BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : One More Life for Gibson and His Legs

Out of baseball for almost a full year, Kirk Gibson was revitalized in “body and soul,” agent Doug Baldwin said.

Now, soon to be 36, Gibson believes he is capable of helping revitalize his hometown Detroit Tigers under new owner Mike Ilitch, a longtime friend. The former Michigan State football star returned to the team with which he spent the first nine years of his professional career the other day, agreeing to a one-year contract that guarantees him $500,000 and gives him the opportunity to make $600,000 more on plate appearances and games played.

Only in one of the last four seasons would he have fulfilled all of the incentives in his new contract. And in two of those years, beset by a series of leg injuries that began with the Dodgers in the National League playoffs of 1988, he wouldn’t have qualified for any of the incentives.

Gibson, however, said that physically he is 100%.

“The situation with my legs has been overblown,” he said. “I’m far from a crippled man. I can run fast, I can run hard and I can run long. My legs are fine.”

Shortstop Alan Trammell, returning from a broken ankle, has been working out with Gibson at the Pontiac Silverdome and told Detroit writers: “Believe me, he can still run.”

How often Gibson will get the chance is uncertain. He had an average of .236 and hit 35 home runs in his last four years with the Dodgers, Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates, who released him after 16 games and 56 at-bats last year. He has been running but not hitting in preparation for a comeback in which he figures to be a part-time left fielder and designated hitter.

It has long been speculated that Gibson’s intensity and competitiveness will not allow him to accept a part-time role and that as he prowls the dugout and clubhouse looking for action he becomes a detriment to the team.

Neither Gibson nor Manager Sparky Anderson sees it that way, however. Anderson urged the re-signing of Gibson, saying he should never have been allowed to leave as a free agent in 1987.

Said Gibson: “Whether I play every day or once every two weeks, if I can help the team win an extra 10 games, what’s the difference? The opportunity arose to be part of the revitalization of the organization and I’m confident I can contribute.”

Gibson said he had not pursued a comeback and would not have gone to any other team. In fact, he said he would not have rejoined the Tigers if Ilitch had not bought the club from Tom Monaghan last summer. Gibson said Ilitch’s acquisition was like “Santa Claus coming to town,” and that he has been promised the opportunity to remain with the organization when he is through playing.

He and Baldwin insisted that money was not an object, that his real estate business has been flourishing, but Gibson acknowledged that he felt his release by the Pirates was premature.

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“I think they abandoned the ship too early,” he said of the Pirates, adding that he is confident he would have found a way to get that team the one more victory they needed to get to the World Series.

Said Anderson, of Gibson’s return: “The worst scenario is that he’s done, and I told Kirk that doesn’t matter. If he didn’t try it, he’d be a sick kid. The young man needs to know he’s done.”

The Tigers would settle for the statistics Gibson generated the last time he played with any frequency: 16 home runs, 18 stolen bases and 55 runs batted in in 132 games with the Royals in 1991.

They can be sure of one thing. Gibson, at any age, comes with a fire. He was asked about the most enduring moment of his career, the home run he hit off Goose Gossage as a Tiger in the 1984 World Series or the home run he hit off Dennis Eckersley as a Dodger in the 1988 World Series.

“Neither,” he said. “The biggest moment was when we clinched those two World Series. The home runs only helped get us to that moment.”

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Fallout: This year’s most glaring example of the impact of arbitration was provided by Stanford professor William Gould when he inexplicably awarded San Diego Padre pitcher Andy Benes, who made $475,000 while going 13-14 last season, the $2.05 million he was seeking rather than the $1.55 million offered by the Padres.

Gould’s decision quickly prompted--the better word may be forced-- four other clubs to reach $2-million or more contract agreements with arbitration-bound pitchers on the same level as Benes. They are Kevin Tapani, Kevin Appier, Ken Hill and Jaime Navarro. Each signed for $2 million except Navarro, who got $2.1 million.

The Benes decision also forced the Dodgers to reach a compromise with Ramon Martinez before arbitration.

Martinez went 8-11 while earning $725,000 last year. The Dodgers’ argument in arbitration would have been that his 1993 salary should be based primarily on what he did last season. They offered almost a 100% raise to $1.4 million. Martinez filed at $2 million.

But when Benes, whose record of 44-39 is overshadowed by Martinez’s 52-37, got his $2.05 million, Executive Vice President Fred Claire said, “We weren’t left with much ammunition.”

Thus, he reached a $1.775-million compromise with a pitcher who was sidelined by injury during the last five weeks of 1992 and is 11-19 since August of ’91.

“Unfortunately, we have to deal with what’s there, and that’s the problem we face with arbitration,” Claire said.

“I’m no longer surprised by the numbers, but it is surprising how that class took such a dramatic shift, and now it’s left on the record for this year and the year after. I mean, it has a snowball effect, establishing a range for every class that follows, and there is no way to turn it back.”

