Johnson Mad at Himself, So Look Out

Randy Johnson returned from his three-game suspension for throwing at Kenny Lofton and registered his first win in six starts--he was 0-1 with a 7.46 earned-run average--Tuesday night, pitching seven innings in the Seattle Mariners’ 5-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Johnson said it was time to put distractions behind him--his contract dispute, his suspension and the birth of a daughter on the previous Thursday.

“I’ve got to get back to the old way of being mean and mad,” he said. “I feel I really haven’t gone out there with the demeanor I’ve had in the past. I don’t know why, but I needed to get back to that. Maybe it’s something I took for granted.”

Said Stan Williams, the new Mariner pitching coach, “My God, you look at a guy 6-foot-10 coming at you and throwing 100 mph, he can look like Princess Margaret and still put fear in people. He’ll be fine.”

Of course, nobody went about it with a meaner and madder disposition than Williams, a former Dodger who played in an era when pitchers considered it their constitutional right to knock batters off the plate.

The story is told among old-time Dodgers of how Williams would tape a mug shot of Hank Aaron on his locker and bounce baseballs off it.

“Practicing,” he would say.

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Touted Ben Grieve, the Oakland A’s rookie right fielder, went five for five Wednesday night in Cleveland, then had a game-winning homer Thursday.

It’s Grieve’s steady approach that’s most impressive, said designated hitter Kevin Mitchell, 15 years older than Grieve at 36.

“Even I learn something, just watching him,” Mitchell said. “If he makes a mistake at the plate, he doesn’t let it bother him. It’s already gone. He’s up there to do some more damage. And that shows he’s already mature as a hitter.”

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Former Pepperdine center fielder Ryan Christenson, another impressive A’s rookie, hammered a line drive that cleared the Jacobs Field fence in right-center Tuesday night for his first major league homer.

Christenson was at full throttle, however, until he reached third and realized the ball was out.

“The umpires never made a call and still haven’t,” Manager Art Howe said. “Poor kid. Didn’t get to enjoy it.”

Christenson can always take lessons from teammate Rickey Henderson, the successor to Reggie Jackson as king of the home run trot. Henderson homered in the same game and primped and plucked his uniform circling the bases slowly.

“I don’t know if anyone enjoys home run trots more,” Henderson acknowledged.

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It was thought that age might have crept up on Fred McGriff last year when his home run production slipped from 28 to 22 and his batting average from .295 to .277. However, the Braves’ move from Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium to Turner Field, where the ball doesn’t travel as well, might have been responsible.

In 81 games at Turner Field with the Braves last year, McGriff had only eight homers and 52 runs batted in, hitting .277. Now, back in a hitter’s haven--Tropicana Field--with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, McGriff, 34, had six homers and 21 RBIs through 13 home games, and was batting .480.