BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Cost-Cutting Measures Considered

Despite being baseball’s most lucrative franchise, the Dodgers’ hard times on the field are apparently affecting their off-field budget.

Sources confirmed that front-office managers received memos last week asking them to explore cost-cutting measures for next season.

One of the only things being discussed that would directly affect the team would be an occasional commercial flight next season. Currently, the Dodgers fly only charters, one of the reasons players enjoy playing for the team.

“I am not going to comment on any inner-office memo,” said Fred Claire, Dodger vice president. “If the question has something to do with team travel, that is something we always explore and evaluate. But there will be no major changes in travel for next year.”

Claire acknowledged, however, that a price must always be paid for failings on the field and in the stands, where attendance is down from last season by an average of 6,953 per game.

“There is a connection, of course there is a connection,” Claire said. “It all relates.”

Some parts of the organization are already beginning to cut costs. Lights and elevators throughout the stadium are being turned on later--although still before gates open--and the menu in the press box dining room has been reduced.

“But (owner Peter) O’Malley will stop the cuts before they get to the team,” one source said. “He will never do anything that he thinks will affect their performance.”

More than anything, the no-hitter pitched by Kevin Gross Monday will place pressure on Bob Ojeda, who pitches Friday night against the Chicago Cubs.

Gross pitched the no-hitter on his wife Tamara’s birthday. On Friday, Ojeda’s wife Ellen turns 29.

Gross reminded Ojeda of this fact during their postgame party late Monday.

“I can’t believe he was dropping that stuff on me,” Ojeda said. “It isn’t like he bought his wife a watch on her birthday, and so now I can buy the same watch. I’ve got no chance of pitching a no-hitter. Let’s be serious.”

Ojeda’s low-hit game was a two-hitter against the Montreal Expos in 1988 while he pitched for the New York Mets.

The Dodgers agreed that the most amazing thing about the no-hitter was that nearly everyone in the dugout talked about it. “When Jose Offerman came in after making that great catch and yelled to Gross, ‘You’re going to do it now.’ In the days of Sandy Koufax, I don’t think they said that stuff,’ ” Tom Candiotti said. . . . Darryl Strawberry is taking batting practice regularly. . . . Todd Benzinger, sidelined since last week with a sprained left wrist, is still struggling with the injury. Adding to the unusual things that have happened to the Dodgers this season, Benzinger hurt the wrist in Atlanta while swinging a weighted bat.