BASEBALL ’95 : Unfinished Business : Postscript to ’94 Season: as Ken Griffey Jr. Says, It Was a Bad Year to Have a Good Year

It is never as simple as The Kid makes it look, or says it is, but his bare-bones analysis of the rise and fall of the once spectacular 1994 season sums it up nicely.

“A lot of players were having great seasons, but we all picked a bad year to have a good year,” said Ken Griffey Jr., as he sat in the Seattle Mariners clubhouse last week.

Indeed.

Only the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris were applauding as the strike that began on Aug. 12 wiped out the conclusion to one of the broadest offensive assaults in baseball history and most exciting summers.

Matt Williams, the San Francisco Giant third baseman, was on a pace to hit 61 home runs, tying Maris’ single season record.

Griffey was on a pace to hit 58, and Frank Thomas, the Chicago White Sox first baseman, was on a pace to hit 55, with a chance to become the first triple crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

“Frank Thomas had the best 110 games (113, actually) I’ve ever seen,” White Sox hitting coach Walt Hrniak said.

Hrniak might want to talk with Bobby Bonds, the Giant hitting coach.

Bonds said Williams, with 43 homers through 115 games, was an absolute cinch to break the Maris record.

“I don’t doubt it at all,” Bonds said.

“That record was history. I wouldn’t have said it during the season because I didn’t want to put any more pressure on him, but people will remember that I predicted in the spring that he would hit 50 or more.

“I mean, I wouldn’t put it past any of those guys. Matt, Griffey and Frank Thomas all have a legitimate shot at 60.”

What might have been is the sad postscript to 1994, when the home run and triple crown pursuits were only part of it.

As baseball fell on its asterisk, as owners and players became polarized in an unresolved dispute that put the spotlight on greed instead of potential greatness, the World Series was canceled for the first time, along with an expanded playoff format that found 16 teams still in contention on Aug. 12.

Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres won his fifth batting title at .394 but was deprived of a dramatic run at .400.

Chuck Knoblauch, the Minnesota Twins’ second baseman, lost a chance to break the 63-year-old American League record for doubles. He was on a pace to hit 65, two shy of the record.

The respective league batting averages--.273 in the American and .267 in the National--were the highest since 1939, and Houston Astro first baseman Jeff Bagwell was the hottest of the hot, producing a 162-game season in 110.

Bagwell had 39 homers, 116 runs batted in and an 18-game hitting streak--totals that projected to 55 homers, 163 RBI and 423 total bases--when he suffered a broken left hand two days before the strike began.

Baseball historian Seymour Siwoff, head of the Elias News Bureau, which maintains the official statistics, said it still “breaks my heart” that the 1994 drama “didn’t include a final act.”

“We’ve never had so many players involved, so many different pursuits on so many different levels,” he said.

“Baseball is all about opportunity, and look at the opportunities that were lost. I mean, there were all sorts of romantic possibilities, and we can only hope that it carries over and rekindles the excitement.”

At the White Sox training base last week, Thomas said he shared Siwoff’s disappointment.

“It was really a shame,” he said. “I was having a career year and so were a lot of players. Attendance was up. Everybody was excited.

“I’m a solid union guy and I totally understand our position, but I hate feeling that nothing was accomplished (by the strike).

“It was a waste, and we’re still in a difficult position. As (union leader) Don Fehr says, we’re just at halftime and it may get worse before it gets better.

“We want a settlement, but the owners may be positioning themselves for another impasse. I mean, we’re only back now because a court slapped the owners on the wrist. Who knows where it’s headed, but I’m happy to be back under any circumstances.

“The game has to go on, and this is the way it should be--the players on the field, the lawyers behind closed doors and the story off page one.”

The story? Maybe it didn’t end when the strike began.

Thomas, 26, said the game is enjoying a “golden era” of talented young hitters capable of regenerating the electricity of 1994.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all,” he said, clicking off the names. . . .

--Griffey and Juan Gonzalez, both 25;

--Bagwell, Mike Piazza, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa, 26;

--Kenny Lofton and Mo Vaughn, 27;

--Albert Belle and Moises Alou, 28;

--Williams, David Justice and Ruben Sierra, 29;

--Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Jay Buhner, 30.

--Cecil Fielder and Fred McGriff, 31. In an era of expansion-diluted pitching, with two more teams making their debuts in 1998 and two more in 2000, by which time the 32 major league teams will require at least 140 more pitchers than were needed by the 18 teams in 1961, when Maris hit his 61, who knows how many offensive records may be broken?

“The pitching just isn’t as consistent as it once was,” said Bobby Bonds, whose son, Barry, the Giants’ left fielder, contributed 37 homers to the 1994 onslaught despite an elbow injury that required off-season surgery.

“I saw more (pitching) mistakes last year than you generally see in three or four years combined,” Bonds said. “But that’s not to take anything away from guys like Matt or Thomas or Griffey.

“With those guys, it’s a surprise only if they don’t put up the numbers.”

None of those guys are weeping over the lost opportunity.

“I haven’t gone to bed one night thinking about what might have been,” said Williams, sitting near his locker at the Giants’ training base recently. “I don’t reflect on it in a negative sense because I don’t reflect on it, period. All that leads to is a bleeding ulcer. The only time I think about it is when somebody asks.

“Could I have (matched or surpassed the Maris record)? I don’t know. As I said at the time, I’d start thinking about it if I got to 60, but I didn’t feel like I was chasing anything. I mean, I think I had a shot at Willie’s record (Mays hit a franchise record 52 in 1965), but I didn’t dwell on that or anything else.”

