BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Indians’ Success, Prospects Are Sweeter Than Candy

They unveiled the Albert Belle Candy Bar in Cleveland on Tuesday.

Is it nutty? Some might ask: Is the man himself?

Belle didn’t show for the introductory news conference, infuriating the manufacturers and embarrassing the Indians. His excuse: He didn’t sleep well.

Belle’s sense of public relations might have improved only sightly from his earlier, angrier, more tempestuous and often-suspended days, but he remains a formidable weapon in baseball’s deepest and most formidable lineup.

How formidable?

Orel Hershiser, a new member of the Cleveland rotation, said, “This is the best offensive club I’ve seen since I’ve been in the majors. That’s not a knock at the Dodgers [with whom he spent the previous 12 seasons] or anyone else. I see it as a fact.

“Usually you’re talking about three or four guys, like the Giants with Will Clark, Matt Williams and Kevin Mitchell or the Pirates with Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Andy Van Slyke.

“But talking about three or four guys is selling this club short. The thing I notice is the consistency of the people who can beat you with one swing. There’s not a place in the lineup that a pitcher can relax. You make bad pitches against this team, and the ball winds up out of the park.”

Said Bud Black, another National League expatriate now pitching for the Indians: “In the National League, you get to the number eight guy, and you can make him chase some bad pitches because you’ve got the pitcher behind him. That doesn’t happen with this club, and it’s mentally draining for a pitcher. You get through the middle of the lineup and here comes three or four more guys who can rake.”

It’s even contagious. Shortstop Omar Vizquel ended a 333-game homerless streak by hitting two in five at-bats Monday and Tuesday. Paul Sorrento, among the league leaders in home runs and runs batted in, plays only against right-handers. The Indians led the majors in runs and home runs last year and are doing it again, averaging more than 6.6 runs per game while batting .300 as a team through Thursday.

All of that, of course, takes the load off a pitching staff that has been almost entirely rebuilt over the last two years and is no longer a punching bag for opposing batters. Chuck Nagy is the only remaining starter from 1992. The Indians are second in the American League in team earned-run average and may be close to calling off their pursuit of a closer since Jose Mesa had converted all six of his save opportunities through Thursday.

The more important numbers are those in the standings, and the Indians should close out the AL Central by Labor Day, with the Chicago White Sox no longer a factor.

Again, said Hershiser, what’s impressive is the depth and management’s ability to retain and build on it.

“What I’ve come to realize is that you have two generations of power hitters here,” he said. “While some clubs may have waited a year or two to see a little more, management aggressively signed the first group of Belle, [Carlos] Baerga, [Kenny] Lofton and [Sandy] Alomar to multiyear contracts, and now you’ve got a second group of Sorrento, [Jim] Thome and [Manny] Ramirez [who had a rookie-of-the-year type debut in 1994 and is now laughing at the sophomore jinx].

“Fill in with a couple of Hall of Famers [Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray], a Gold Glove shortstop [Vizquel] and an all-star catcher [Tony Pena] who can take over when Alomar is hurt, and the depth is amazing.”

Sweet, indeed. Who needs a candy bar?

SALUTE TO A WARRIOR

The Oakland Athletics’ Dennis Eckersley became the sixth relief pitcher to get 300 saves Wednesday against the Baltimore Orioles, but he’s the first to do it within 500 appearances (499) and the first to combine it with 188 victories, 100 complete games, a 20-victory season and a no hitter--clearly, a Hall of Fame package.

In addition, Eckersley’s animation and competitiveness has always been complemented by his accessibility, his willingness to address his performance, good or bad.

Relieving, Eckersley said, awakened emotions and energies that starting never did.

“Even when I’d win 17 or 18 games in a season, in how many of those games was I around at the end?” he said. “How many times did I walk off the field and get to shake hands, exchange high-fives? That was the first thing I enjoyed about the success of relief pitching, the immediate impact on the game and the response of the team.

“Little did I know what was in store down the road, the home runs, the blown saves, the sleepless nights. Jay Howell used to tell me, ‘No one can understand what being a closer means until they’ve done it.’ It’s so intense, so exhausting. Every time we get to the seventh or eighth inning my stomach starts to flip.

“I mean, I still have nights when I wrestle with the home runs Roberto Alomar and Kirk Gibson hit [in the 1992 playoffs and 1988 World Series] because I care about the game, but a relief pitcher has to learn to turn the page and go on or he won’t survive. I’m 40 and not getting younger, but this has been a great time for me. I’m soaking it up and really enjoying it. The saves may not mean as much as they once did, but 300 means a lot.”

