Collapse of Astros, Reds Alters Central

Given the arrival of Ken Griffey Jr. in Cincinnati, the numerous improvements in St. Louis and the Houston Astros’ bid for a fourth consecutive division title in their new ballpark, the National League Central was expected to produce the tightest race in baseball’s toughest division.

One day before the All-Star break, however, the division was 55 games under .500--even with the Cardinals, the only one of the six teams on the plus side of .500, 14 over. The other divisions under .500 were the American League East and Central.

The stunning collapse of the Astros and the inability of the Reds to regain their 96-victory groove have turned the Grand Central into something not quite so grand. The Cardinals will have a tough time losing the title there, in the same way the Chicago White Sox will have a tough time losing it in the AL Central.

Those two races appear over, although St. Louis center fielder Jim Edmonds, speaking from experience, is playing it cautious.

Edmonds was part of a 1995 Angel team that blew an 11-game lead in August and a 1998 team that lost a four-game lead in September.

“I haven’t been around that long, but I know what it’s like to stumble at the end of the year,” he said. “Hopefully, we won’t get complacent like we did in Anaheim.”

The deep Cardinals would seem protected, although the knee injury that sidelined Mark McGwire this weekend is the type of thing that can send a tremor up the arch.

McGwire is expected to play Thursday when the Cardinals open the second half at full strength, aside from a torn thumb ligament that has sidelined catcher Eli Marrero. Replacement Keith McDonald, the former Pepperdine catcher just up from triple A, where he had one home run this season, homered in his first two major league at-bats--only the second player in big league history to do that.

Meanwhile, McGwire can’t stop extolling the virtues of Edmonds and his All-Star first half.

“That’s turned out to be one of the best deals ever,” McGwire said of the trade that sent Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy to the Angels. “I’ve been so impressed that a guy who has just a little more than six years in the big leagues is [so] professionally smart as a hitter, let alone [such an outstanding] defensive player. It seems like he has 15-20 years under his belt.”

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The Reds may not implode, but the ground continues to shake under Manager Jack McKeon. He will ultimately pay the price for General Manager Jim Bowden’s failure to improve the starting pitching, the inability of Sean Casey and Ed Taubensee to repeat their 1999 performances, the leadership gap left by the departure of Greg Vaughn, the managerial sniping by Barry Larkin and other players, and the public politicking of probable successor Bob Boone.

In addition, Griffey has almost become an ongoing distraction as he reacts to slights real and imagined, shows little joy at having leveraged his way to hometown Cincinnati and continues to search for a consistent stroke.

Considering he is batting .243 since Aug. 1 of last year and is hitting .241 this year, he might have found it.

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The first-half awards:

Most valuable player--Mike Piazza, New York Mets. Cy Young--Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks. Rookie--tie between Mitch Meluskey, Houston, and Rick Ankiel, St. Louis. Manager--Tony La Russa, St. Louis.

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Arizona closer Byung-Hyun Kim took his All-Star omission in stride, saying he might spend the break in Los Angeles.

“Maybe get a Korean massage, go to a Korean sauna and eat some Korean food,” he said. “It’s better.”