalries to Stay Intact

If the race in the American League East comes down to the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, don’t look for them to settle it head to head. They don’t play one another after Aug. 12.

Same goes for the Angels and Oakland Athletics in the West. They last meet on Aug. 22.

This is one of the drawbacks of the American League’s basically balanced schedule that has each team playing four series--two home and two road--with every other team, and each playing more games, 84, outside its division than within, 78.

The National League doesn’t intend to go the same route when Denver and Miami join the league in ‘93, Denver in the West and Miami in the East.

The National League plan is to stress division rivalries. Each team will play 20 games with each of the other teams in its division for a total of 120. Each team will play only six games--one home and road series--with each team in the other division for a total of 42.

The formula has not been approved, but adoption is expected to be recommended by the expansion committee. There will be no realignment in the first few years of the 14-team National League because of television commitments, and there may be no realignment ever, despite the economic and geographic sense in:

--Moving Chicago and St. Louis to the West with Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Houston.

--Moving Atlanta and Cincinnati to the East with Miami, New York, Montreal, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Realignment will be on the agenda when the owners next meet in September, and some would like to see it tied to interleague play.

The Cubs, in the meantime, seem to hold the realignment key, since they would probably refuse to go anywhere without the Cardinals, their chief rival, and would probably oppose the loss of rivalries with the Mets and Pirates.

In addition, playing more games in the West would result in the loss of prime-time cable starts in the Central and Eastern time zones, although Atlanta and its superstation have been forced to cope with that same problem when it comes West.

Don Grenesko, the Cubs’ president, said that realignment has never been made an issue by the league or discussed within the organization, so he didn’t want to comment on something theoretical--even if, in theory, you would have to think it has been discussed.

Bill White? That’s the name of the National League president, but he is seldom seen with Commissioner Fay Vincent and American League president Bobby Brown at news conferences, seldom heard from on critical issues and seldom available by phone.

Communicative as a broadcaster and player, White apparently wants no part of the media responsibility accompanying his job, and there are now high-level baseball officials openly muttering about White’s inexplicable reticence.

Approached at times during the owners’ meetings in Santa Monica last week, the brusque White chose to ignore reporters’ inquiries, turning his back, continuing on his route or even, on one occasion, putting out his hand to block the TV lens of a Tampa cameraman.

It has been two years since White became the National League president. He should be confident by now of the issues and his ability to address them.

The muddled handling of expansion is the latest indication that this remains an industry crying for openness and clarity, or at least an occasional word from the National League president.

Chili’s Cooking: The Angels, concerned about the back problems that limited him to 113 games last year, let Chili Davis leave as a new-look free agent last winter.

They refused to re-negotiate a contract that extended through 1991, questioned his work habits in trying to overcome the injury, and seemed to think he was easily replaceable as designated hitter.

Signed by the Minnesota Twins, Davis has contemptuously hammered the Angels on their treatment of players and, more satisfyingly, served as the hammer in the sizzling winning streak that lifted the Twins above the Angels and into second place in the West.

Before a weekend series in Cleveland, Davis was batting .301 and led the Twins in home runs with 14, runs batted in with 39, and doubles with 15, all far more than Dave Parker, the Angels’ designated hitter.

The Twins were 21-3 in games in which Davis had driven in a run, and he had failed to play in only one of 61 games.

“We’d be lost without him,” Manager Tom Kelly said. “We’d be at the bottom looking up. There’s no question about it.”

The key, Davis says, is that he has lost 20 pounds and continues to work religiously on his back.

“I didn’t want to be known as a hurt player,” he said. “The fact that people thought my back was going to keep me from playing well is why I’m a Twin and not an Angel in the first place. I knew that if I took care of my health, I could help this team win.”

Davis is also helping by serving as something of a senior companion and role model for pitching sensation Scott Erickson, who is 9-2 and, at 23, eight years younger than Davis. Erickson and Davis have rented a house in the Twin Cities area, but their relationship is not entirely a new one.

Davis, then with the San Francisco Giants, once acknowledged the cheers of a Sunnyvale High School student as he was walking out of Candlestick Park, and Erickson, the student, never forgot that friendly response.

“I do things my own way and so does Scott,” Davis said. “That’s why I like him so much. He doesn’t care what people think you’re supposed to do. He does what works for him. I’m like that, too.”

Minding His Mouth: The Montreal Expos are concerned about a possible deterioration in the relationship between the talented Delino DeShields and National League umpires.

DeShields accused the umpires of a conspiracy against him the other night when he was ejected for throwing his bat after drawing a walk, having felt Terry Tata was squeezing him on some calls.

Coach Tommy Harper, DeShields mentor, said of the conspiracy charge: “Delino thinks he sees something that isn’t there. He shouldn’t talk about it. I don’t think the kid understands how strong his words are.”

Feedback: Taunted by New York fans about his relationship with Madonna, Jose Canseco is being booed at home in response to his inconsistent performance, prompting him to say that fans in Oakland lack baseball intelligence.

Would he like to join the Miami expansion team and play in what is his real hometown?

“You kidding?” he said. “You hear the way they boo me in Oakland? They’d be throwing hand grenades at me there.”

Oh, Buddy: Miscommunication on a sign from Manager Bud Harrelson in the dugout to New York Mets’ third base coach Mike Cubbage was a significant factor in a one-run loss to the Atlanta Braves the other night and the latest in a series of incidents that have kept Harrelson on a hot seat.

Can the Mets overtake the Pittsburgh Pirates in the East?

“No,” said Sid Bream, who helped the Pirates prevent it from happening last year and now plays first base for the Braves.

Bream cited the departure of Darryl Strawberry and said:

“HoJo (Howard Johnson), (Kevin) McReynolds and (Gregg) Jefferies are all tremendous hitters, but when you have somebody like Strawberry at the center, he makes them all better.”

Done Anything Lately? General Manager Bob Quinn of the Cincinnati Reds, 1990 executive of the year for the five trades that helped his team go wire to wire in the National League West, beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs and sweep the A’s in the World Series, hasn’t made a deal since acquiring Bill Doran from Houston Aug. 31.

He is said to have been eyeing Philadelphia’s Von Hayes recently and getting subtle pressure from Manager Lou Piniella to make a deal, thinking any kind of move might regenerate the Reds. Quinn, however, isn’t sure.

“To do something for chemistry alone is not a very prudent way to go about business,” he said. “Our chemistry was so good last year we swept the A’s.

“Now the question is, has something happened to that chemistry?”

Nothing more, perhaps, than playing three weeks without Barry Larkin. And now the Reds have lost Eric Davis for at least a week.

Hall of Shame: When his team was shut out twice by the Houston Astros before winning this week’s series finale on three hits, Manager Jim Fregosi of the Phillies said: “We’re not swinging the bats well, especially against Lefty Gomez and Sandy Koufax.”