THY ROD AND STAFF

The San Francisco Giants have suddenly encountered closer problems because Manager Dusty Baker has had to do what Oakland Manager Tony La Russa has seldom had to do with Eckersley--ask his closer to pitch more than an inning at a time.

Seven times in Rod Beck’s first 13 appearances, Baker has summoned his relief ace in the eighth inning because of the unreliability of his set-up people, primarily Dave Burba and Mark Dewey. Beck, who earlier this season set a major league record by converting his 41st consecutive save opportunity, blew his fourth of the season and third in a row on Tuesday in Philadelphia. He was 28 for 28 last year and 75 of 78 dating to 1993.

The costliest aspect of the Giants’ economically motivated pitching turnover might be the loss of set-up man Mike Jackson.

“It’s a long season and we can’t continue to do this,” Baker said. “The games count, we want to win, but you can’t keep asking your closer to pitch 1 1/3 innings or 1 2/3. We need someone to get us to Rod so he only has to go an inning for the save.”

Said Beck: “It would be the ultimate if you only work the ninth, but when the game is on the line, you’ve got to go for the win. You can’t live in the past. [Jackson] is not here. You have to deal with what you have, and right now it comes down to the fact that I ain’t happy because I ain’t doing the job. I hate it, and my teammates hate me, but I promise that by the end of the year they’ll love me again. This is going to change.”

ARMS EMBARGO

The Detroit Tigers encountered a pitching staff worse than their own this week and pummeled the Minnesota Twins in two of three games to continue a recent reversal in their return to the .500 neighborhood. The Minnesota starters, after a 14-3 beating Wednesday, were 5-15 with an 8.30 ERA. The staff ERA was 7.16. Wrote Dennis Brackin in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

“The ERA of Twins’ starters has surpassed the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage, a bit of information that doesn’t figure to be of much use to Twins pitchers. Commitments for long-term housing are not recommended.”

Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson reflected on the ongoing deterioration of major league pitching and offered another doomsday prediction.

“How are you going to have pitching when you have 28 teams?” he said. “You can never produce that many major league pitchers. And wait until they go to 32 teams in what, the year 2000? I’m glad I won’t be around then. This is going to be something else. Managers are just going to throw up their hands. It’s going to be war every day.”

CHIRPING CHIPPER

Rookie Chipper Jones has rebounded from the knee injury that sidelined him for all of the 1994 season and regained the form--and cockiness?--that helped make him baseball’s most touted prospect before the injury. Jones led the Atlanta Braves through Thursday in hits, homers, RBIs and walks, and his defense--”I’m ecstatic about the strides I’ve made”--at third base and in left field has been adequate.

Of his attitude, Jones, 23, said, “I would call it necessary arrogance. You have to be arrogant. You have to be confident in your abilities just to stay here. You almost have to be mean sometimes. People question you. You have to reassure them, have a strut about you that says, ‘I can play this game and be successful and don’t stand in my way.’ I never doubted for a minute that I would come back and be successful. I knew I could play at this level.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--Cincinnati Red outfielder Ron Gant, slowly returning to pre-1994 form (he missed all of last year after breaking a leg in a dirt bike accident), has the game-winning hit in five of six extra-inning games. “He has a knack for it,” said teammate Deion Sanders, who was also a teammate with the Atlanta Braves. “I can’t wait for the playoffs to see what he does, hopefully against Atlanta. Of course, I don’t think Atlanta will make it.”

--Heathcliff Slocumb continues his relief magic for the Philadelphia Phillies, 12 for 12 in save opportunities through Thursday. However, Slocumb and set-up man Gene Harris had appeared in 15 of Philadelphia’s first 26 games, as starters pitched into the seventh inning only four times, and now David West has joined Tommy Greene and Bobby Munoz on the disabled list to further erode the projected rotation.

--Kevin Appier took a 5-1 record and 1.98 earned-run average into Saturday night’s start against the Milwaukee Brewers. Said Bob Boone, the Kansas City Royals’ rookie manager: “I know one thing: The best games I’ve managed this year, Appier’s been pitching. So far I’ve been going to him a lot with a four-man rotation, but once he gets rolling we can move him up to every three days, then go to him every other day.”

--The Brewers began the Kansas City series with 11 home runs, tying them with Matt Williams, Mo Vaughn and Mark McGwire for the major league lead. The power shortage is most conspicuous in relation to Greg Vaughn, who receives $4.7 million of the Brewers’ $15 million payroll and has two homers and a .202 average.

--Former Dodger Franklin Stubbs, who spent 1993 in the minors and 1994 in Mexico, has resurfaced as a productive role player with the Detroit Tigers. He had a batting average of .344 and a .500-plus on base percentage through 45 plate appearances Thursday.