BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Suddenly, Moving the Giants From San Francisco Gets Cloudy

Question: Is today’s game with the Cincinnati Reds the last for the Giants in San Francisco?

Answer: It is consistent with the fog-shrouded, wind-buffeted, chill-lacerated history of the dump that is Candlestick Park that the answer to that question is as uncertain as a Bay Area weather report.

This much seems clear:

--A majority of National League owners, among them Peter O’Malley of the Dodgers, want the Giants to remain in San Francisco, maintaining 1) the rivalry with the Dodgers, 2) the economic practicality of West Coast trips that include three California cities and 3) the opportunity to visit San Francisco restaurants regularly.

--A San Francisco group that includes several of the area’s top financial heavyweights and is headed by out-of-stater George Shinn, owner of the Charlotte Hornets, is studying the club’s books and is expected to submit an offer to league President Bill White this week.

--That offer is expected to be about $90 million, compared to the $115-million agreement owner Robert Lurie reached with the group planning to move the team to St. Petersburg, Fla., but the $25-million disparity is only on paper.

The San Francisco offer apparently would allow Lurie to keep the $12.6 million each National League owner is receiving from expansion, making it worth about $103 million. The $115-million Florida deal includes $10 million that Lurie would lend back for operating expenses, meaning he would emerge initially with $105 million.

--The San Francisco offer is also expected to outline a five-year plan for private developers to build a downtown stadium on city-owned land at 7th and Townsend streets.

There are obvious complexities.

Among them: Even if the league buys into the stadium concept, and it is only a concept at this point, how can it seemingly undermine franchise value by forcing Lurie to accept less--if not that much less--than he would receive from the Florida group?

The apparent answer is that several National League owners insist that former commissioner Fay Vincent never gave Lurie approval to move, only to investigate the possibility. They also contend that the value of a franchise being moved can’t be equated to one staying where it is, meaning the oft-jilted Tampa-St. Petersburg area, hungering to join the big leagues, is obviously going to submit an inflated offer.

How and when this will be resolved is uncertain, but it is a typical baseball mess that is certain to produce legal problems, despite the indemnity waivers that both groups have signed.

It has also left Florida Sen. Connie Mack Jr. itching to begin hearings into baseball’s 70-year antitrust exemption this week and has left Vince Naimoli, who heads the group attempting to move the club to Florida, wondering if it’s worth it.

“This can’t go on forever,” he told Tampa and St. Petersburg reporters the other day. “I’ve been going at this for about two months now, and I don’t know what kind of appetite I’ll have for it after Oct. 1.”

The Naimoli group has insisted it must have a decision by Thursday if a $30-million finishing project on the Suncoast Dome, including construction of more than 40 luxury boxes, is to be completed by April. It is not likely, however, that Naimoli would risk the wrath of his community by pulling out before baseball makes a decision, and baseball won’t be pressured, said O’Malley, who is a member of the ownership committee.

“I’m not locked into any particular date and neither is the committee,” he said.

In the meantime, the structure of the Florida group is still to be resolved. The ownership committee initially expressed concern with the size of the out-of-state investment by Pennsylvania businessmen Vince Tirendi and Vince Piazza, the father of Dodger catching prospect Mike Piazza and longtime friend of Manager Tom Lasorda.

Both Piazza and Tirendi remain in the group, their 50% holding believed to be unchanged, but the ball is now in the committee’s court. The group is believed to have told the committee it can and will restructure any way the committee wants, that each of the investors has the financial resources to pick up any requested percentage.

If Piazza retains influence, it has been speculated that Lasorda, who has a year left on his contract, will leave the Dodgers to become manager or general manager of the Giants in Florida, but the uncertainty of the league’s decision before the final week of the season has left Lasorda and the Dodgers in limbo, as well as Phil Regan and Bill Russell, who are considered the leading candidates to succeed him.

Meanwhile, a near sellout crowd of 58,000 is expected at Candlestick today. A nostalgic finale to 35 years in the Bay Area or merely the end of another dismal season?

There is no way of knowing, but it is difficult to generate compassion for either Lurie or the area in which his team plays.

Consider:

--The owner has been saddled with a monstrosity of a stadium, but he will have capitalized nicely on his 1976 investment of $8 million while failing to provide initiative for the private funding of a new park despite personal wealth estimated at more than $350 million.

--The area is suddenly displaying some passion for the Giants, but where has it been? Voters have rejected four stadium proposals, and the Giants, who will draw about 1.6 million this year, have drawn more than 2 million only once and fewer than 1 million 10 times.

The Florida group has deposits on 30,000 season tickets, and although the Suncoast Dome has been the target of criticism, it has the one thing Candlestick needs most--a roof.

So, where will the Giants play next year? Bet on the Bay Area. But who can say which bay?

PENURIOUS PADRES?

Greg Riddoch? Jim Riggleman? It doesn’t matter who manages the San Diego Padres if owner Tom Werner won’t spend a buck--of which Bill Cosby and Roseanne Barr, among others, have helped the TV producer harvest plenty.

The Padres have a dynamite nucleus, but instead of building on it, Werner’s financial message to general manager Joe McIlvaine: tear it apart.

Craig Lefferts, eligible for arbitration next winter, was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in August even before the Padres were out of the race.

It is expected that Benito Santiago and Randy Myers will be allowed to leave as free agents. An attempt will be made to trade Bruce Hurst, who makes $2.75 million next year. The Padres will pick up the $2.3-million option on shortstop Tony Fernandez, but only so they can try to trade him, rather than letting him leave as a free agent.

