BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : There’s Definitely More Room at the Top in 1994

Twenty-three teams won division titles in the 25 years the American and National leagues were in that alignment.

Be it parity or parody, only Texas, Seattle and Cleveland have failed to reach the playoffs, excluding Florida and Colorado, which debuted in 1993.

The 1994 season begins tonight amid the dark cloud of another potentially bitter labor negotiation between owners and players and the brighter promise of even wider and deeper competition in the six realigned divisions.

Eight teams, including the six division winners and the team with the next best record in each league, will advance to the playoffs.

Many in baseball remain concerned over possible dilution of the 162-game regular season because of wild cards and four-team divisions, but the broader perspective is one of enthusiasm.

“The bottom line is that it involves more cities and more teams and gives more players and fans a reason to come to the park in August and September,” said Hal McRae, Kansas City Royals’ manager.

“Look at the excitement expansion created in Denver and Miami. The game needs it. This may even create some new rivalries. It was a good move, a smart move. You have to change with the times.”

McRae’s Royals are moving from the AL West to the AL Central They will still be hounded by the Chicago White Sox, who are making the same move.

John Schuerholz, general manager of the Atlanta Braves, who are moving from NL West to East, said he endorsed the new structure on the basis that 54% of 12,000 fans polled by baseball favored it.

“There was a clear preference, so I say, ‘good, let’s give it a try,’ and I say that as a staunch traditionalist,” he said.

“My attitude is one of willingness to see how it works, to see if it creates excitement for the fans, to see it it gives a fresh lift and look to the playoffs.

“If you only look at the geography, all the clubs are basically where they should be now. On the other hand, the alignment is something of a moot point, in that you still play as many games out of your division as in it.”

General Manager Pat Gillick’s Toronto Blue Jays will be seeking a fourth consecutive title in the AL East, which changed only to the extent that Cleveland moved to the AL Central. Of that change, Gillick said:

“It was evident by the survey this is what the public wanted, and we’re in the entertainment business. But personally, I don’t like it. The emphasis should be on the regular season, and this has the potential to take away from that with a diluted playoff in which a second-place team can go to the World Series.

“A 162-game season is an endurance test that has always set baseball apart from the other sports. The winning teams should advance directly to the league championship (rather than playing a best-of-five-game preliminary embracing a wild card).”

However, with only eight of 28 teams advancing, the baseball playoff is still a closed affair compared to 16 of 26 in the NHL, 16 of 27 in the NBA and 12 of 28 in the NFL.

Tradition is one thing, but time, dimensions and demographics change. Joe Torre, the St. Louis Cardinals’ manager, said:

“We had the greatest sport in the world, as far as I’m concerned. I liked having one team win, that’s the best way, but you can’t do it anymore. There are too many teams, and you have to find a way to keep more involved later in the season.

“The thing about baseball, though, is the game on the field is still the same. Football is always changing its rules, even its point totals, and the way basketball is going they might have to raise the rim to 15 feet.

“You don’t have to change baseball. It’s still the same game we played as kids. It’s still pure.”

TOUGHEST DIVISION

There seems to be no automatic winner in any of the six divisions, no clear-cut evidence one team or another got the best of realignment.

--The AL West becomes a four-team scramble with the White Sox’s departure, and the NL West becomes a Dodgers-Giants dogfight without the Braves.

--Chicago can dominate the AL Central with its pitching, but faces a sleeper in Cleveland, happy to be out of the AL East, just as Houston and Cincinnati, happy to be out of the NL West, suddenly become the Central favorites.

--Competition is probably deepest in the AL East, where all five teams have a shot. But the NL East might be toughest of the tough, considering it features three of the top five winners of 1993:

The Western Division champion Braves, 104 regular-season victories and two more in the postseason; the defending Eastern Division champion Philadelphia Phillies, 97 regular-season victories and six more in the postseason, and the young, restless and talented Montreal Expos, runners-up in the East with 94 victories.

Tougher than the West of ‘93?

Schuerholz, the Braves GM, shook his head and said: “How can it be? We had to win 104 games to beat the Giants. We had to play like gangbusters from the All-Star break on, feeling we couldn’t stub our toe even once. I don’t see how the Phillies and Expos could be tougher than that.”

Atlanta, of course, isn’t the same team. Ron Gant and Otis Nixon are gone. Can Tony Tarasco, Ryan Klesko and Mike Kelly fill the vacuum left by Gant? Can Deion Sanders replace the catalytic Nixon over a full season? Can Javier Lopez, baseball’s top catching prospect, handle that veteran pitching staff and hit as well as he did in the minors?

Can Manager Bobby Cox continue to ride the hottest horse, looking for saves from Mike Stanton, Greg McMichael and Mark Wohlers while Gregg Olson, signed as a free agent, rehabilitates his elbow on the disabled list?

“Having Fred McGriff from the start of the season and with Lopez giving us more offense as the catcher, with Kent Mercker as the fifth starter and with Olson likely to be our eventual closer, we might be better than we’ve been in the past,” Schuerholz said.

“I’d like to try and win 100 games again, and with our starting pitching, there’s no question we have the ability to do it.”

If the Braves aren’t intimidated going head to head with the team that upset them in the NL playoff, the Phillies can muster similar bravado despite question marks of their own.

“I think we’re equal to the task. I think they’re as concerned with us as we are with them,” General Manager Lee Thomas said. “I think it will force us to stay at our best.”

With Terry Mulholland traded to the Yankees, Ben Rivera, who had 13 victories as the No. 5 starter, steps up to No. 4, and Jeff Juden, acquired from Houston with reliever Doug Jones, gets first crack at No. 5.

John Kruk is receiving radiation after surgery for testicular cancer and Wes Chamberlain is recovering from knee surgery. But both might be ready by the April 11 home opener. Norm Charlton, signed as a bargain free agent in the midst of a long rehabilitation from elbow surgery, could be ready by May to help “Mild Thing” Jones replace the 43 saves of “Wild Thing” Mitch Williams, now with Houston.

The Phillies led the majors in runs last year, maybe in chemistry, too. Both will be difficult to duplicate.

“No one was expecting us to win last year. That was the hard part,” Manager Jim Fregosi said. “If we stay healthy, we can win again. We won a total of 103 games last year. It takes a pretty good club to do that.

“Off last year, three of the five toughest clubs in baseball are now in this division, but you can’t harp on that. Win enough games to get to the postseason and anything can happen.”

The Phillies have proven that to the Braves once already.

WARHORSE’S VIEW

The ’94 season will be played against the backdrop of the owners’ attempt to impose a salary cap. Marvin Miller, the founding father and former executive director of the players union, questions whether a salary cap is an issue the union has the authority to collectively discuss.

“The recognition clause (in the bargaining agreement) gives the union the right to serve as a bargaining agent only for the minimum salary, nothing above that,” Miller said.

“It can’t act as the bargaining representative for all salaries above the minimum, which, in effect, it would be doing since a salary cap establishes an overall level of compensation, even though individual salaries would still be negotiated between the player and his club.

“The union, in my view, has the right to say it isn’t the bargaining representative on all issues, a salary cap being one of them. It has the right to say, ‘We decline to discuss that, next subject please.’ ”

Executive Director Don Fehr said there are too many other critical issues to delve into the legalities of the recognition clause at this time.

The bottom line is that the union is unlikely to approve a cap, period.