BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Bordick Has Bargain-Basement Bat

Dreams come in different sizes.

Brien Taylor’s included a $1.55-million signing bonus from the New York Yankees when the lefthanded high school pitcher was the first player selected in the 1991 amateur draft.

Phil Nevin’s is expected to include a signing bonus of about $675,000 from the Houston Astros, who used their first pick in this week’s draft on the Cal State Fullerton third baseman.

Mike Bordick, the Oakland Athletics’ infielder who has been vying for the American League batting lead, is realizing a dream, too, but his bonus didn’t deflate the A’s checkbook.

He received a new glove, spikes and warm-up jacket and couldn’t have been happier. It was 1986, and Bordick was on his way to the A’s rookie team in Medford, Ore. He wasn’t drafted coming out of high school or the University of Maine.

Bordick and his batting average in the .330s serve as an example that anything is possible. That’s the message he delivers when speaking to young audiences.

“I tell kids what people told me . . . chase your dream,” Bordick said. “I tell them that if they’re willing to work hard and make sacrifices, anything is possible.”

There have been others. Bobby Bonilla wasn’t drafted and is guaranteed $29 million for five years. Jeff Reardon wasn’t drafted and is about to become the all-time save leader. Kevin Mitchell wasn’t drafted. Neither were Bob Ojeda, Brian Downing, Larry Bowa, Frank White, Dan Quisenberry and Bruce Sutter, among others.

It’s an inexact science, particularly in Maine, which might as well be the Yukon as far as baseball scouts are concerned.

“Not many get up there,” said Bordick, who lives in Mechanic Falls. “And it’s hard to judge talent because of the weather. We played a 12-game schedule in high school. We played 60 games in college, but the first 35 or 40 were on the road. Even then, there would often be snow on the field when we got back.”

Bordick batted .365 as a junior at Maine, but the few scouts who saw him tended to remember his .201 average as a freshman. Reflecting on the draft after his junior year, Bordick said:

“I was disappointed but not totally frustrated. I just wanted to keep playing and figured that I’d go back for my senior year, finish my degree (in health fitness) and see what happened then.”

Bordick never made it back. He was playing in the collegiate Cape Cod League that summer when he was seen and signed as a free agent by scout J.P. Ricciardi and Dick Bogard, the A’s director of scouting, who were there to see another player.

The next day, Bordick left for Medford with his new glove, spikes and warm-up jacket. He played at class-A Modesto in ‘87, double-A Huntsville, Ala., in ‘88, triple-A Tacoma in ’89 and was summoned as an injury replacement by the A’s in each of the last two seasons, appearing in 25 games in 1990 and 90 with a .238 average in ’91.

Three developments opened the middle infield door for Bordick and close friend Lance Blankenship this spring. Second baseman Mike Gallego left as a free agent, shortstop Walt Weiss was put on the disabled list because of a rib injury and Bordick opened his stance to get a longer and better look at pitches, which he began to line to all fields.

Bordick began the season as the shortstop and Blankenship as the second baseman, and as the A’s have battled to regain superiority in the American League West, Bordick has suggested that a Killer B’s poster similar to the Bash Brothers portrait of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire would be appropriate.

He doesn’t suggest that, after never batting more than .272 in the minors, he is going to win a major league batting title. He does ask only that no one shake him out of his current tree.

“I’m a situational hitter,” he said. “I bunt, move guys over. The way I help a team most is by executing. Right now, I have a lot of confidence in my approach. I enjoy seeing my name up there with the big guys (Kirby Puckett and Roberto Alomar are the only hitters ahead of him in the league’s top 10), but I’m not caught up thinking about a batting title.”

Weiss was activated Thursday, which means Bordick probably will move to second and Blankenship to the outfield, where the A’s are operating without the injured Hendersons, Rickey and Dave.

It’s too small a move to disrupt Bordick’s dream, and he will never be bitter about the bonuses he sees going to others.

“I’m excited for those young players,” said Bordick, 26. “I can appreciate the anxiety they’ve been experiencing. There’s a lot of insecurity in this game, and I think it’s great that the clubs are willing to pay that kind of money.”

DRAFT HEARING

The Major League Players Assn., attempting to overturn the owners’ new draft regulations, will present its case to arbitrator George Nicolau during a hearing that begins at the Pepperdine Law School on Monday. Nicolau has promised a decision by the end of the month.

