Baseball : Gibson’s Ankle Injury May Also Have Affected Sparky’s Mind

The sprained ankle suffered by Kirk Gibson seemed to be followed by some fractured thinking by his manager.

“This could be a blessing,” Sparky Anderson said when the the Detroit Tiger right fielder was lost for six weeks.

Explanation?

“People are going to have to pick up the load,” Anderson said. “Everybody is talking about Gibby, but now they’ll have to step in front of a mirror and ask, ‘What about me?’

“We’ll find out if we have any more leaders around here. We’re a mediocre club if we can’t win without one big man.”

The Tigers will try to replace the big man with mediocrity, a platoon of Dave Engle, who had 7 home runs and 25 runs batted in with the Minnesota Twins last season, and Pat Sheridan, who had 3 home runs and 17 RBIs with the Kansas City Royals.

Anderson believes that his team will respond with better pitching and defense.

The pitching, expected to be among baseball’s best, has been far from it.

Said Anderson, compounding the fracture: “If we pitch the way we’re supposed to, do we need Gibson? If we pitch the way we’ve pitched, do we need Gibson?”

Jack Morris, ace of the Detroit staff, is 8-7 with a 4.42 earned-run average since last summer’s All-Star break.

He has allowed 9 home runs in 26 innings this year, among them 7 in 12 innings against the Boston Red Sox, who have an .839 slugging percentage against him.

The theory is that Morris, a disciple of Roger Craig, the former Tiger pitching coach, has lost the edge on his fastball by throwing too many of the split-finger variety.

“The split-finger isn’t the only pitch they’re pasting,” Anderson said. “But anytime you throw that split-fingered pitch, you’ll eventually lose the fastball. That’s the thing I tried to tell Roger.”

Morris said it’s a matter of control, rather than stuff. He said he is falling behind to hitters, who are then sitting on the split-finger.

“There’s not a man alive who can hit it when it’s thrown right,” he said. “But you don’t have to be Ty Cobb when it isn’t.”

The Tigers are said to be quietly growling about new teammate Dave Collins’ tendency to involve them in physical and verbal disputes.

Collins charged the mound after Chicago White Sox pitcher Floyd Bannister when hit by a pitch during the season’s first week. Then he jawed with Boston Red Sox pitcher Al Nipper when hit by another pitch the other day.

Nipper later said: “I don’t know what his act is. Put a dress on him.”

The Tigers did. Pitcher Dave LaPoint bought a white dress with blue trim, scribbled 29 on the back and hung it in Collins’ locker with a note inscribed, “Love and Pitches, Al.”

Collins laughed when he found it, paraded around the clubhouse in the dress and said: “He said he wanted me in a dress, but I’d never date a ballplayer.”

The Dodgers are not alone in their defensive misery.

Baltimore Oriole third baseman Floyd Rayford made four errors in one game, and his team made 19 in 15 games, a pace projecting to 205. That would easily break the club record of 167.

“It’s a joke,” Manager Earl Weaver said. “You can’t practice throwing the ball and catching it. You have to hope they can do it when the time comes.”

Pete Rose ripped his 4-7 Cincinnati Reds for a dead attitude as he came off the disabled list, returned to the lineup and told the media:

“It doesn’t take no genius to figure out that what we’re doing isn’t working. It can’t get any worse if I’m playing.

“I’ll guarantee you we aren’t going to lose every 7 of 11. If we do, you’ll be talking to someone else. They won’t fire me. I’ll shoot myself.”

Rose’s aim would be better directed at his rebuilt rotation of Tom Browning, Mario Soto, Bill Gullickson and John Denny.

Through the 4-7 start they allowed 66 hits and 34 earned runs in 62 innings, an ERA of 4.94.

The Houston Astros’ 10-4 start was their best since a 10-4 in 1979. The bullpen had four wins and eight saves, with Dave Smith--who has converted 33 of 37 save opportunities over the last two years--registering six saves in six appearances spanning just seven innings.

Manager Hal Lanier has been able to use Smith economically because of the virtually flawless work of set-up man Charlie Kerfield, a corpulent rookie. The 260-pound Kerfield has not allowed an earned run in 15 innings. In fact, he has not allowed an earned run in the 29 innings of eight appearances since his recall last September.

