BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Pennant Race Aside, the Giants’ Struggle Isn’t Over

The fate of the San Francisco Giants in the National League West will be played out in Atlanta this week and over the course of the season’s final 35 days. It has been a storybook 10 months no matter how it ends.

From the 11th-hour roadblock that major league owners threw at the Florida moving van, enabling Peter Magowan and his Bay Area partners to preserve the franchise, to the $43-million jump-start signing of Barry Bonds to the modest but important improvements at Candlestick Park to the almost wire-to-wire success of the team to the record response of fans thought to be interested only in who was pitching for the 49ers. . . .

“It’s been like a chemical reaction,” Executive Vice President Larry Baer said the other day. “It’s been an absolute certified dream, an absolute fantasy,” he said.

Where do Magowan and partners go with it?

Well, Baer said, back to Candlestick for three or four more years, doing what they can to make it presentable and livable before trying to fulfill the promise that was a condition of their purchase, a new stadium in the same Bay Area that has voted it down four times.

“We’re going to do the best we can at Candlestick for the short term, but we’re adamant that we’ll have something better in the future,” Baer said.

The House that Bonds Built?

In part, but it will take more than Barry. It will still take municipal bonds and an economic plan the voters feel is fair, Baer said.

“Maybe the answer is to incorporate it with parks, playgrounds, a package that benefits the entire Bay Area,” he said.

There are no immediate answers, but the Giants aren’t pushing it.

“It would be irresponsible for first-year owners to come in and start talking about a new stadium,” Baer said.

“The fans here are numb. They had been turned off by six to eight years of . . . ‘Are they going or staying? Are they building or not?’

“Our goal is to restore stability and credibility, to establish ourselves in the community, to re-energize and connect with the past.

“There’s been a pent-up demand for the Giants. I think that’s obvious by the response.”

Obvious? A midweek series against the Braves, including two day games, drew a franchise-record 155,437. The season total has already eclipsed the 1989 high of 2,059,701 and is headed toward 2.6 million.

Obvious? Despite the $7-million outlay for Bonds, the new owners will about break even for 1993 after previous owner Bob Lurie, ultimately perceived by many Bay Area fans as a wealthy whiner who only complained about Candlestick and did little to improve the environment, reportedly lost in the neighborhood of $11 million.

The new owners, of course, caught lightning in a bottle and have profited from what is also a honeymoon situation in which they are perceived as saviors. But they did not simply sit back and let the honeymoon work for them.

“Some honeymoons last 50 years,” said Baer, of the attempt to build on it.

Some of the reasons for the Giants’ success:

--The signing of Bonds, who grew up in the Bay Area and is a link to the tradition as the godson of Willie Mays and son of former Giant Bobby Bonds, who also returned as the hitting instructor.

--The hiring of Dusty Baker as manager. He had also become a respected Bay Area figure during his years as the batting coach.

--The insistence by Magowan that every player commit to community and charity involvement, along with stronger involvement by the club. The rebuilding of closer and cozier bleachers in left field, now home to the Bonds Squad.

--The expansion and sprucing up of concession stands. An insistence on courtesy and hospitality on the part of Candlestick ushers and staff, and a policy that no hot dog wrapper or other litter stays on the field more than half an inning. The playing of more day games before the wind kicks up at its hardest.

The Giants will play 53 day games at home this year and might play more than 60 next year, starting even earlier than the current 1 p.m., probably 12:30.

They have recently completed a traffic study and will make off-season recommendations designed to ease the frequent gridlock coming and going.

Whether they can retain and re-sign the right side of their infield--Will Clark and Robby Thompson are eligible for free agency--with their revenue expected to decline $7 million or so because of the new TV contract is a problem as complex as the traffic, but they will attempt to re-sign both, Baer said.

Basically, he added, the new Giants are attempting “to integrate into the fabric of everyday life in the Bay Area,” building a foundation at Candlestick and throughout the community that will eventually lead to voter approval of a new stadium or a total renovation of Candlestick.

“It’s an old issue that will not go away, and we don’t want it to go away, but at this point we are not sitting here sketching plans,” Baer said.

KING SALOMON

Giant General Manager Bob Quinn, who waited too long to pursue Dennis Martinez and Tim Belcher, acquired Minnesota’s Jim Deshaies on Saturday in what resembled an act of desperation. Today, meanwhile, they will entrust the dream to Salomon Torres, their top prospect.

The 21-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic will make his major league debut against the Florida Marlins, replacing Trevor Wilson, who is on the disabled list until mid-September because of a sore shoulder, and Bud Black, sidelined for the season because of an elbow injury.

Torres was 27-6 in his first two minor league seasons, 6-10 in double A last year and a combined 14-8 in double and triple A before his emergency recall after Wilson had to leave last Monday night’s game against Atlanta.

