Heat of the Moment Bringing Things to a Boil

The temperature’s rising, it isn’t surprising . . .

* Third baseman Scott Rolen stormed into Larry Bowa’s office and engaged the Philadelphia Phillies’ manager in a closed-door shouting match Wednesday, after Bowa had been quoted in a Philadelphia Daily News column as saying the middle of the Philadelphia batting order was “killing us” and if Rolen had even made contact in either of two losses at Boston “we sweep the series.”

Frustrations are mounting for the surprising Phillies, who began the weekend having lost nine of 11 games, been swept by the dreadful Tampa Bay Devil Rays and seen the Atlanta Braves knock six games off their NL East lead in the first two weeks of June.

Although Bowa insisted he never mentioned a specific player, Rolen took it personally, saying of Bowa’s comments, “I did not know I was that bad a player.”

Rolen, who started the weekend batting .261 with six homers and 36 runs batted in, has been a disappointment, pressing, perhaps, because of his unresolved contract talks and his eligibility for free agency after the 2002 season.

Said agent Seth Levinson, “So the team struggles and all of a sudden they want to put it on [Rolen]? Tell Bowa to rest easy. Soon enough, he won’t have to worry about Scott at all.”

* John Rocker, who never has needed humidity to shed humility, had a hot week. The Atlanta closer engaged a New York Yankee fan in a Bronx shouting match, was accused of a threat-laced altercation with another fan in a New Jersey bar and exacerbated a bench-clearing scene, racing in from the bullpen to confront Raul Mondesi after Mondesi had been hit by Tom Glavine’s pitch in Toronto.

As teammate Chipper Jones noted, “It would have been real harmless if someone, who will remain nameless, had minded his own business.”

Said Rocker, when approached by reporters, “I’d rather mop the floor at a peep show than talk with you guys.”

* George Steinbrenner was in such a sweat over his team’s inconsistent play and the loss of Orlando Hernandez, who had foot surgery, that he was taking swipes at Yankee hitters and has the club pursuing David Wells, a former Yankee who once challenged Steinbrenner to a little clubhouse sumo.

The Yankees began the weekend tied for seventh in American League hitting with a .267 team average. Scott Brosius, at .301, was the only .300 hitter. Paul O’Neill, Chuck Knoblauch, Tino Martinez and David Justice all were below .270.

“I can’t say I’m happy,” Steinbrenner told the New York Times, adding that he has faith in Manager Joe Torre. “We’ve got one of the highest payrolls in baseball and he’ll get us playing again.”

The Yankees have won four World Series under Torre, but he is unsigned after this year and there might have been something of a “What have you done for us lately?” message in that last Steinbrenner comment, given that he also said he is still too busy to consider an extension for Torre.

* Al Leiter came off the New York Mets’ disabled list steaming at teammates who continue to manufacture excuses for a disappointing season.

“I’m sick of everybody trying to figure out what our problems are,” he said. “The problems start with yourself. If everyone took care of his own lawn, you’d have a nice neighborhood.”

The Mets remain in the NL East suburbs. It has been a constant case of the players moaning over what they don’t have--the loss of free-agent pitcher Mike Hampton, the failure to pursue Alex Rodriguez over the winter and the inability to trade for Gary Sheffield in the spring.

Manager Bobby Valentine offered a mea culpa the other day.

“We basically started the season thinking we weren’t good enough,” he said. “I think [the players] thought we were going to add stuff during the winter or change it during spring training, and by the time the season started, there was that feeling, [and] that has been my fault.”

Valentine insisted that he still has time to convince the “nonbelievers” among his players that they are good enough, but the clock is definitely ticking for the Mets.

* The relationship between General Manager Dan Duquette, who received a two-year contract extension Friday, and Manager Jimy Williams, who is in the last year of his contract, continued to deteriorate even as the Boston Red Sox gamely retained the AL East lead despite the loss of Nomar Garciappara and Jason Varitek, among other roster problems.

As reliever Derek Lowe said, “Every day there’s something new here,” and the latest illustrations of the Williams-Duquette breakdown involved Pedro Martinez.

First, Duquette went on his radio show to say Williams owed the fans of New England an explanation for removing Martinez after six innings of a June 4 start against the Yankees, a move Martinez defended. Then, while Williams was telling reporters Tuesday it would be another day before he knew if Martinez would have to miss Friday’s scheduled start in Atlanta because of shoulder soreness, Duquette was back on the air, revealing Martinez would miss that start and maybe others.

A year ago, when Duquette refused to support Williams during a series of incidents involving Carl Everett, Williams said, “If the general manager feels he can’t back his manager, he should get another manager.”

As much as Duquette would love to hire his former Montreal manager, Felipe Alou, who turned down a front-office job with Florida last week, he knows he would face a hailstorm of criticism if he fired Williams, considering how well the Red Sox have played amid adversity.

It’s only mid-June, however, and the real heat is only starting.