Agents Scott Boras, Jim Bronner, Alan Hendrick, Alan Meersand and Tom Reich will testify on behalf of the union. So will baseball coaches Mike Gillespie of USC, Bill Freehan of Michigan and Mike Martin of Florida State.

There are two basic tenets of the new rule:

--A club has rights to a drafted player for five years, rather than one.

--A player who doesn’t sign or isn’t drafted coming out of high school can drop out of college at any point to sign or become eligible for the draft. Previously, once a player went to a four-year college, he was not eligible for the draft again until he was 21 or after his junior year.

Owners insist that the new rule is designed to keep players in college, but coaches say it will have the opposite effect, disrupting scholarship commitments and making it impossible to plan from one year to the next.

The union, which contends that the rule should have been the result of collective bargaining, says that the rule is designed to control signing bonuses, and thus affects free-agent compensation overall.

It is difficult to gauge that impact from early signings. Most seem equitable, but it could be a one-year charade aimed at influencing Nicolau to retain the new rule.

Also, the middle- and lower-round high school players will lose the most leverage under the new provisions, because the drafting club has their rights for five years.

Some bonuses to date:

No. 2--North Carolina pitcher Paul Shuey, $650,000 from the Cleveland Indians; No. 3--Mississippi State pitcher B.J. Wallace, $550,000 from the Montreal Expos; No. 5--Central Florida outfielder Chad Mottola, $400,000 from the Cincinnati Reds; No. 27--University of Florida pitcher John Burke, $336,000 from the Colorado Rockies.

Burke experienced a loss of about $1,000 per draft slot after returning to Florida for his junior season, having rejected Houston’s offer of $356,000 as the sixth player selected last year, when he was 21 and used Taylor’s signing to demand much more than the Astros offered.

STARTING TIME

It is not a deal maker or breaker, but it is a negotiating point the Dodgers would agree to if it would help end the Chicago Cubs’ holdout against National League realignment in 1993.

The Cubs oppose joining the expansion Colorado Rockies and the St. Louis Cardinals in the West--Cincinnati and Atlanta would move to the East with the Florida Marlins--because it would mean more games on the West Coast, affecting fans and advertisers through later starting times on its cable network in the East and Midwest.

The Dodgers would agree to start night games at 7:05, rather than the current 7:35, if that benefited the Cubs. The San Diego Padres already have a 7:05 start, and the San Francisco Giants have a variety of starting times, including 6:30 and 7.

“What’s a half hour if it helps produce a schedule that makes sense?” a Dodger official said.

Another negotiating point is the schedule itself. Most NL clubs seem to favor an unbalanced format calling for 20 games against each club within the division and six against each club in the other division. But again, the Cubs may be placated with the AL’s 13-12 concept.

As contrasted to 20-6, that would mean fewer games on the West Coast and two home and away series with current Eastern Division rivals such as the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates.

With all of that, Commissioner Fay Vincent might still have to drag the Cubs out of the East by exercising his “best interest of baseball” powers.

Vincent acknowledged that he has been under pressure from National League clubs to do so and is considering it.

“I’m sure there are a number of clubs that would not like (his intervention),” Vincent said. “Not because they oppose realignment, but because they oppose the commissioner overriding the process.”

TASK FORCE

Dodger president Peter O’Malley, who chaired the search committees that recommended the late Bart Giamatti as National League president and Bill White as his successor, is again heading the search for a successor to White, who intends to retire at the end of the year.

White will leave on a sour note. National League owners are fuming over his speech at a convention of the Black Coaches Assn. in Atlanta.

“My goal is to make sure when I leave that a black man succeeds me,” White said in the speech. “He’ll be able to do more than I’ve done. He’ll be able to say more than I’ve said.”

White also seemed to indict many in the industry with the following generalities: “I deal with people now that I know are racists and bigots. I’m bitter. I’m mad. . . . If I said what I really feel, no (black) would follow me into that chair.”

Asked about those comments, O’Malley said that any explanation or reaction would have to come from White. White, however, did not return a call this week and has been almost totally unavailable to reporters during his tenure.

“I won’t talk to the press because I won’t allow them to set the agenda,” White said in the Atlanta speech. “I was part of the press for 18 years (as a broadcaster for the New York Yankees), and I know what their agenda is.”

Dealing with the media is a necessity and responsibility of any league president. In its search, the committee should make that part of its agenda.