“This ain’t no tryout camp--unless he doesn’t perform,” Baker said of Torres. The Giants, of course, expect him to perform. The scouting report: a fastball in the mid-90s and poise to match.

“He’s very mature. He doesn’t scare,” Quinn said of the Torres his staff has seen in the minors. “We’ve tried to measure him against some of the other young pitchers who have come up this year--(Aaron) Sele with Boston, (Julian) Tavarez with Cleveland, (Jason) Bere with the (Chicago) White Sox and Domingo Jean (with the New York Yankees)--and we think he measures up. We think he’ll be fine.”

The Giants have to think positively. The Marlins will let them know what they think later today.

REALIGNMENT

It now seems likely that the owners will yield on the players’ preference for an expanded playoff based on three-division realignment next season.

“I’ve always been in favor of three divisions, and I think most owners are, too,” the Angels’ Jackie Autry said.

“There may be a club or two not happy with the division they end up in, but if it’s for the short term with a look at expansion in the future, that will alleviate the concerns.”

It is doubtful the issue will be formalized at an owners’ meeting in Boston on Sept. 8-9, but a committee representing the owners opened talks with the players union Thursday.

Under the proposed realignment, the three division champions and the team with the next-best record would qualify for the playoffs.

The Angels would play in the American League West with Oakland, Seattle and Texas. The Dodgers would play in the National League West with Colorado, San Diego and San Francisco.

“I think it will be exciting,” Autry said, noting that to make the schedule and realignment work, each league needs to add two teams.

Said Dodger President Peter O’Malley: “The most encouraging thing to me is that (owners negotiator) Richard Ravitch and (union director) Don Fehr are discussing it. That’s smart, healthy. I’m totally confident and optimistic they can resolve it.”

The one club most unhappy about the proposed realignment is Detroit, which would prefer to remain in the American League East but would play in the Central with Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minnesota. Only 10 of the 14 AL clubs have to approve it.

BLOWING STEAM

Kansas City’s Hal McRae is not the first manager to throw a clubhouse tantrum, but he might be setting a single-season record. The in-your-face intensity that distinguished his playing career has some in the Royal organization concerned about his long-term managerial stability, his willingness to cope with high-priced athletes who don’t always perform, don’t always seem to care.

There was the April incident in which he responded to a radio man’s question of a second-guess nature with a string of obscenities as he angrily cleared off his desk, a flying telephone cutting reporter Alan Askew’s face.

There was a clubhouse explosion directed at Chris Haney and Felix Jose after a one-run loss to the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 11, during which Haney gave up a grand slam to Mike Blowers and Jose failed to get down a critical sacrifice bunt.

There was last Monday’s clubhouse shouting match with Jeff Montgomery, the mild-mannered closer who has saved 38 games for McRae and the Royals. Montgomery had given up the decisive run in a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins, but that was not what triggered McRae.

Late in the game, Montgomery wanted to know if he was going to pitch so that he didn’t have to rush his warmups, a situation he apparently believes has happened often.

McRae thought Montgomery was questioning his authority and let loose in the clubhouse, hurling the telephone and other objects again as his voice carried through the closed doors.

“A misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion,” Montgomery said later, but McRae made it clear he won’t have his authority questioned.

“The players work for me, not vice versa,” he told Montgomery heatedly and repeated it to reporters.

The Royals, meanwhile, remain in the American League West race. McRae’s emotions have not seemed to intimidate or get in their way.

Perhaps, as David Cone said, the outbursts have helped clear the air.

“I’d much rather see guys get in each other’s face than put up with a lot of backbiting,” he said.

Cone, of course, knows what he is talking about, having emerged from the clubhouse of the New York Mets.

“Heck, all of this makes me feel right at home,” he said.

BRAWLGAME

This week’s fight card featured Jim Leyland moving up in weight to take on Kevin Gross, and that full-scale tag team match between the Milwaukee Brewers and Oakland A’s. Ho-hum.

Overlooked, perhaps, were two incidents in the Seattle-Detroit series on Tuesday and Wednesday that could lead to more when the teams meet again in Seattle starting Monday.

Detroit pitcher John Doherty threw consecutive intimidation pitches to Ken Griffey Jr. Two behind him, two closely in front of him. None hit him, but the message was clear. Seattle’s Tim Leary came back the next day and hit Cecil Fielder.

All of this had its genesis in Seattle on Memorial Day weekend when Griffey, tired of being intentionally walked and pitched around by the Tigers, finally got a pitch he could handle and homered. He then turned toward Sparky Anderson in the Detroit dugout, grabbed his crotch and yelled an obscenity.

Anderson claimed he didn’t see it and refused to watch a tape of it when his players brought it to him. Griffey later called Anderson and apologized.

His response to Doherty? Two home runs against the Tigers’ Bill Gullickson less than 24 hours later.