BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Was Vincent Out of Line?

When is free speech not free speech?

hen it does not support established baseball policy.

Commissioner Fay Vincent made that clear Wednesday after general manager Gene Michael, Manager Buck Showalter and operations director Jack Lawn of the New York Yankees had questioned the wisdom of baseball’s drug policy and the severity of the penalty given Yankee pitcher Steve Howe during Howe’s appeal of his lifetime ban.

Vincent summoned the three Yankee officials to a late-morning meeting on a day when the Yankees were playing a 1 p.m. game--Showalter didn’t reach the bench until the second inning--and scolded them for questioning a baseball policy in an official forum.

“What do people think central baseball should do when top club officials express views inconsistent with baseball policy, particularly when it relates to an issue as important as drugs or gambling?” Vincent said in an interview. “The clubs don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing which policies they support or don’t support. There are no options. The drug policy is not subject to dissent.”

An abuse of power? That’s what headlines in the New York tabloids proclaimed and the players’ union suspects.

Has Vincent become bigger than the game?

Knee-jerk reaction, said one of Vincent’s associates.

“This was not an exercise in undue authority,” he said. “It had nothing to do with expressing support for Steve Howe, but everything to do with top club officials winking at a major baseball policy just because it involved one of their players.

“The point of the exercise was to stress their responsibility. If the timing wasn’t appropriate (because of the day game), well, you don’t wait a week to sit down with your children when they need to be lectured. I think that underscored the importance Fay put on the issue.”

Vincent said that he did not ask any of the three to change their testimony and did not threaten them, as reported by some in the New York media, with loss of job.

“However, I did tell them that when you take a position inconsistent with baseball policy, you basically have resigned,” he said. “I don’t think it was their intention to resign, but that can be the consequences.”

It apparently won’t be this time.

A second meeting between Vincent and the three Yankee officials scheduled for Monday has been postponed.

The players’ union, saying that Vincent was attempting to intimidate witnesses--all three had already testified--and, in the words of union counsel Gene Orza, vindicate his policy rather than seek the truth, had asked arbitrator George Nicolau, in the final stages of the Howe hearing, to summon Vincent to explain.

Nicolau declined, but did agree on Friday to basically suspend the Howe hearing and establish a mechanism that will allow the union, according to Orza, to get to the bottom of Vincent’s meeting with the three Yankee officials and determine if it affected the Howe appeal.

The mechanism requires Vincent to write a letter to Michael, Showalter and Lawn, informing them that they will not be disciplined for responding to a union investigation of their meeting.

“There are two possibilities,” Orza said. “We will find that the meeting had no impact on the appeal, or we will find that it did.

“If it did, we will file a grievance against the commissioner, charging that he exceeded his authority as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement by intimidating witnesses.

“The Howe case is basically on hold for now because it could be affected by whatever we discover.”

It would be ironic if Vincent has blown his own ban of Howe. Even the impartial Nicolau seemed to question the commissioner’s behavior.

At one point during Friday’s hearing, according to a source who was in attendance, the arbitrator turned to an aide and said, “If the commissioner only wanted to talk to them, why didn’t he just use the phone?”

Vincent said the meeting continues to be blown out of proportion because of its relation to the Howe case. He stressed that it had nothing to do with the case itself, only with his concern that all club executives understand the need to support baseball policy. He said he agreed with the decision to postpone Monday’s second meeting.

“I’ll probably talk with (the three Yankee officials) at some point down the road, but I think they understand the consequences,” he said. “I’m sure they got the point. I don’t think much more needs to be said.”

The union is going to see that it is, however.

REALIGNMENT?

The postponement doesn’t mean that Vincent can extend his holiday weekend on Cape Cod. He will return to his New York office Monday to announce whether he will employ his “best interest of baseball” powers to order the Chicago Cubs into the National League West next year.

Vincent has attempted in vain to get the Cubs to accept realignment on their own. They remain adamant because it would create later broadcasts on their cable network.

Under Vincent’s plan, the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals would join the West with the Colorado Rockies. The Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves would go to the East, with the Florida Marlins.

“Eleven (of the current 12) National League teams favor realignment, but not all of those 11 support use of my ‘best interest’ powers to achieve it,” Vincent said. “It’s a difficult call.”

He will make another difficult call later in the week, announcing the reinstatement of George Steinbrenner as Yankee general partner.

Vincent said his inquiry into reports that Steinbrenner has had contact with Yankee officials, in violation of the terms governing his banishment, produced no supporting evidence.

KAL CAN?

It took former Dodger Kal Daniels only one appearance with the Chicago Cubs to qualify for the 1992 highlight film.

Pinch-hitting during the ninth inning of a tie game Wednesday, Daniels singled, then tested his fragile knees by trying to score from first on a double by Jose Vizcaino. Daniels stumbled after rounding third, then came up about two feet short on a headfirst slide at the plate, where he was tagged out.

Questioned about his failure to use a pinch-runner, Manager Jim Lefebvre bristled and said, “Let’s get something straight. I didn’t even think about a pinch-runner. We had the right guy out there. We saw him score twice from first base on doubles when we were in L.A.”

An obvious case of mistaken identity, because the Cubs had seen Daniels score only once this year--from second base on an error, during a game at Wrigley Field.

Daniels, meanwhile, insists he is prepared to be the regular left fielder, despite his recently expressed view that he had made the adjustment to first base and wasn’t eager to rejoin the Dodger outfield. He has had five knee operations, but trails Andre Dawson, the Cubs’ right fielder, by two.

“I came here to play left field every day,” Daniels said, after taking 72 hours to report. “I know I can play every day. Andre Dawson’s knees are worse than mine, and no one’s questioning him. I’m only 28. It’s not like I’m over the hill.”

NOT SO NICE

The heat that has been building under Bobby Bonilla and other disappointing Mets in New York has even seared Manager Jeff Torborg, Mr. Nice Guy. Torborg is drawing fire for suspect sincerity and lack of availability.

He is accused of being available only for the pre- and postgame radio shows for which he is paid. He has also been accused of covering up a Bonilla knee injury, and covering for Bonilla again--although he did criticize him privately--when Bonilla recently called the Shea Stadium press box to complain about an official scoring decision. Bonilla later attempted to say he was calling Jay Horwitz, Met public relations director, to ask about his health.

Some tabloid headlines: “Cry Bobby,” and “Losers and Liars.”

Said Torborg, whose team is last in the National League in runs and batting average: “I’m 50 and aging rapidly. I always said I only read the papers when we’re winning. The way we’re playing, I haven’t been reading much lately.”