BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : New National League President Fighting Back

It was 1961, but Frank Robinson remembers it vividly.

Hard to forget the side-winding Don Drysdale throwing three straight heaters behind your back.

Drysdale drew a warning from the umpire at that point but wasn’t impressed.

His next pitch?

“Right in my ribs,” Robinson said with a laugh.

Ah, for the good old days.

Robinson, then with the Cincinnati Reds and now assistant general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, trotted to first as Drysdale was banished to the Dodger bench and the game continued without the interruption of a bench-clearing brawl accompanied by a Strauss waltz.

Now, of course, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish baseball from hockey.

Consider only the series between the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies in which Tony Gwynn accused Curt Schilling of intentionally hitting him with a pitch, Mariano Duncan emptied both benches when he swung at San Diego catcher Brad Ausmus after being decked twice by Andy Ashby’s pitches and Philadelphia rookie Andy Carter was ejected from his major league debut, along with Manager Jim Fregosi, when he hit Ausmus and Luis Lopez with pitches.

It is the rare game these days that doesn’t find a hitter charging the mound or slowly, ominously walking to first, escorted by an umpire serving as security guard.

Leonard Coleman, the new National League president, has already handed out two suspensions and “will continue to do all I can to discourage” what he perceives to be the negative impact of a hitter charging the mound or a pitcher deliberately throwing at a hitter.

“In the first place, someone is going to get seriously hurt, and secondly, baseball has a role in wider society,” Coleman said. “I don’t want kids seeing it and emulating it.”

Coleman suspended Reggie Sanders of the Reds for five games when he charged Pedro Martinez of the Montreal Expos after being hit by a pitch while Martinez was working on a no-hitter. Benito Santiago of the Florida Marlins drew a four-game suspension for going after Kevin Rogers of the San Francisco Giants. And Coleman, on Friday, suspended Derek Bell of the Padres for five games for charging Martinez when the Montreal pitcher buzzed Derek Bell’s chin with an 0-2 fastball.

Coleman may be a tougher disciplinarian than predecessor Bill White or American League President Bobby Brown, who is considering the Tuesday night incident in which Eric Anthony of the Seattle Mariners went after Boston Red Sox pitcher Paul Quantrill when hit by a pitch, injuring Quantrill’s right ring finger.

Coleman wouldn’t suggest that White or Brown have been too soft.

“I’ll let my actions speak for themselves,” he said. “I consider the brawling negative and will do what I can to prevent it.”

Baseball’s penalty system hasn’t been a strong deterrent. The modest fines represent pocket change to players earning millions of dollars, and the suspensions are almost always appealed, meaning the player can continue to play for weeks or months, or until the schedule puts him in New York, where he can meet with his league president in a hearing that frequently produces a reduction in the suspension.

“If I had my druthers, I’d expedite the penalty as quickly as possible, but the rules provide for an appeal and that can’t be changed arbitrarily,” Coleman said. “We have to live with the system.”

The system, most say, is also flawed in that it provides for a free shot by the pitcher of one team, knowing that if it produces a warning, the pitcher of the other team can’t retaliate without possible ejection.

It’s a different game with different attitudes than when Robinson played. No one competed with more grit and intensity, but he recalled charging the mound only twice.

“The one circumstance escapes me, but I remember going after Ron Herbel of the Giants when he hit me above the elbow only a few days after I had been hit in the same spot by Ron Piche in Milwaukee,” Robinson said.

“I remember Gaylord Perry, who was scheduled to pitch the next game, standing in the Giants’ dugout and yelling, ‘If you think he hit you hard, wait until tomorrow.’ I wasn’t going to be intimidated. I hit two home runs off Perry.”

Robinson let his Hall of Fame actions speak for him. He did it at the plate and on the basepaths. If retaliation was called for, he went hard into the second baseman or shortstop on double-play situations, a philosophy endorsed by Don Baylor, who holds the record for being hit by pitches but also charged the mound only twice.

Ask Robinson and Baylor: How do you help your team if you’re ejected by charging the mound? Common sense, but now players know only the one thing: Go after the pitcher.

The problem, Robinson said, begins with the aluminum bat used at the amateur level. Hitters stand at the plate with impunity, knowing pitchers won’t work inside because of the fear of aluminum handle hits. Then, faced with tighter pitching at the professional level, the hitter tends to feel his turf is being threatened.

Ridiculous, said Robinson.

“It’s a matter of education,” he said. “Hitters have to understand that pitchers have a right to pitch inside, to knock you down, to brush you back, to even hit you as long as it’s not in the area of the head. It’s part of the art of pitching, part of the game.

“Pitchers are also human. Every time they knock you down it’s not intentional. Hitters have to learn to take a closer look at the situation before they react.”

Robinson knows that he will get an argument from many hitters on this.

“But I won’t get it from the old-timers, although I’m not talking as an old-timer,” he said. “I think I’ve bridged the gap. I’m not knocking all hitters. I’m not putting them all under the same blanket. They just have to understand that if the pitcher has a right to pitch inside, it doesn’t mean they have a right to charge the mound every time.”

Coleman agrees. He said discussions are being conducted in the hope of finding a solution and reducing the number of incidents.

“I’m taking this seriously,” he said. “People may feel it’s part of the game, but I’m not going to get into that. It needs to be dealt with and discouraged.”

Brawl Add

Cincinnati Manager Davey Johnson says Coleman can’t deal with Martinez, the former Dodger, soon enough.