Major league owners are trying to eliminate arbitration as part of the revenue-sharing system they have proposed to the players’ union but it is unlikely the union will give back a vehicle that allows mediocrity to be so richly rewarded.

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Regrets? Jim Abbott turned down a four-year, $16-million offer from the Angels before being traded to the New York Yankees. Will he earn that much over the next four years? It might be difficult, now that he has lost his 1993 arbitration.

Abbott, who made $1.85 million while going 7-15 last season, had filed at $3.5 million, but the arbitrator chose the Yankees’ figure of $2.35 million. Abbott has said he isn’t interested in pursuing a multiyear deal with the Yankees until he learns how his wife reacts to New York.

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Commissioner? There is a difference of opinion among major league owners on the course baseball should take in its pursuit of a commissioner.

Most seem to favor an accelerated search, but some are arguing to wait a year until the new labor and TV contracts are signed, fearing that a commissioner, no matter how the office is restructured, will again become a middle man in the labor talks, upsetting the bid to create a revenue-sharing system with the union.

There is also some indication that those who favor a delay would like to see Richard Ravitch, their point man in the labor talks, become the commissioner.

However, with Congress threatening to revoke baseball’s antitrust exemption, the likelihood is that a new commissioner will be at work by the end of May and that his powers will be strengthened, rather than weakened.

Bud Selig, president of the Milwaukee Brewers and chairman of the ruling executive council, said the search committee under chairman Bill Bartholomay of the Atlanta Braves “is now pushing ahead aggressively” and that he expects a final report from the restructuring committee at an owners’ meeting in Phoenix March 3-4.

Said Selig: “On any crucial issue there’s going to be divergent opinion, but there is clearly no consensus saying, ‘Let’s wait. Let’s put it off it for a year.’ I mean, some have suggested that, but I don’t think it’s significant.”

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A la carte: Jackie Autry, who was on the executive council committee that investigated the racial and ethnic slurs by Marge Schott, has been accused of racial slurs in a discrimination suit brought against the Angels and owners Gene and Jackie Autry by Jack Britton, the club’s former press room and executive chef.

Britton, 68, charges he was forced to retire in 1991 after 26 years because of “taunting and name calling” by Jackie Autry.

“I didn’t want to leave, but she was riding me all the time,” said Britton, who claims he was cheated out of more than $1 million by the Autrys because they broke their promise of a lifetime job and deprived him of the profits and royalties he deserved from the sale of sausage and the design of their halo logo.

He said Jackie Autry called him a “black Jewish godmother.”

Autry refused to comment. Her attorney, Mark Rosenthal, said the charges are “completely false and defamatory.” He said Britton “discussed retirement with many people for five years prior to 1991, so there’s not a lot of credibility there.”

He also said Britton did not design the Angels’ logo and had a separate arrangement with Kraft Foods regarding the sausage.

The suit was filed Jan. 22 in Orange County Superior Court. The Autrys have a month from that date in which to file a denial. The case could be heard as early as a year after that, Rosenthal said, or as late as three years.

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No class of ‘86: Whitey Herzog would not have had to start a rebuilding process with the Angels if Larry Himes, then the club’s scouting director, had enjoyed a better harvest from his bounty of five first-round draft picks in 1986.

Himes, now general manager of the Chicago Cubs, left the Angels to become general manager of the Chicago White Sox, rebuilding that club with a stunning string of first-round picks--Frank Thomas, Jack McDowell, Robin Ventura and Alex Fernandez--but he had no such luck with his ’86 selections.

Of the three pitchers and two position players selected in the first round that year, the Angels got three victories from Mike Fetters and 14 home runs from Lee Stevens, who was traded to the Montreal Expos recently, closing the book on that ’86 group--as far as the Angels are concerned.

It seems typical of that club’s star-crossed fate that two of those ’86 picks blossomed elsewhere last year.

Fetters, traded to Milwaukee for Chuck Crim before the season, matured into a reliable relief pitcher with a 5-1 record and 1.87 earned-run average.

And Roberto Hernandez, acquired by Himes for the White Sox in a 1989 minor league deal with the Angels, came of age in the Chicago bullpen, going 7-3 with 12 saves and a 1.65 ERA, and is likely to get the closing calls in ’93 ahead of Bobby Thigpen.

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Role player: Mike Port, the former Angel general manager who shepherded the Arizona Fall League through a successful first season after his dismissal in Anaheim, joins the Boston Red Sox next week as assistant to General Manager Lou Gorman.

Port will handle contracts and waivers and the daily paper chase, freeing Gorman to travel with the team and tour the minor league system.

“My aspiration is to do for Lou what Dan O’Brien did for me when he joined the Angels,” Port said, adding that once freed from the daily paperwork, he had more time to “conceptualize and see the big picture.”

Port wouldn’t say it, but he is also in excellent position to move up as Gorman’s successor if the Red Sox fail to emerge from their 1992 tailspin.