Agent Tom Reich delivered the absurd quote of the week when he told the New York Times that pitching in Yankee Stadium was comparable to fighting in Vietnam. Reich was alluding to the fan abuse that client Ed Whitson has encountered in and around Yankee Stadium and the Yankee pitcher’s desire to be traded.

Wouldn’t those who did fight in Vietnam love to have Whitson’s $4.4-million contract?

If the Bronx is comparable to Vietnam, why has Whitson approved only five or six teams to which he would accept being traded?

Why hasn’t he told the Yankees that he would waive the $200,000 he is to receive if traded or the $50,000 annual raise he is to receive if traded?

No one deserves rude or cruel treatment, but Whitson and Reich might want to stop for a bite at the Four Seasons and reevaluate their situation.

George Brett drew 20 walks in 15 games.

Said Kansas City Manager Dick Howser: “All I can say is that someone has the chance to make a hell of a living batting behind him.”

Hal McRae, 39, got the first chance on the basis of his big second half of last year. McRae opened the season 8 for 46, a batting average of .174.

Now Frank White is getting the chance. White became the first second baseman since Jackie Robinson to bat cleanup in a World Series, replacing McRae, who was sidelined by the Series rule prohibiting use of a DH. That was an emergency. White isn’t happy about batting cleanup again.

“When you bat fourth, you assume a lot of pressure,” he said. “You’re a one-way player looking for long line drives. I miss doing a lot of little things.”

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was infuriated last week by new comparisons to the cross-town New York Mets. Both teams led their divisions. The Yankees were en route to sweeping a three-game series from Kansas City.

“How can you compare us to the Mets?” he asked. “Here we are, taking two straight from the world champions while the Mets are playing the Pirates, the same Pirates who couldn’t get out of their own way last year. What did they finish, 30 games out?

“I’m so tired of hearing how tough the other league is. My team is in the best division in baseball. We’re not even playing our best ball and we’re in first place.”

Two midweek wins in Milwaukee reportedly saved Tony LaRussa’s job as manager of the White Sox.

Said Vice President Ken Harrelson, begging the question: “I know we’re not the best club in baseball, but we’re certainly not the worst. I know fans are wondering what I’m going to do. I read my mail; I answer my phone; I get my messages. I only played for one manager I wanted to see fired, and I don’t want to see Tony LaRussa fired.”

The owners’ Player Relations Committee says the clubs are saving an average of $111,287 in salary by not carrying a 25th player. . . . One reason the Cleveland Indians haven’t been sold is that the club owes $13 million in deferred salary to 15 players over the next 30 years. . . . Last week’s three-game series between Texas and Toronto produced a series of firsts. Toronto reliever Mark Eichhorn and Texas pitchers Bobby Witt and Mitch Williams all emerged with their first major league wins. . . . Chicago Cub President Dallas Green has instructed the media to stop writing graffiti on the walls of Wrigley Field’s press box washroom “or I’ll lock it.”

Joaquin Andujar was given permission to start Saturday against the Seattle Mariners after leaving his last two starts early with shoulder stiffness. Andujar said that the bleeping media was making too bleeping much of the situation. . . . Boston’s Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, fined in spring training for reporting to the park late, was late again last week, claiming that he got stuck in traffic. Don Baylor, Boston’s new clubhouse leader, instructed Boyd to get a car phone. . . . Pittsburgh put pitcher Don Robinson on the disabled list with a sprained ligament in his right knee. Ray Krawczyk, called up to replace Robinson, sprained a ligament in his right knee in the first inning of his first appearance.

The Montreal Expos’ Andre Dawson appears ready to become an American League designated hitter. Dawson has had his knee drained twice already this year and is giving way to pinch-runners in key situations. . . . The Expos will give Len Barker, released recently by the Atlanta Braves, a tryout Monday. . . . The Milwaukee Brewers are going to a four-man rotation of Juan Nieves, Bill Wegman, Ted Higuera and Tim Leary. This moves rookie Dan Plesac into the role of bullpen stopper. Said Manager George Bamberger of Plesac: “He could be as good as (Dave) Righetti.”