“Somebody’s going to kill him,” Johnson said. “A whole bunch of guys are going to be after him. What’s beyond me is he hasn’t even gotten a warning. Don’t umpires ever read the newspapers or watch ESPN and see what this guy is doing? He’s hit seven guys already this year and four in the spring.

“Some old baseball purists told Leonard Coleman that’s the way baseball is played. What he needs to do is get Bob Gibson and Frank Robinson together and hash this thing out on inside pitching.”

Martinez is unrepentant.

“I don’t care if I hit a thousand batters,” he said after the incident with Bell. “I’m not going to stop pitching inside.”

Missing Link

The long-range significance of the Atlanta Braves’ 2-9 skid that ended with a victory over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday could be that it demonstrated the importance right-handed hitting Ron Gant played in a lineup that now includes lefties -Fred McGriff, Ryan Klesko, David Justice and Deion Sanders.

With right-handed hitting shortstop Jeff Blauser on the disabled list and righty outfielders Mike Kelly, Dave Gallagher and Bill Pecota batting a cumulative .219 through Wednesday, the Braves have little balance and were 1-6 against left-handed pitchers before the weekend’s early showdown with Montreal. The promising Kelly, in fact, was sent back to triple A on Thursday with a .192 average and replaced by Jarvis Brown, a .216 lifetime hitter.

Gant, meanwhile, may be running out of options. Both the San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros bowed out of that pursuit this week, reluctant to sign him only through the ’94 season, as he is asking. That would allow him to retain his free-agent eligibility when the season ends.

The Boston Red Sox, who must now overcome the loss of Frank Viola, may try to do it with offense and could be Gant’s best bet, although they are also keenly interested in Montreal outfielder Larry Walker while hesitant to give up either of their top prospects, Trot Nixon and Frankie Rodriguez.

Walker, like Gant, is also eligible for free agency when the season ends and figures to be moved soon, with the Expos disturbed by his often less than intense approach and convinced that Rondell White, now at triple-A Ottawa, is ready to replace him.

Ho Hum

The Sporting News has exhumed speculation that Gene and Jackie Autry are selling the Angels to the Disney Corp., linking it to the Autrys’ sale of KMPC and their Palm Springs hotel.

Wrong on two counts.

The Autrys have not sold the Palm Springs hotel. In fact, Jackie Autry said, they are trying to get a license that will allow them to build a 1,000-seat dinner theater on the hotel grounds.

She also insists that the club is not for sale, adding, “How many times do I have to say that?”

The Angels, meanwhile, have begun negotiations with the city of Anaheim on a lease extension beyond 2001, predicating the extension on architectural improvements at Anaheim Stadium and financial improvements in the current terms.

NAMES AND NUMBERS --Big Ben: The Baltimore Orioles have averaged 7.5 runs in Ben McDonald’s 6-0 start, but that doesn’t diminish his accomplishment. He was 13-14 last year when his support was fourth worst among American League starting pitchers. He has held the opposition to three runs or fewer in 46 of his last 54 starts.

“Pitching coaches and other pitchers talked to me a lot, but for me there is no substitute for experience,” McDonald said. “It never really sunk in until I got out on the mound and did it myself, experienced some failure, had some success.”

--Keeping Pace: Wilson Alvarez of the Chicago White Sox is also 6-0 and has won 13 straight decisions since returning from last season’s minor league demotion. He led the American League in walks when sent down but has a 1.97 earned-run average during his streak and has walked only 18 in 41 1/3 innings of his 6-0 start. Most scouts consider him the league’s No. 2 power left-hander behind Randy Johnson.

“Now I can walk a guy and it’s nothing for me,” he said. “I know I can throw strikes and challenge hitters more. That’s what works for me.”

--March of Time: Jack Morris celebrates his 39th birthday May 16, but the Cleveland Indians aren’t in a party mood. Morris, in five starts since beating the Seattle Mariners in his Cleveland debut on April 7, is 0-3 with an 8.01 ERA. The Indians have three hot pitchers in triple A--Albie Lopez, Julian Tavarez and Chad Ogea--and there is suspicion that Morris may not reach 90 innings, at which point he receives $500,000, the first of his $2.25 million in incentives.

“What concerns me is the lack of consistency in the location of his pitches,” Manager Mike Hargrove said of Morris. “It’s a concern that a pitcher with his experience is missing by that much.”

--Belch as in . . . Former Dodger Tim Belcher, one of the last free agents to sign, has yet to return a dividend on the $3.4-million contract he signed with received the generous Detroit Tigers. He is 5-0 with a 9.91 ERA and has survived the fifth inning only twice in six starts.

“Somebody said that when it rains it pours,” Belcher said. “This is more like a drowning.”

--Mental Game: Kevin Brown was 0-4 with a 10.86 ERA as the Texas Rangers’ ace when he resumed communication with psychologist, Harvey Dorfman. Brown is 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA in two starts since.

“Sometimes you need to be reminded of what you have to do,” he said. “It’s a full circle of things.”

--Ouch: When Kevin Mitchell of the Cincinnati Reds missed Monday’s opener of a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs because of a sore knee ligament, Cub broadcaster Steve Stone recalled Mitchell’s spring prediction that he would play 150 games this season and told his listeners that Mitchell would have to play winter ball to do it.

Mitchell, listening in the clubhouse, responded, “I was including playoffs and World Series--where Steve Stone won’t be. He’s up in the booth clowning me, and he’s the one wearing makeup.”