BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Fans Voting for Some-Star Teams

Voting in the annual All-Star popularity contest ends today.

Though there are several positions at which there is no clear-cut, unmistakable choice, the fans are about to make their usual gaffes.

Is anyone paying attention out there, or do the ballots come with Ryne Sandberg, Ozzie Smith and Cal Ripken Jr. already punched? They are clearly choices from the past.

More scary yet, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Mark McGwire could still win the American League’s catching and first base elections, even though neither has played in weeks--more than two months in Alomar’s case--because of injuries.

A closer look, with the fans choice listed first:

NATIONAL LEAGUE

First base--John Kruk. The marvelously grubby Kruk is having another All-Star season, but Andres Galarraga is having a better one. Galarraga must wonder how so many Rocky Mountain fans can cast so few ballots.

Second base--Sandberg. He missed almost 30 games because of a hand injury, struggled when he came back and only recently began to hit with consistency, though no power. Robby Thompson, seventh in the fan vote, has far better numbers.

Shortstop--Smith. The conclusion is that he’ll keep getting elected, even after he’s retired. Jay Bell, Jeff Blauser or Barry Larkin has to be the first-half All-Star.

Third base--Gary Sheffield. The choice should be Matt Williams, who was put on the disabled list last Sunday because of an abdominal injury that is expected to prevent him from playing in the All-Star game. Sheffield is an acceptable alternative, though it would be nice to know that he had his heart and mind in it every day.

Catcher--Darren Daulton. Mike Piazza is having a slightly better half, all around. Piazza, however, was so much of an unknown at the start that the selection of Daulton can be excused. What cannot be is that Benito Santiago and Greg Olson were ahead of Piazza in the most recent tabulations.

Outfield--Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke and David Justice. Bonds is automatic, and there was nothing wrong with the selection of Van Slyke before he was put on the disabled list. At this point, with a lot of choices and all open to debate, the picks here are Marquis Grissom and Orlando Merced, along with Bonds.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

First base--John Olerud. Obvious.

Second base--Roberto Alomar. He’s a terrific player having another terrific season for a comparatively terrific team, but Carlos Baerga is having an even better one in a Cleveland lineup that does not provide the all-around protection Alomar gets with Toronto.

Shortstop--Ripken. No way. Not hitting .221 with modest power numbers, nine homers and 39 runs batted in. Travis Fryman, though slumping recently, trumps him in all categories.

Third base--Wade Boggs. Not a very strong position in the American League. Boggs has the average, Dean Palmer the power. Robin Ventura should be dominating this position, but isn’t. Ed Sprague could be the choice by the end of the season, but give Palmer a lukewarm nod for now.

Catching--Ivan Rodriguez. He’s so good defensively that it’s hard to argue when he’s also hitting .280, but it’s also hard to ignore Mickey Tettleton’s 21 homers and 65 RBIs. Tettleton is the pick, just to be different.

Outfield--Ken Griffey Jr., Kirby Puckett, Joe Carter. Griffey and Carter belong, Puckett doesn’t. The choice should be among Griffey, Carter, Albert Belle and Juan Gonzalez, and they should make one of them the designated hitter, though any fan picking Ripken, Sandberg or Smith probably loves watching pitchers bat in the All-Star game.

CANSECO SHOW

There is no clear evidence that Jose Canseco suffered his season-ending elbow injury during that mound appearance May 29 at Boston, but he did throw 33 pitches in the inning and 55 to 60 warming up.

Texas Ranger Manager Kevin Kennedy, who could have simply said, “No way, Jose,” twice called the bullpen to tell Canseco to stop throwing, but Canseco kept responding to the razzing of the crowd, always more entertainer than ballplayer.

It is noteworthy that the Rangers have responded to the recall of former Notre Dame outfielder Dan Peltier and won six of eight games since Canseco was put on the disabled list. That followed a meeting Kennedy had with Canseco and Julio Franco to try to quell clubhouse unrest over their attitudes.

As in the case of the Dodgers’ acquisition of Darryl Strawberry, the Rangers should hardly be surprised that Canseco would develop into a distraction whose desire and dedication have come under question. This is the same Canseco who, incredibly, said the Athletics had put too much emphasis on winning when he was dumped by Oakland because of attitude.

This is the same Canseco, guaranteed another $9.5 million in 1994 and ‘95, who said of the elbow injury and the possible threat to his career that he has other things to fall back on.

“My life isn’t built entirely around baseball,” he said.

The A’s and Rangers will tell you that’s precisely the problem: that with his talent and salary, Canseco’s priorities are more out of whack than his elbow, neck or back.

HEATING UP

The St. Louis Cardinals, 11 1/2 games behind on June 14, have closed to within six games of the leading Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East, having won 10 of their last 14, including three of four from the Phillies.

However, Philadelphia’s pitching rotation, which had a 2.99 earned-run average through June 14, is 5.76 since, having hit either the tired-arms or frayed-nerves stage. Curt Schilling (8-4) is 0-3 in his last four starts with a 9.00 ERA. Tommy Greene (9-1) is 1-2 with a 9.55 ERA in his last five starts, a span in which catcher Daulton said Greene “has not shown up.”

