6B
Wednesday, October 2, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Orioles lead off series with 10-4 victory
The Associated Press
BALTIMORE — After the umpires showed up late, the Baltimore Orioles struck early and never let up.
Brady Anderson opened Baltimore's first playoff appearance in 13 years with a lead-off homer, B.J. Surhoff homered twice and Bobby Bonilla added a grand slam as the Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians 10-4 yesterday in the opener of their first-round AL playoff series.
Game two of the best-of-five series will be played today in Baltimore.
The Orioles, who set a major-league record with 257 home runs during the regular season, built a 4-1 lead in the opening three innings against the defending AL champions. After Cleveland got within a run, Bonilla capped a five-run sixth with his first playoff homer in 14 games.
Manny Ramirez homered for
the Indians, who led the majors with 99 wins this season — including seven in 12 games against Baltimore, the wild-card team.
Umpires from both leagues threatened to boycott the playoffs unless the Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar was suspended immediately for spitting in the face of umpire John Hirschbcke Friday night.
Replacement umpires were on hand in case the regulars stayed away. The scheduled umpire crew finally showed up, but their late arrival delayed the start of the game by almost 20 minutes.
Alomar was given a five-day suspension Saturday, but he appealed the ruling and will not have a hearing until after the World Series.
the world leader. Alomar was cheered by the majority of the 47,644 fans at Camden Yards, but there also was a smattering of boos. He singled in his first at-bat and finished 1-for-4 with a sacrifice
Leading 4-3, the Orioles used two walks and a single by Encore to load the bases with one out in the sixth. Alan Embree replaced starter Charles Nagy and gave up a sacrifice fly to Alomar.
fly.
Paul Shuey came in, and Bonilla sent a 3-2 pitch deep into the right-field seats to give Baltimore a 9-1 lead.
Nagy yielded nine hits and a season-high seven earned runs.
Baltimore starter David Wells, who beat the Indians twice during the regular season, allowed four runs and eight hits in six 2-3 innings. The left-hander was removed after he was hit on the left ankle by a hard grounder hit by Kevin Seitzer.
An RBI single by Kenny Lofton got the Indians to 9-4 in the seventh, but Surhoff hit his second homer of the game in the bottom of the inning.
Anderson, who set a major
league record by leading off a game with a homer 12 times during the regular season, hit Nagy's 1-2 pitch well over the right-field wall in his first career postseason at-bat leading off the first inning.
The Indians tied it on a home run by Ramirez in the second, but Surhoff restored Baltimore's one-run lead with a solo shot in the bottom half. Surhoff, like Anderson, was making his first playoff appearance.
The Orioles made it 4-1 in the third on a run-scoring double by Palmeiro and a two-out RBI single by Cal Ripken, playing in his first playoff game since the 1983 World Series.
It was the seventh time in the history of the AL playoffs that a team scored at least once in the first three innings of a game. Baltimore has done it three times.
Orel Hershiser will start Game 2 for Cleveland against the Scott Erickson.
ALL SPORT
Baltimore second baseman Roberto Alomar, whose spitting incident involving umpire John Hirschbeck nearly triggered a strike by major league umpires, went 1 for 4 yesterday as the Orioles defeated Cleveland 10-4.
Umpires withdraw boycott threat, return for playoffs Ex-Twin who ruined St. Louis' dream in '87 powers Cardinals to playoff win
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Baseball umpires took the field as scheduled for the start of the postseason yesterday after temporarily withdrawing their threat to boycott the playoffs because of the Roberto Alomar spitting incident.
"The regular guys are going to ump. Our boys are coming," said Marty Springstead, executive director of umpiring for the American League.
Replacement umpires on standby at Camden Yards in Baltimore were sent home and the regular crew — Drew Coble, Greg Kosc, Ted Hendry, John Shulock, Tim Welke and Tim Tschida — arrived at the ballpark about five minutes before the scheduled 1:07 p.m. EDT start.
The regular umpires agreed to work at least through tomorrow as part of an arrangement today in a Philadelphia federal court. They took the field to a smattering of boos, and caused a 17 minute delay in the Orioles' game against Cleveland.
Umpires voted Monday night to boycott the playoffs, upset that Alomar was not suspended immediately for spitting at umpire John Hirschbeck on Friday.
Budig originally did not intend to hear the appeal until after the World Series.
Alomar, Baltimore's All-Star second baseman, was suspended Saturday by American League president Gene Budig, but under baseball's rules no penalty can take effect until an anneal is heard.
Alomar, who singled in his first at bat today, received mostly cheers but some boos when introduced at Camden Yards.
The controversy began when he spit in hirschbeck's face on Friday night at Toronto when the umpire's called third strike led to an argument and Alomar's ejection.
Baseball sued the umpires this morning in Philadelphia, asking for an injunction that would force umpires to honor the no-strike
clause in their labor agreement.
That led to more than two hours of talks in the chambers of U.S. District Judge Edmund Ludwig. The sides then agreed that umpires would work the first three days of the playoffs and Budig would schedule Alomar's suspension appeal hearing for tomorrow.
Umpires agreed that if Alomar's appeal was decided tomorrow, they would work the remainder of the postseason.
Ludwig tentatively scheduled a hearing for Friday on baseball's injunction request in case the sides don't settle.
"I think they are satisfied that they are getting a hearing, whatever the hearing consists of," Springstead said.
However, the arrangement violates the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners, which is backed by a federal court order issued in March 1995. When players are disciplined, they have seven days to file a written appeal. As of midafternoon, the union still hadn't been given official notice of Alomar's suspension.
The spitting incident became even more inflamed after Friday's game, when Alomar said of the umpire: "I used to respect him a lot. He had a problem with his family when his son died — I know that's something real tough in life — but after that he just changed, personality wise. He just got real bitter."
