Bells Tolled in Cleveland and Detroit

Difficult week for the Bell family. Buddy, the dad, gets fired as Detroit Tiger manager and David, a son, gets traded from the playoff-bound Cleveland Indians to the last-place Seattle Mariners. Both moves are tough to understand.

In Buddy Bell’s case, he led the Tigers to a 26-game improvement and almost .500 record last year, but this year’s collapse had underscored his belief that they could not compete with a $23-million payroll. The financial restrictions--owner Mike Ilitch won’t lift them until the team moves into its new stadium in 2000--and the ongoing ineptness created what Bell called a “personality conflict” with General Manager Randy Smith, who has slowly and steadily been rebuilding the farm and scouting system, plugging young players into major league holes.

“Until you’re ready to compete with the big boys, it’s going to be tough for anybody to do the [managerial] job right now,” Bell said. “The losses and constant effort kind of drained us all, because we knew what the problem was and we couldn’t do anything about it.”

The Indians traded second baseman David Bell for Joey Cora, Manager Mike Hargrove said, in an effort to create more offense and energy.

Really?

In 131 games with Seattle, Cora was batting .283 with six home runs and 26 runs batted in.

In 107 games with the Indians, Bell was hitting .262 with 10 home runs and 41 RBIs.

Bell had nine errors, Cora 19.

The Indians installed a second-baseman-of-the-month plan this year, employing Shawon Dunston, Jeff Branson, Torey Lovullo and Enrique Wilson, who will platoon with Cora.

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The Angels might carry the burden of their own star-crossed history, but history of a different sort weighs against the Texas Rangers as they try to catch the Angels in the AL West. The Rangers began the weekend with a 5.13 team earned-run average. Only one team has reached the postseason with an ERA of more than 5.00: the 1996 Baltimore Orioles at 5.14.

The Rangers have juggled the rotation so that 17-game winner Rick Helling, their only reliable starter in the second half, will start in each of their two series against the Angels and on the final day of the regular season against Seattle. The Rangers are 20-9 in Helling’s starts compared to 9-20 in starts by John Burkett, who will face the Angels and Seattle only once down the stretch. Burkett is 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA against those teams this year.

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What does $70 million get you? A lifeless, veteran Baltimore Oriole team that had lost 10 in a row through Wednesday, returning to its uninspired play of the first half. Manager Ray Miller, who coddled his team through that period and pleaded with management to keep it intact at midseason in hopes of making a wild-card run, says he’s embarrassed by the lack of aggressiveness.

“When you have [nine] free agents in the last year of their contracts, I don’t think there should be a need for any extra motivation,” he said. “. . . .But we haven’t responded and it’s up to the manager to find a way out.”

Inevitably, a chasm seems to have developed between hitters and pitchers. Said Scott Erickson after a 4-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox last week: “It’s up to the pitcher now to go out and throw a shutout every time. When you give up early runs like that, you say, ‘Well, that’s a loss.’ ” Maybe, he added, it’s time for the hitters to start trying to get a hit for themselves and that, in turn, will help the team. Maybe, some observers believe, some hitters have been trying to do too much of that already.