Walker Has Heckle & Hide Season Going

It was a memorable scene in the 1993 All-Star game at Baltimore: John Kruk cowering, striking out and finally bowing toward the intimidating Randy Johnson.

There will be no place for Larry Walker to hide Tuesday in Cleveland if Johnson, the Seattle Mariner left-hander, starts for the American League, as expected.

Walker, who will be the National League’s starter in right field, chose not to face Johnson on June 13 in Seattle, an act of discretion resulting in widespread criticism amid his triple crown-type season.

Will his All-Star appearance diffuse that criticism?

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” the Colorado Rocky outfielder said. “For the most part, it has been drunks in the stands who figure they have to yell something.

“More people say it was the smart thing to do, and it wasn’t anything most other [left-handed hitters] haven’t done. I don’t know why there has been so much attention. I guess it’s because I’m doing so well this year.”

The other part of it: Interleague play is designed to showcase the stars, and here was a star skipping the showcase.

At the same time, what about the Mariners?

Hoping to minimize the strain on Johnson’s back, they chose not to pitch him in National League parks so he would not have to bat or run the bases. He was skipped in San Francisco and San Diego, given an extra day, and started in Texas and Anaheim instead.

In the meantime, Walker said he would be ready for his former Montreal minor league teammate Tuesday.

“I’ll probably have a little talk with Randy before the game,” Walker said. “It’s just an exhibition. I can accept an 0-fer. It’s not life or death unless I get hit by one of his pitches. Then it might be death.”

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The Chicago Cubs reached the season’s midpoint at 32-49, having not shown much improvement after the 0-14 start.

“There is no denying the fact. Our record is what our record is,” General Manager Ed Lynch said. “We have the second-worst record in all of baseball. I don’t think you can characterize our first half as anything other than, you know, awful.”

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That was a stunning--and highly motivated--interleague sweep by the Pittsburgh Pirates this week. The Chicago White Sox scored one run in the first inning of the first game and one in the last inning of the third game and were shut out in the other 25. Pittsburgh starters Steve Cooke, Jon Lieber and Jason Schmidt combined for a 0.69 earned-run average.

The Pirates wanted it for Manager Gene Lamont, who won the AL West title with the White Sox in 1993, led the division again when the strike hit in ’94 and was fired after an 11-20 start in ’95.

“Gene didn’t get a fair shake there,” Pirate outfielder Al Martin said. “We like him and we got after them for him.”

Lamont refused to dump on the White Sox and pointedly kept his distance from Chicago Manager Terry Bevington.

Bevington had been so eager to take Lamont’s spot that he moved into the manager’s Comiskey Park office even before that ’95 firing was announced.

And Bevington didn’t seem to appreciate that most White Sox players made an effort to talk with Lamont before the series opener in Pittsburgh, several hugging him.

“Our priority should be on winning games, not seeing people,” Bevington said. “It’s not a boys’ club.”