Hirschbeck's 8-year-old son died three years ago from a rare brain disease. His 9-year-old son also is afflicted with the illness.
When informed of the player's comments, Hirschbeck ran into the Orioles' clubhouse Saturday and had to be restrained. Hirschbeck didn't work that day's game, and Alomar hit a 10th-inning home run that put the Orioles into the playoffs for the first time since 1983.
On Monday, Alomar issued a written apology that also said he would donate $50,000 to charities fighting the disease that killed Hirschbeck's son.
ST. LOUIS — Nine years after haunting the St. Louis Cardinals in the postseason, Gary Gaetti helped them to an October win.
The Associated Press
Gaetti hit a three-run home run in the first inning, and Todd Stottlemyre pitched a solid 6 2/3 innings yesterday as the Cardinals opened the NL playoffs with a 3-1 win against the San Diego Padres.
The teams will have an off day today before resuming the best-of-5 series tomorrow.
Gaetti, who grew up in nearby Centralia, Ill., signed as a free agent in the off-season hoping to get back to the playoffs as a Cardinal.
And like 1987, when he homered in his first two playoff at-bats for Minnesota, which went on to beat the Cardinals in the World Series, Gaetti made the most of his first
NL playoff plate appearance.
After Joey Hamilton hit Ron Gant with two out, Brian Jordan singled. Gaetti.
who hit 23 homers in the regular season, followed by hitting a 1-1 fastball above the center-field wall, sending a charge into the Busch Stadium crowd of 54,193.
Stottlemyre, who entered the game 0-3 with a 7.50 ERA in the postseason, allowed five hits, struck out seven and walked two.
The Cardinals got strong relief from Rick Honeycutt, who retired Tony Gwynn on a pop to short with two runners on to end the seventh. Dennis Eckersley came on with one out in the eighth, and after putting two runners on in the
month, he got Gwynn on a come-backer to end the game.
After fielding Gwynn's grounder, Eckersley held the ball up before throwing to first for the final out and his 12th career postseason save.
In the Padres' first, Stottlemyre gave up a one-out double to Gwynn and hit the next batter, Steve Finley. He then retired nine in a row and 14 of 15 before Rickey Henderson opened the sixth with his fifth career postseason homer.
Ken Caminiti, a front-runner for the NL MVP, struck out three times for San Diego, which was making its first playoff appearance since 1984.
and five hits.
St. Louis will start Andy Benes (18-10) in Game 2 against Scott Sanders (9-5).
Notes: St. Louis went 8-4 against San Diego during the regular season. ... The Padres added pitcher Andy Ashby and infielder Luis Lopez to their postseason roster. Ashby, who was on the disabled list at the Sept. 1 deadline, takes Mike Qouist's place and will start Game 3. ... Stottlemyre allowed a team-leading 30 home runs in the regular season. ... The start of the game was delayed 20 minutes after the AL playoff opener in Baltimore was delayed when umpires threatened to boycott the game. ... The Cardinals have won six straight postseason games at Busch Stadium. ... Honeycutt batted for only the second time all year and struck out to end the seventh with a runner at second.
Red Sox manager's firing opens Pandora's box
The Associated Press
Here comes pandemonium.
BOSTON — When the Boston Red Sox started 6-19 and the rumors first surfaced that manager Kevin Kennedy would be fired, clubhouse spokesman Mo Vaughn predicted such a move would cause par demonium.
to be traded.
After Kennedy was fired Monday, designated hitter Jose Canseco demanded to be traded. One prospective replacement reportedly has taken himself out of the running out of loyalty to Kennedy.
"You ask yourself, 'Do you want to play for an organization that can do this to a manager?'" Cansec told WBZ-AM radio after public asking
Vaughn is holding his tongue for now, but reactions throughout the clubhouse showed that the biggest problem in having a player-friendly manager may be in firing him.
Outfielder Mike Greenwell, a free agent whose criticism of general manager Dan Duquette was cited as evidence Kennedy had lost control, told the Providence Journal-Bulletin. "It seems to me like Dan Duquette is making excuses.
"He's putting the blame on the players. Kevin had nothing to do with the comments by Greenwell and Roger Clemens. He could not have stopped or started it. Dan provoked that. He's all about power. He wants to be the only voice."
Kennedy was popular with the players for his laid-back style and philosophy, which he said simply was a matter of treating them like adults.
"If he wants to fire Kevin, fine. That's his decision. But to put the blame on me and Roger is bull."
But that philosophy angered Duquette, who felt Kennedy could
have worked the players harder in spring training and could have stifled the frequent criticisms of management that came from the clubhouse.
Agent Dennis Gilbert said yesterday that he did not know Canseco was going to demand out and wasn't sure if he had cooled down. "He's very good friends with Kevin," Gilbert said. Canseco followed Kennedy to Boston from Texas.
Canseco also said he wouldn't be surprised if Roger Clemens sought work elsewhere.
Clemens fumed after the Red Sox fired pitching coach Al Nipper, a good friend and former teammate, following the 6-19 start.
Clemens doesn't have to demand a trade. He can become a free agent the day after the World Series. His agents, Alan and Randy Hendricks, did not return a call seeking comment.
All this while the Red Sox are trying to find a new manager, a decision Duquette would like to announce this month. Bench coach Tim Johnson, a close Kennedy friend who has interviewed for other managerial jobs, has said he would not take it.
Former Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland is said to have a deal with Florida. Former Phillies manager Jim Fregosi, another prospective replacement Duquette mentioned Monday, is also considered a players' manager.
"I've always had a good rapport with the players," Fregosi said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his Florida home. "You have to get the players to play for you. But I think if players are out of line, they need to be told."
The Red Sox are committed to pay Kennedy the $700,000 remaining on his contract.
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