BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Mariners Are in Need of Some Friendly Confines

The Seattle Mariners and King County officials were already talking about the need for a new stadium before the tiles began dropping from the Kingdome roof.

In fact, club President Chuck Armstrong said, the Mariners need a commitment regarding a new stadium “no later than about a year from now” or the owners are likely to move or sell when the Kingdome lease expires after the 1996 season.

“The single most important factor in the long-term viability of the club in Seattle is a fan-friendly stadium,” Armstrong said.

A successful team--the Mariners have recorded only one .500 or better finish in 17 previous seasons--might also help. Still, there is no denying that the cold, gray Kingdome has little appeal and few of the amenities of Camden Yards, Jacobs Field or the Ballpark at Arlington.

On blissful summer nights in Seattle, the Kingdome isn’t among the most attractive options.

“It’s basically a multipurpose football stadium,” Armstrong said. “The capacity (59,000) is the second-largest in baseball, but the number of what we call prime seats (12,500) is the lowest.”

Armstrong says that the Mariners lost $15 million last year and were budgeted to lose $11 million this year before the estimated $3-million revenue loss from cancellation of the six dates with the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox this week.

The four games with the Red Sox were moved to Fenway Park, with the Mariners getting only the normal 20% visitor’s share of ticket sales.

The two games with the Orioles could be rescheduled at the end of the season, if the season has not been interrupted by a strike, the games have a bearing on postseason play and the Kingdome is deemed safe. At this point, Armstrong said, he isn’t even sure about the next home stand.

It may be more certain, he seemed to say, that Mariner ownership will refuse to underwrite continuing losses and will consider alternatives if there is no commitment on a new stadium.

The falling tiles underscore the need, Armstrong said, but the city and county already seemed to recognize that. Gary Locke, the new King County executive, formed a stadium study committee in the spring and said he didn’t consider the Kingdome a viable baseball park.

And in this week that the sky has been falling, the Seattle Sports Council has been meeting with officials from Comiskey Park, Jacobs Field, the proposed Phoenix ballpark and Denver’s Coors Field, which opens next year, to discuss financing and design.

“No one here seems to be questioning the need for a new park,” Armstrong said. “The discussions have gone beyond that to where would it be built, how will it be financed, should it be open air, dome or retractable roof.”

In other words, the small-market Mariners believe a salary cap is mandatory, but a roof may not be, which is one reason complete renovation of the Kingdome is considered an unattractive alternative to a new stadium, Armstrong said.

Will the Mariners get it?

The falling tiles have sharpened the wedge, though it’s uncertain where the team would move, considering that Phoenix and Tampa-St. Petersburg are expected to receive National League expansion franchises for the 1998 season.

SETTING IT STRAIGHT

It has been widely reported that a player strike would prevent the owners from declaring an impasse in the collective bargaining negotiations and unilaterally implementing a new economic system based on a salary cap.

Wrong.

The only leverage the players have is a strike in August or September, threatening the owners’ postseason TV revenue. The owners, however, may think it worth giving up this season’s playoffs to implement their new system, which they can do strike or otherwise. A strike, in other words, does not void management’s right to declare an impasse.

“A strike is a last resort designed to force an agreement, but if there is no agreement by the end of the season, what is there to strike?” Lauren Rich, the union’s assistant general counsel, said. “At that point, the players are going home anyway.”

A year ago, the owners pledged in writing not to declare an impasse while negotiations continued and the rules of the expired agreement remained in place. They have refused to make a similar pledge this year and insist they won’t. The union is nervous. Unilateral imposition of a new system, even if phased in, would create chaos. “Worse than chaos,” Rich said.

Baseball’s antitrust exemption eliminates judicial alternatives for the union, and the courts have recently supported the legality of the NBA and NFL salary caps anyway.

Many believe that the owners and players are already at an impasse, with no common ground between the players’ desire for status quo and the owners’ demand for a new system. Would the owners drop the cap if the players gave up salary arbitration in return for unrestricted free agency after four years of major league service rather than six?

That’s where all of this may be headed, but how long it takes to get there is uncertain.

SHOWDOWN?

If the Dodgers have been trying to ignore the National League West standings as their bullpen implodes, along with their division lead, they will come face to face with it during a three-game series against the Giants starting in San Francisco Monday night.

They also will come face to face with Darryl Strawberry, whose arrival has coincided with the offensive awakening of the Giants and Barry Bonds’ hottest binge of the season.

In the first two series after the All-Star break--four games in Montreal, three in Philadelphia, six out of seven wins for the Giants--Bonds went 14 for 31 (.452) with six home runs and 11 runs batted in. He also scored 10 runs. In the first 11 games since Strawberry joined the lineup--10 Giant victories--he went 16 for 43 (.372) with six homers and 12 RBIs.

“Battle for top dog, maybe?” reliever Rod Beck said of the Strawberry-Bonds impact.

More likely was manager Dusty Baker’s decision to move Bonds to third in the batting order ahead of Matt Williams and Strawberry. More pitches for Bonds and less pressure on Strawberry, who has normally hit third.

“It’s kind of nice when they pitch to all of us,” Bonds said the other day. “They can’t pitch around me that much. This is the most I’ve been challenged since I’ve been in the majors for a while. It’s fun. This is the same combo we had with Will Clark, which is good. What it did for us last year, now we have with Darryl, only it’s even more powerful, which is not to take anything away from Will.”

WIZARD WORKS

In the St. Louis Cardinals’ game at Houston Tuesday night, Ozzie Smith set the record for assists at shortstop, 8,017, passing Luis Aparicio. Smith, at that point, had a 30.5-to-1 ratio for assists opposed to errors. Aparicio had a 21.9-1 ratio. Old-timers Rabbit Maranville and Bill Dahlen, who totaled more assists because they played more than one position, had ratios of 12.6-1 and 7.5-1.

Smith knew the record was near at the All-Star game and said, “Some young kid will come along some day and try to break it, but he’ll have a tough time, considering where I’ve put it.”

Now, Smith said, his only remaining numerical goal at 39 is 2,500 hits, which he hopes to achieve next year, his last as a player.

“I don’t think there’s any player who wants to be labeled only one-dimensional,” he said. “I know I don’t. I know that what I do offensively is going to be overshadowed by what I do defensively, but I want people to be able to say, ‘He was a great defensive player, but that’s not all he did.’ That’s what I think 2,500 hits says. It says I was more than just a defensive player.”