How would Barry Bonds, who lives about 45 minutes away in Temecula, look in the middle of a lineup that includes Tony Gwynn, Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff? Forget it. Werner apparently isn’t going to take on any $30-million contracts. An indication of that is that he took on Oriole owner Eli Jacobs in a lively shouting match during a recent owners’ meeting in response to Baltimore’s $32.5-million signing of Cal Ripken Jr.

Jacobs’ message to him: Mind your own business.

Werner’s TV business is so good that the disclosure statement he filed with the owners while buying the Padres listed his wealth at $175 million. His 14 partners in the Padres are worth a conservative $500 million.

And the impression is that they’re going to hold onto it, much to the disgust of Padre supporters. Only 5,913 attended Thursday’s game with Houston, the smallest turnout in 10 years.

This is a team only a player or two away from winning the West division, but it may be more than that by the time the 1993 season starts and that nucleus has been decimated. Riddoch, in fact, may be the lucky one. Riggleman could be walking into another Werner sitcom.

WORKMAN’S COMP?

According to figures compiled by the owners’ Player Relations Committee through Sept. 1, the major league clubs paid $94 million in salary to players on disabled lists this year, and the total number of workdays lost was 16,327.

CLEVELAND COMEBACK

Manager Mike Hargrove of the Cleveland Indians likes to say that his young team has had to deal with “40 years of baggage.” But as one of the best-kept secrets of the second half, the Indians have been shedding it.

Since May 24, when they were 14-30 with eight players on the disabled list, they were 58-50 before a weekend series with the Detroit Tigers and bore little resemblance to their hapless predecessors.

Among the beacons pointing toward a brighter future are 15-game winner Charles Nagy; center fielder Kenny Lofton, who is about to become the first rookie to lead the American League in stolen bases since Luis Aparicio in 1954 and the impact tandem of outfielder Albert Belle and second baseman Carlos Baerga, who are about to become Cleveland’s first pair of 100 RBI producers since Larry Doby and Al Rosen in ’54.

General Manager John Hart says that Baerga deserves to be mentioned in the same breath with Roberto Alomar.

“It’s always been Alomar when people talk about second baseman in our league, but I think Carlos is right there with him,” Hart said. “Alomar may have more range, but Carlos is superior at making the double play and has a better arm. He’s also got more power and is a better run producer.”

If the Indians edge out the New York Yankees for fourth in the East Division, it will match their highest finish since divisional realignment in 1969. They already have 15 more victories than last year.

“I’m very pleased with the job the kids have done,” Hart said. “This is no longer a sad-sack unit. It’s been fun to see the ship leave the shore and go sailing on its own.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--General Manager Andy MacPhail of the Minnesota Twins has been mentioned as a possible commissioner candidate but says “others are more qualified.” He favors the hiring of a baseball man and mentions Paul Beeston, president of the Toronto Blue Jays, and Sandy Alderson, general manager of the Oakland Athletics.

“We need someone who understands the long-term problems, not someone who has just fallen in love with the game and can wax poetically about it,” MacPhail said.

--The beat goes on for Jim Abbott of the Angels. Abbott’s earned-run average of 2.66 is better than any of the season’s three 20-game winners, Tom Glavine, Kevin Brown and Jack McDowell, but the poorly supported Abbott still can’t win. He is 7-15, despite pitching into the seventh inning or later in 22 of 28 starts. He has pitched seven complete games now and lost six. The Angels have scored 18 runs in his 15 defeats, only 13 when Abbott has been in the game.

--The surprising Baltimore Orioles stayed alive in the American League East until losing two of three to the Blue Jays this week. A disturbing factor in an otherwise successful season for the team and Ben McDonald is that McDonald, 12-13 overall, has struggled when the Orioles needed him most. He is 0-6 in eight starts since Aug. 12, the Orioles having lost all eight.

Some of those recent setbacks have stemmed from poor run support, but McDonald hasn’t been able to avoid the long ball. He has allowed a major league-high 32 homers, three short of the club record set by Robin Roberts in ’68 and matched by Scott McGregor in ’86.

--Sentiment seems to be building for voting Oakland relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley both the Cy Young and most-valuable-player awards in the American League. Eckersley has converted 51 of 53 save opportunities, and the Athletics are 64-2 in games in which he pitches. Milwaukee’s Rollie Fingers, in ‘81, and Detroit’s Willie Hernandez, in ‘84, are the only AL relievers to have won both since the Cy Young was created in 1956.

Said McDowell, 20-9 as the Chicago White Sox ace: “I think the Cy Young should go to a starter. Usually, when they give it to a reliever, it’s because no starter has 20 wins.”

McDowell has lost his last three starts, but said: “I don’t mind. I did my winning when we were still in the race.”

--The Brewers might not catch the Blue Jays in the American League East, but their pitching revival bodes well for the future. Through Thursday, the Brewers were 41-26 since the All-Star game with a 2.77 team ERA, 11 complete games and 11 shutouts. They were 16-6 in September with a 2.24 ERA, five complete games and seven shutouts. Rookie Cal Eldred is 10-1 with nine consecutive victories, and Chris Bosio, who had been on the trading block probably longer than any pitcher ever, is 16-5 with a 10-game winning streak.

--The Pittsburgh Pirates are the only National League team to have produced a .500 or better record in each of the first three years of the ‘90s. Parity or parody?