Of Schilling and the other starters, Daulton said, “I don’t know if they’re tired, nervous, scared, worried, feeling the pressure or what, but this is not the time for it.”

BREAKTHROUGH

Darryl Kile wasn’t drafted when he graduated from Covina High and was only a 30th-round selection after his first year at Chaffey Community College in Rancho Cucamonga. Five years later, at 24, he is 8-1 with a six-game winning streak for the Houston Astros, which illustrates again how inexact a science baseball is.

The Astros guaranteed Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell $36.5 million last winter, thinking the two free agents represented the final pieces in their rebuilding project.

Each, however, is 6-7 in a disappointing first half for the Astros--Swindell’s name has become Swindle to some in the organization--and it has been left to Kile to provide promise and prove that Ross Sapp, now scouting for the San Diego Padres, knew what he was doing when he persuaded the Astros to select the previously undrafted right-hander.

“He was just a scrawny kid,” Sapp said. “A good wind would knock him off the mound. But he had good spin on his curveball, and I remember (the late scout) Jesse Flores telling me that a kid who could put good spin on his curve had God-given arm speed and could improve the velocity of his fastball. He was definitely a projection, but he was also the type kid who didn’t have to be monitored if he was told to do something.”

Sapp put Kile on a nutrition and weight program, his velocity soon jumped into the low 90s and he signed with the Astros after a 10-2 sophomore season at Chaffey, rejecting the chance to go through the draft again.

Success wasn’t immediate. He was 7-11 in 37 games with the Astros in ‘91, and a disappointing 5-10 in 22 games last year, when he was returned to triple A to work on his control and concentration.

Tough lessons, Manager Art Howe said, but now Kile is a more mature pitcher who is throwing his entire repertoire for strikes.

“He’s always had the great arm, but now he goes out expecting to win,” Howe said. “And more importantly, the team expects to win when he pitches.”

Some believe that Kile has also been toughened by the relatively recent death of his father. Said Sapp, who has been something of a surrogate father since he first began following and believing in Kile:

“It’s been very special to watch his development. He represents what you try to do as a scout.”

ORIOLES’ AUCTION

Amid claims of economic distress by baseball’s owners, there are five or more groups that can’t wait to set a record price in bidding for the Baltimore Orioles. The action is so hot that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York has rescheduled the auction from July 15 to Aug. 2 to accommodate the interested parties.

Despite a second season of sellouts in their new park at Camden Yards, the Orioles will be sold as part of owner Eli Jacobs’ bankruptcy filing. Jacobs reportedly owes creditors $175 million more than he has assets and recently defaulted on more than $44 million in loans and personal guarantees to several banks.

A group headed by William DeWitt Jr., son of a former owner of the Cincinnati Reds, has already submitted a bid of $141.3 million for the Orioles, but the auction process may take the price closer to $150 million.

Another group, fronted by Baltimore lawyer Peter Angelos, and including author Tom Clancy and movie director Barry Levinson, has indicated it is prepared to start the bidding at $148.1 million, after which competing bids must be made in increments of $100,000.

Baseball has not officially approved any of the competing groups, but the DeWitt group is further along in that process and doesn’t appear to have any roadblocks. The winner in court will have to be approved by the owners, or the process will return to court. Last year’s sale of the Seattle Mariners for $125 million, including debts, set a record.

Asked if he and other owners are excited at the prospect of a $150-million sale setting a comparative market price for their own franchises, Bud Selig, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and chairman of the executive council, said it “clearly doesn’t hurt.”

Selig added, however, that he considered it “aberrational” in that the auction has driven up a price that has also been driven up by the club’s being on the market only two years after moving into a new stadium, when attendance and interest are highest.

“With all of their great teams in the ‘70s, there were several seasons when the Orioles didn’t even draw a million, so I’m not sure what this price says,” Selig said.

Three times in the ‘70s, a decade in which they often played doubleheaders and never a full slate of 81 home dates, the Orioles failed to reach a million and never drew more than 1.6 million, even though they won five division titles and finished second three times. They finished third and drew 3.5 million for 80 dates at Camden Yards last year, and are on a pace for 3.6 million this year.

WHERE’S PIAZZA?

John Roseboro, Joe Ferguson, Steve Yeager and Mike Scioscia--an impressive string of Dodger catchers who were all helped and influenced by Roy Campanella--attended Wednesday morning’s memorial service for the Hall of Famer, but Piazza, the new Dodger catcher and another visitor to Campy’s Corner in Vero Beach, was conspicuous by his absence.

Of course, Piazza had a night game Tuesday and another Wednesday, a pretty tiring schedule for a 24-year-old who noted the other day that he’s getting sick of all the media questions and attention regarding his rookie-of-the-year chances.

Piazza has come a long way from the 62nd round of the 1988 draft, but it can be a short trip back.