Lopes Managing to Get Brewers Some Attention

The Milwaukee Brewers may be a unanimous pick to finish last in the competitive National League Central, but new Manager Davey Lopes isn’t rolling over. He held a fiery meeting before the season opener here, and the Brewers won two of three from the Cincinnati Reds.

“We don’t care what the odds are, I guarantee people will take notice of us sooner or later,” Lopes said. “We’re going to get the respect of teams in this league. We’re going to get the attention of ‘SportsCenter.’

“Everybody laughs at our pitching and talks about everybody else in our division. We don’t have a [Mark] McGwire or a [Sammy] Sosa or a [Ken] Griffey, but we can bang the ball a little and the teams that saw us in spring training know we can hit.”

Lopes told his team what he expects.

“I’m from the old school,” he said. “When you cross the [foul] line, it’s war. I told them they can kiss and hug the other players before the game, but once it starts, I don’t care if your mother is out there. You better take her out, and I don’t mean to dinner.”

Lopes even got into a verbal skirmish with Red shortstop Barry Larkin and coach Ron Oester when Larkin stole third with the Brewers leading, 5-1, in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game and Griffey batting.

Lopes shouted at Larkin for stealing with his team down by four runs and Larkin representing a meaningless run, but the base was basically uncovered, since the Brewers use a shift against Griffey with the third baseman at shortstop, the only fielder on the left side of the infield.

*

Sometimes it doesn’t take a Kevin Brown-type contract to leave many in baseball shaking their heads.

The latest example is the three-year, $11.1-million deal that the San Francisco Giants gave center fielder Marvin Benard last week.

Marvin Benard? The former 50th-round draft choice?

The Giants figured that because of baseball’s unrestrained economics, and with the scarcity of effective leadoff hitters, they had to commit early to a nearly anonymous player who had a .290 average last year, with 16 home runs, 64 runs batted in, 27 steals and 100 runs.

“A good leadoff hitter is one of the hardest things to find,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “In my opinion, he was easily in the top five in the league, along with Rickey Henderson, Craig Biggio and Doug Glanville.”

*

With new stadiums opening in San Francisco, Houston and Detroit this year, and with several others in construction or about to be, the Florida Marlins’ plan to build a $400-million park in downtown Miami took a hit when Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he would oppose using a cruise tax to finance the facility.

Bush, to the consternation of the Marlins, made his announcement on opening day, insisting he was unaware it was opening day.

“We’ve got enough precipitation around here without someone else raining on our parade,” Manager John Boles said.

When asked if the stadium issue had become a distraction, he replied, “It’s a distraction for me. I want to stay in Florida. I don’t want to be the Las Vegas Gold Diggers or the Northern Virginia Crabcakes. I want to be a Florida Marlin. Period. And in order for that to happen we need a new stadium.”

The Marlins, however, do not have a backup financing plan, nor will they mask their situation at Pro Player Stadium this year by covering the upper deck with a tarp, as they did last season.

“Why should we hide the fact that we’re playing in a football stadium and no one is coming out to sit in the rain?” owner John Henry said.