BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Campanis’ Book Might Have Happy Ending in Palm Springs

He wrote the book, “The Dodgers Way to Play Baseball.”

Now the book sits on his desk here with tape covering “Dodgers” and the word “Suns” written on it so that the sequel is titled, “The Suns Way to Play Baseball.”

At 78, recovering from a stroke, Al Campanis has returned to the game as vice president of baseball operations for the recently formed Palm Springs Suns of the recently formed Western League, among the newest of 11 independent leagues.

“I’m like a boy with a new toy,” Campanis said, as he prepared for Friday night’s league opener in the colorfully refurbished stadium that was the Angels’ spring training base for more than 30 years.

Owners Don DiCarlo and Paul Scheibe estimate that they have spent more than $500,000 on stadium improvements, including the addition of field-level boxes that put patrons almost in the catcher’s lap and a $20,000 misting system for those torrid summer nights. But whether a minor league team can make it here--the Angels ultimately gave up and moved their California League franchise to Lake Elsinore--remains to be seen.

Campanis is helping plot the future rather than looking back in anger or frustration. He had been unable to find work in an industry to which he had given more than 50 years as a player, scout and front-office executive after the fateful appearance on “Nightline” on opening night of the 1987 season from Houston.

On a show dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s major league debut, Robinson’s friend and former double-play partner with the Montreal Royals said, among other things, that blacks “may not have some of the necessities” to become major league managers or general managers.

Those who knew Campanis best called it a breakdown in semantics rather than an accurate gauge of his beliefs, but Campanis was fired as the Dodgers’ general manager, a move he agrees with even now, saying that owner Peter O’Malley had no choice considering the potential furor if he hadn’t.

Campanis wasn’t destroyed when forced to leave an organization that he had helped build and sustain. He had the support of family and friends and a comfortable lifestyle with houses in Fullerton and San Clemente. But it was almost painful to see him at ballparks or on the job hunt at winter meetings, on the fringe of the game and no closer.

“Some people may have thought I was too old, but I think I can judge players better than ever,” Campanis said. “It’s like being a doctor. Some things you never forget. I love to evaluate and teach. I grew up in the game around Branch Rickey, and I’ve always considered myself a teacher at heart.

“I mean, sometimes it was difficult to be at a game and see something that needed correcting and not being in a position to do it, but I’m not bitter about what happened. I was fortunate. I had a lot of fun in my career. Peter ultimately had a tough call, but it wasn’t as if he turned his back on me. I had season tickets to the Dodgers, and he’s allowed [the Suns] to use their complex in the Dominican [which Campanis helped develop and where he and DiCarlo held two tryout camps, signing 10 players for their team]. I still have my Dodger friends.”

In fact, he’s surrounded by them. Former Dodger catcher Bill Sudakis, the Sun manager, talked Campanis into taking his current job. Former Dodgers Lee Lacy and Steve Yeager are coaches with the team. Tom Lasorda spoke at a Feb. 5 fund-raiser for the Suns attended by Maury Wills, Don Newcombe and others with Dodger links.

His new team is basically a collection of rookies and released pros. Each of the eight teams in a league stretching from the Coachella Valley to British Columbia will play 90 games and operate with a $92,000 payroll cap. Jeff Burroughs is managing the Long Beach Barracuda. Tom Trebelhorn is managing the Tri-City Posse, located near the Washington, Oregon and Idaho border.

Campanis lives only 10 minutes from his stadium office in a house he had built here even before he got the job. It’s the best of all worlds, he said. Back in the game that has been his life “with time left over to smell the roses.”

If it is not quite the way the author of “The Dodgers Way to Play Baseball” would have written it, there is solace in what others have written. A one-sentence letter from Sandy Koufax, who was signed by Campanis off an Ebbets Field tryout in 1955, may be the best example. It reads: “Don’t allow a few moments to destroy a lifetime of good.”

CUBAN CONNECTION

As they prepared to open their season this weekend, the Suns have been one of baseball’s most scouted teams because of the presence of two former members of the Cuban national team: starting pitcher Ariel Prieto and relief pitcher Euclides Rojas. Almost every major league team was represented by a scout and/or scouting director when Prieto, expected to go high in the first round of the June 1 draft, pitched a simulated game here Wednesday.

“I caught quite a few outstanding major league pitchers, and he’s right there with the best,” Sudakis said of Prieto. “He’s a big league pitcher right now, and so is Rojas.”

