BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : They Shouldn’t Make Sale So Tough

Baseball’s owners are expected eventually to approve the sale of the Seattle Mariners to a group that includes Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd. of Kyoto, Japan, but not before they have securely lessened the the control and influence of Yamauchi and his colleagues.

The proposed structure of the Baseball Club of Seattle has already undergone several revisions at the request of the major league ownership committee, but there were demands for more--or further clarification, at least--in a meeting in Chicago on Thursday.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who financed the new Comiskey Park through the Fuji Bank of Japan, is at the forefront of a group insisting that the ownership committee be certain that John Ellis, president of the group and chairman and CEO of Puget Sound Power & Light, is the controlling and voting voice, not Yamauchi.

Yamauchi is contributing $75 million of the $125-million purchase price, but apparently that arrangement has been restructured in a way that gives majority control to the Northwest investors, at least on paper.

“The nationality of the money is no longer an issue,” a source in the commissioner’s office said. “The issue is control, being certain that one man is in charge and that Ellis is the man.

“The more we become involved with consortiums and partnerships, we want to be very sure that we don’t get in the middle of a baseball issue and have someone step out of the wings and say he has a right to sit in on the meeting, and the right to vote.”

The source said that baseball has already worked through the unique aspect of the Japanese financial investment and is down to procedural issues common to all sales.

This one could be finally approved at a June 9 ownership meeting in New York, but it remains riddled with enough theories to satisfy Oliver Stone.

Reinsdorf, some say, is operating as point man for two reasons:

1--He is a close friend of Mariner owner Jeff Smulyan and hopes the insulted Yamauchi, forced to swallow his pride, will back out, creating a scenario in which Smulyan can still take the team to Tampa.

2--Reinsdorf is determined to overturn the project out of anger over Commissioner Fay Vincent’s uneven distribution of National League expansion income.

Reinsdorf’s office said Friday he will have no comment on the situation, but it has also been suggested that some owners remain fearful of Nintendo’s corporate resources and the public reaction to Japanese involvement in the national pastime.

Of course, the entire episode has smelled of hypocrisy--from Vincent’s initial overreaction to the ongoing attempt to diminish Yamauchi’s influence and involvement.

How does any of that jibe with:

--Vincent’s boasts of a global game and international marketing.

--Canadian ownership of the Expos and Blue Jays.

--Permitted underwriting of the often unstable minor leagues through Japanese ownership of teams in Salinas, Visalia, Birmingham and Vancouver.

--The signing of players from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia, Russia and, yes, Japan.

The process has gone on for three months, and baseball is still trying to erode the Japanese involvement with a franchise that deserves a crack at stable ownership. Said Houston Astro owner John McMullen, after the meeting in Chicago:

“I don’t see why we don’t let them in. The Japanese aren’t any dumber than we are.”

MUSICAL CHAIR

There is no more important position in the batting order than No. 3. It is a position usually reserved for the team’s best all-round hitter--a source of consistent contact and productivity.

For the Dodgers, the question of who bats third has become a problem of the young season.

Five players have already gone to the plate in that capacity--Kal Daniels, Darryl Strawberry, Eric Karros, Todd Benzinger and Mitch Webster. In April, they had a composite batting average as No. 3 batters of .242 with only two home runs and eight runs batted in. They had 16 strikeouts and 23 hits in 95 at-bats.

With Eric Davis needed to provide protection behind Strawberry, with Daniels on the disabled list because of his fragile knees, with Strawberry’s strikeout potential making him more of a No. 4 hitter, Karros might ultimately hold the key, though Strawberry is likely to remain in the role for now.

IDENTICAL TWINS?

The Minnesota Twins’ 9-12 April is strikingly similar to their 9-11 April of last season, when they went on to division, league and World Series titles, but there may be a significant difference.

Jack Morris pitches for Toronto now, and Scott Erickson, who won 12 consecutive decisions to help sustain a 15-game winning streak in June, has been struggling ever since, a situation compounded by John Smiley’s initial inability to fill the Morris void.

The Twins are 2-8 in the 10 games started by the two 20-game winners of last year. Smiley is 0-2, Erickson is 0-3 and Kevin Tapani is 1-2, a combined 1-7 compared to their 56-25 of 1991.

Statistics can be misleading, but not in the case of Erickson and Smiley. Both seem to be pitching as poorly as their numbers indicate.

Erickson is 8-9 with a 5.43 earned-run average and no complete-game victories in 22 starts since the end of his winning streak last year.

“Growing pains,” close friend Chili Davis said.

“Bull,” said Erickson. “It’s just been a horse . . . start.”

Manager Tom Kelly agreed.

“He’s pitching decently, but not good enough to win 20 again,” Kelly said. “He can’t afford to throw the ball (up) in the strike zone like he has been. You can do it if you’re throwing in the 90s, but he’s in the 80s.”

Erickson’s velocity was considerably diminished in the playoffs and World Series, and some scouts believe he has not recovered from the forearm strain of late last season. Erickson disputes that theory, saying it’s strictly an issue of location.

Smiley, who won his 20th with the Pittsburgh Pirates on the last day of the regular season, is 0-4 with an 8.60 ERA in seven starts since, including two playoff defeats.

Traded to the Twins late in spring training, he is adjusting to a new league, the confining dimensions of the Metrodome and the burden of replacing Morris. In other words, Smiley faces a different kind of location problem.

“He’s probably going through a lot of environmental transfer,” pitching coach Dick Such said. “It takes a while to settle down. He was building a home in Pittsburgh, planting his seeds. All of a sudden he was uprooted, but this game is noted for that, and you have to be prepared.”

HOLY COW

Resembling the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago Cubs finished April with a streak of 27 scoreless innings, the NL’s lowest batting average of .213, an 0-12 record in games in which they scored four runs or fewer and real concern over Andre Dawson, who has had his right knee drained twice.

Hoping to manufacture runs, Manager Jim Lefebvre has been openly frustrated.

“The Cubs have a reputation for sitting back and waiting for the home run, but we’re going to do it until we get it right or we’re going to make changes,” said Lefebvre, who already has brought up three players from triple A, released Dwight Smith and returned third base hope Gary Scott to Iowa.

The lack of offense has been compounded by the ongoing struggle of Danny Jackson, 1-9 since his $10.5-million signing before the ’91 season, and former Dodger Mike Morgan, 0-2 in the first four starts of his four-year, $12-million contract and a combined 0-6 with Jackson in April.

“Danny Jackson and Mike Morgan are critical to our success, and I’m looking for them to step up,” General Manager Larry Himes said. “There’s not much else to do but give them the ball and some support.”

SPARKY’S LAMENT

Bill Gullickson, the Detroit Tigers’ surprise winner of 20 games last season, was a respectable 3-2 with a 3.70 ERA in April, but the rest of the rotation--Frank Tanana, Walt Terrell, Eric King and Scott Aldred--fell considerably shy of respectability.

The Tigers won only four of the 16 games started by that quartet, and the starters were 1-9, giving up 64 earned runs and 104 hits in 74 innings. Of the 5.72 staff ERA, Manager Sparky Anderson said:

“A 5.72 ERA means your catcher is not retrieving enough balls to break in his glove.”