Anything else might have included Hack Wilson’s National League record of 56 in a season. Williams has hit 186 homers over the last six years. Only McGriff, 208; Bonds, 194, and Cecil Fielder, 188, have hit more.

Last year, en route to the 43, Williams homered every 10.34 at bats. Mays had a best of 10.73.

Williams also drove in 96 runs and won a Gold Glove for the third time in the last four years. Manager Dusty Baker said he is better than Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt on an all-around basis, describing Williams as a “heavyweight who moves like a lightweight.”

With a five-year, $30.75-million contract, Williams is a heavyweight in more ways then one, but Baker added that he would have been surprised if his third baseman had reached or surpassed 61 homers because the media blitz was just starting, and it can’t be certain, he said, how a player who doesn’t seek headlines or the spotlight would have tolerated it.

“The questions were already getting tedious,” Williams acknowledged. “It was the same thing before and after games. I was able to disregard it once I got on the field, but it was definitely getting difficult.”

Said agent Jeff Moorad: “As amazing as it sounds, I’ve never heard Matt express a single regret (about last year). The unassuming approach he has toward life carries over to baseball and his feelings about 1994.

“I mean, his competitive instincts are as intense as anyone. He would love to lead the majors in home runs over a full season, but his preference would be to let Ken Griffey or Frank Thomas or Barry Bonds get all the attention, then pass them on the last day. His focus now is strictly on the new season.”

Now more of a “feel” hitter than free swinger, the abbreviated spring complicates his preparation. Timing and confidence are critical. It’s not like riding a bike, Williams said. You need to remember the good feeling and get it back as quickly as possible. He places no limitations or expectations on his performance.

“I don’t know what my limits are, and it’s not healthy to think about it,” he said. “I don’t want to put pressure on myself, thinking I have to match last year. I know I can do better because we still had two months to play. I know I would have had a chance to hit one more home run, driven in one more run.”

Expectations, the irrepressible Griffey said, are tantamount to undesired pressure. Consistency is his only goal. Learned that, he said, from his dad, former major leaguer Ken Griffey Sr., and from adopted uncles Eddie Murray and Dave Winfield.

Someone, he said, will break the home run record some day, but he doesn’t know who or when and won’t let last year’s pursuit change his only goal, which is to have fun.

“I was frustrated and disappointed last year because I love baseball and it suddenly wasn’t there for me,” Griffey said. “I realize that no one player or owner or team is bigger than the game, but I kept hoping the strike would end, thinking it would end, then finally reached a point where I stopped worrying about it and enjoyed having the time with my wife (Melissa) and son (Trey).”

Griffey ended June with 32 homers, matching the Maris and Ruth pace. He ultimately became the 22nd player to hit 40 in consecutive seasons.

“He had another phenomenal season,” Manager Lou Piniella said. “He definitely had a chance to make a run at the record. The outcome may have depended on how much he would have been pitched to and how long he could have stayed on the road (because of the falling tiles that closed the Kingdome) and performed at that level.”

Said Griffey: “Last year was fun while it lasted and I learned a lot. If I get another shot, I’ll know what to expect from the media and how to carry myself, but the best thing I can do is stay on an even keel. Everyone else was making a bigger deal out of it than I was.”

No one is a bigger deal than Thomas. No one is posting more impressive numbers. When the strike curtailed his monster mash, Thomas was third in the American League in hitting (.353) and RBIs (101) and second in home runs (38). He had a .729 slugging percentage, a .487 on-base percentage.

It is unlikely he would have won the triple crown, but his projected statistics--.353 average, 55 homers, 149 RBI, 202 hits, 156 walks--would have made Yastrzemski’s seem insignificant.

Thomas was honored with a second consecutive most valuable player award and joined Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig as the only players to hit .300 with at least 20 home runs, 100 RBI, 100 walks and 100 runs in four consecutive seasons, but the disappointment over what might have been served to fuel his motivation, drive him back into the training room.

Said the 6-foot-5, 260 pound Thomas: “I worked out five days a week for seven months. I put on 10 to 12 pounds of muscle. I’m even bigger, stronger, faster than I was. I want to achieve and achieve some more. I want to continue getting better. I want to win that (unprecedented) third straight MVP. Forget last year. This could be my career year.”

Why not? Thomas used to have a sign over his locker that read “DBTH.” It stood for Don’t Believe The Hype. The hype has turned to reality.

Thomas knows who he is and what he has a right to think of himself.

“I do things others only dream about,” he said, and who can argue?

He is paid $7.1 million a year by the White Sox and is fast becoming a corporate and commercial giant through his Big Hurt Enterprises.

He is determined, he said, to see that the players address and correct the strike-related fan damage and he has verbally spanked younger players for letting economy-fueled egos stand in the way of their public responsibilities.

Who he is and what he justifiably thinks of himself was evident again the other day when it was suggested that Thomas might drop from third to fourth in the lineup because Julio Franco, who batted .319, hit 20 homers and drove in 98 runs batting fourth behind Thomas last year, is now playing in Japan and the White Sox will try to replace him with bargain free agent Chris Sabo.

“I’m not hitting fourth,” Thomas bristled. “I’m a three-hole hitter. I hit for average and power. That’s what a three-hole hitter is. Plus, I want to get as many at-bats as I can. The three hole is where I’ve been and where I’ll be. Babe Ruth hit third. Hank Aaron hit third too.”

Thomas later said he didn’t mean to imply that he was putting himself on the level of Ruth and Aaron, but wasn’t he among several headed for that plateau last year? Won’t he be among several expected to take up the pursuit again this week?

One hundred and forty-four games--a marathon compared to the season of what might have been.