A National League scout was less effusive after watching Prieto pitch Wednesday. “You’ve got to like his stuff,” he said. “He’s ahead of any college pitcher we see, but keep in mind. . . . He’s 25 or 26 at best, and there’s about a three- or four-year discrepancy on his age. If he’s closer to 30, he should be ready to step in at the major league level, and I’m not sure he is.”

In four years with the Cuban national team, Prieto pitched 73 games in which he struck out 10 or more. Los Angeles-based attorney Steve Schneider said Prieto was granted exit papers by the Cuban government to join his father-in-law in Florida last year. The departure of Rojas was more dramatic.

In August of ‘94, the Rojas family, including his wife and 3-year-old son, joined nine other Cubans seeking freedom on a makeshift catamaran that was within 23 miles of Florida after five days of limited food and water when intercepted by the Coast Guard.

The group was returned to Guantanamo Bay, where the Rojas family lived in tented squalor for six months before being granted asylum to join relatives in Florida. Rene Arocha, a former teammate in Cuba who is now with the St. Louis Cardinals, eventually introduced Rojas and Prieto to agent Gus Dominguez, a partner of Schneider and Ron Cey in Total Sports International, and Schneider placed them with the Suns through a long friendship with Campanis.

It’s a chance for Prieto, who makes his league debut today, and Rojas to acclimate and be seen and a boon to the Suns’ visibility. However, Schneider and Dominguez are still weighing a legal challenge to a ruling by baseball officials that the two pitchers can not be signed as free agents and must go through the draft, a ruling baseball has applied recently only in regard to Cuban players and one that is at odds with its policy toward other nationalities.

“Many clubs are exploring in great detail how to sign the players before the draft,” Schneider said.

THE DISNEY PLAN

There is speculation that Tony Taveras, president of the Mighty Ducks, will eventually oversee both the Duck and Angel operations as president or CEO. He might want to call Stan Kasten for advice. Kasten is president of the Atlanta Hawks and Braves, having initially told owner Ted Turner that he didn’t think one man could do it.

The key, of course, is organization, having the right people in the right jobs, he said.

“At that, however, baseball is a much more difficult organizational challenge and a very different system that takes a while to learn the angles and nuances,” Kasten said. “But the most difficult aspect for me is not the hours or the fact that you’re working two jobs.

“Plenty of people work longer hours. Plenty of people work two or three jobs. The most difficult thing for me is the emotional stress of sweating out a score almost every night of the year.

“To a certain respect, your livelihood is on the line every night. I take it very personally and probably have the wrong personality to be doing this. Just think about October and March, the two months when you’re getting one team ready for its season and the other [could be] in the playoffs. I mean, if sleep is important, you might want to think twice about it.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--The Boston Red Sox have opened 14-7 despite the absence of injured Roger Clemens, expected to return June 2, and the payroll purge that ousted starters Frank Viola and Danny Darwin. Rookie left-hander Vaughn Eshelman and recycled Erik Hansen are 3-0, and the once-suspect rotation is 10-1, eliminating two starts by the since-demoted rookie Frank Rodriguez. Hanson threw 142 pitches in Tuesday’s complete game shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers and is happy to be pitching on grass after seven seasons on the synthetic surfaces of Seattle and Cincinnati. “I throw ground balls when I’m on, and they’re not trickling through the infield now,” he said.

--The Houston Astros’ Jeff Bagwell is off to a .173 start in defense of his National League MVP award. “I have high expectations for myself, whether I was the MVP last year or not,” he said. “That’s irrelevant. I need to help this team win. I need to drive in runs and I’m not, and I don’t know what the problem is.”

--Attendance woes are exemplified by the Texas Rangers’ whopping falloff, from a 36,649 average in their new park last year to 22,501 through their first 13 dates this year. Club president Tom Schieffer said new fans attracted to the new park last year were alienated by the strike.

--One of the impressive aspects of the Philadelphia Phillies’ 15-5 start through Thursday was that they had played only five home games. They were 12-3 on the road after winning only 20 on the road last year.

--Bill Swift is 1-0 with a 7.07 earned-run average, but the Colorado Rockies are 4-1 when he starts.

--The Atlanta Braves are again thinking about moving John Smoltz to the bullpen as an answer to their renewed closer dilemma. “They know I’m open to whatever is best,” Smoltz said.

--Jaime Navarro is 4-0 with a 2.12 ERA for the Cubs and motivated by his Milwaukee release. “I was very angry, very upset,” he said. “It made me want to show them they made a mistake.”