Why This Import Is a Hot Item

While he was managing in Japan two years ago, Bobby Valentine was asked about Hideki Irabu’s possibly pitching in the major leagues and said, “I’d carry him over on my back if he wanted to go.”

Irabu wants to go now, but only if he can pitch for the New York Yankees, which won’t happen unless the San Diego Padres trade signing rights to them.

The Padres have a working agreement with Irabu’s team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, who are willing to let Japan’s best pitcher leave, but only to go to the Padres.

Baseball’s executive council confirmed San Diego’s signing rights Thursday, which may not end the controversy.

Is Irabu that good, or is this another example of baseball’s dire shortage of pitching?

Valentine, who now manages the New York Mets but had Irabu as his ace while managing the Marines in ‘95, said, “I could walk into any major league camp with him and say this guy is going to be one of your starters, and they’d watch him throw on the side and say, ‘Yeah, we’ll take him,’ because he’d be that impressive.”

He has a Roger Clemens-type fastball, Valentine said. A forkball with Hideo Nomo-type velocity.

The Padres, meanwhile, have two starters, Joey Hamilton and Andy Ashby, coming off arm surgery. A third, Fernando Valenzuela, is 36 going on 46.

“He has the stuff to be a key guy in our rotation and a force in the game,” San Diego General Manager Kevin Towers said of Irabu.

“He’s a big, strong, powerful pitcher with a dominating presence on the mound, a fastball in the mid-90s and a forkball and changeup that enhances his velocity.

“We recognize there are no guarantees. I don’t think the Dodgers really knew what Nomo would do over here, but when you look at [Irabu’s] size, arm speed, movement and record in Japan, it leads us to think he would have great success here.”

There are several possibilities.

--The players’ union, insisting Irabu should be entitled to free agency, may take it to arbitration, although Irabu isn’t a member of the U.S. union and a 30-year-old exchange treaty between the U.S. and Japanese leagues seems binding.

--Irabu might retire rather than play for the Padres, although he is only 27 and in the prime of his career.

--Or he might sit out a year on the theory he would then be a free agent, although he would still be two years shy of the 10 required to be a free agent in Japan and would still be under control of the Chiba team.

--Agent Don Nomura might sue baseball, although the legal process might keep Irabu sidelined for several years.

--The Padres and Yankees, providing San Diego is unable to sign Irabu, might complete a trade, although they have yet to talk and the respective owners [and some club officials] have almost come to blows in owners’ meetings during heated arguments over revenue sharing and other subjects.

“We didn’t get involved in this to trade our signing rights,” Towers said, but it may come to that.

“I know we like him and want him,” Padre President Larry Lucchino said. “We don’t take umbrage with the negotiating stuff that’s been going on. It doesn’t bother me. I’d still like to be optimistic, although I’m not by nature.”

Nomura has spent the weekend in Japan, formulating his next move. Towers said he hopes to meet with the agent this week and try again to change Irabu’s mind. The Padres’ rivals in the National League West are rooting for the Yankees.

A DeSHIELDS THEORY

There is no clubhouse more culturally and ethnically diverse than the Dodgers’.

In 1996, for example, the roster included players from Japan, South Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the United States.

However, Delino DeShields was the only African American for the most part, although Chad Fonville returned later in the season and Wayne Kirby and Dave Clark were acquired later.

George Hendrick, the batting coach of DeShields’ new team, the St. Louis Cardinals, delicately suggests that this semi-isolation affected the performance of DeShields, a quiet and introspective student of black history. DeShields batted .250, .256 and .224 in three disappointing seasons with the Dodgers. In St. Louis, Hendrick said, DeShields will find a group of black players who form a strong leadership corps.

“The atmosphere is more conducive here for him being [a good] player,” Hendrick told St. Louis writer Rick Hummel.

“Being around guys like Royce Clayton, Willie McGee, Ron Gant, Ray Lankford, Brian Jordan is going to help this guy out, just for the simple fact he will be around guys he has things in common with. There will be no pressure for him to go out and do anything. Delino DeShields is going to make a significant contribution to this team.”

Hendrick said he did not want to “offend the Dodger organization,” but he added that as a Los Angeles native, he knows it is more difficult to play there than in some areas because of celebrity, entertainment and endorsement distractions. DeShields, he said, would be “a lot more comfortable” in St. Louis and would again be the player he was in Montreal.

CAN YOU TOP THIS?

So Barry Bonds receives an extension that makes him baseball’s highest-paid player in terms of annual value of contract, topping Albert Belle.

Now comes Gary Sheffield, who is about to sign a five-year contract for more than $60 million with the Florida Marlins; and behind him is Sammy Sosa, who was on a pace to hit 52 homers with the Chicago Cubs last year before he was injured.

Does Sosa think he is as good as Bonds and Belle, and worth as much?

“I believe I am,” he said. “I’ve been doing my job for five years in the National League.”

That might be debatable, but the liveliest debate was triggered by Oakland Athletics’ President Sandy Alderson. He took exception to that $22.9-million extension the San Francisco Giants gave Bonds, branding it a “bribe to keep his mouth shut.”

Alderson doesn’t mind launching shots across the bay. At a SportsChannel luncheon in February, he said the only thing more boring than golf on radio was the Giants on TV.

Said San Francisco General Manager Brian Sabean: “The A’s should worry about the A’s. The A’s aren’t going well enough to worry about anybody else.”

Perhaps, but Alderson said the Bonds and Belle contracts were simply “more evidence of a disturbing trend.”

He cited a 150% salary increase for arbitration-eligible players and called it a function of the free-agent signings.

Sheffield’s imminent signing has so affected Baltimore owner Peter Angelos that he intends to open the club’s books to prove that the Orioles lost $5 million last year, despite consistent sellouts at home.

Angelos referred to the Sheffield negotiations and said, “When you hear that, you realize all of the owners, including the Orioles, have lost their collective minds.”

In the meantime, Alderson watches A’s slugger Mark McGwire, who is in the last year of his contract, take batting practice and says, “Every time he takes a swing, Mark says to himself, ’11 million, 11 million.’ ”

OREL’S ACCOUNTING

Orel Hershiser believes his Cleveland Indians made the right choice in allowing Belle to leave as a free agent and trading for Matt Williams.

“No offense to Albert, but from a plus-minus standpoint, we may be better all-around with Matt,” Hershiser said.

“I mean, you’re going from a player who was a great run producer but a defensive liability in left field to a player who is a great run producer and a great defensive player at third base. I was glad to see we didn’t mortgage the future of the team. We need to build a team here, not build it around one guy.”

FAME BECKONS

The Hall of Fame’s Veterans Committee is certain to elect Nellie Fox at its Wednesday meeting at Tampa, Fla. Tommy Lasorda’s chances aren’t as clear. Some of the committee’s 15 members--it takes 12 votes for affirmation--want to be sure Lasorda is out of uniform for good, as committee member Buzzie Bavasi noted the other day.

Lasorda, who at 70 is unlikely to get a managerial job anyway and undoubtedly was aware of Bavasi’s comments, said emphatically that he doesn’t want to manage again. This, only about a week after saying he would like to and specifically citing the Tampa Bay opening.

Lasorda deserves to be in Cooperstown, even if politicking en route.