It's a Whole New Ball Game

By James Kelly

Trick or treat, the split season may not end until Halloween

The calendar may read August, but pay no attention. It turned out to be April in Chicago last week as the owners of the 26 major league baseball clubs voted to split the season in two and hold a second set of divisional races, rather than pick up play where it broke off June 11 because of the players' strike. The division leaders at that time-- the New York Yankees, Oakland A's, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers-- were declared winners of the first season, and will meet the winners of the second season in three-out-of-five game playoffs starting Oct. 6. If the same club captures both races, it will play the team with the best record for the full year, excluding the first-half leader. Playoffs for the league pennants will be pushed back a week, with the chilly promise that the World Series will begin on Oct. 20 and wind up by Halloween.

The plan is plainly designed to quicken the interest of fans and make turnstiles click faster. Exults Mick McHugh, a rabid Seattle Mariners fan whose team was 14% games out of first place: "It's like a guy on death row, and all of a sudden they say, 'We're gonna commute your sentence.' It's a new lease on life." Adds Manager Bill Virdon, whose Astros were mired in third place after winning their division last year: "Every city has a chance to get back into baseball fresh. And a fresh start is what everybody needs at this point."

Yet the formula was fiercely opposed by some clubs, especially those who were within striking distance of divisional leaders. One unfortunate possibility: a club could amass the best overall record and be shut out of the playoffs because it did not win either half. Some baseball people also fear that teams already guaranteed berths in the playoffs will not play their best in the "second" season. As Shortstop Larry Bowa of the Phillies put it, "What's the incentive?" More disturbing, a first-half winning team could try to dictate its opponent in the playoffs. If the Yankees, say, preferred to play Milwaukee, they could conceivably ease up on the Brewers in the regular season. Though no American League owners voted against the plan, the National League, which requires a three-fourths approval by its members, barely gave its consent, 9 to 3. Some purists lamented that the maneuver robbed the lovely game of its season-long rhythms, as if a mile-long race was stopped at the half-mile mark, then resumed a week later. "They made a mockery of the game," said Duane Wolfe, a fan from Columbia, Mo.

Most of the groans heard last week, however, came from players straining to get into shape for the second opening day. Most worked out regularly in the early days of the strike, but slacked off as hopes for a settlement faded. Few were as conscientious as Pete Rose of the Phillies, who took as many as 400 swings every day against an automatic pitching machine. Rose, 40, tied Stan Musial's National League record of 3,630 hits two days before the strike began, and doubts that lost playing time will wreck his chance of topping Ty Cobb's record of 4,191 hits. "If I get close enough to Cobb's record," says Rose, "Johnson & Johnson will keep me together long enough to make it."

Unfortunately, nothing in the clubhouse medicine chest can salve the feelings of fans deprived of their favorite sport for seven long weeks. There were some encouraging signs: the Texas Rangers drew more than 35,000 for an exhibition game against the Houston Astros, and 7,000 Detroiters turned up for a Tigers practice game. But ticket sales at most stadium windows were sluggish, and club officials were busy dreaming up schemes to lure customers back into the stands. The Phillies and San Francisco Giants rescheduled their Fourth of July fireworks extravaganzas. The Montreal Expos offered to swap two tickets to a future game for every ticket canceled by the strike, and San Diego Padres Owner Ray Kroc declared that all 50,000 seats at Jack Murphy Stadium would be free for his team's second season opener against the Atlanta Braves. "It's our way of telling the fans we're sorry," said Kroc solemnly.

On the field, the two-month hiatus and truncated schedule may play havoc with this year's forecasts. With pitchers such as Jim Palmer, Steve Stone and Mike Flanagan, the Orioles are a team designed to wear out opponents over the long haul, which they were in an excellent position to do just before the strike began. But the schedule gives them a compensating advantage: 31 of their final 51 games are at home. The schedule has been cruel to the Brewers, putting them on the road for 31 of their 53 remaining contests, and downright perverse with the White Sox, sending them on a 16-game road trip in the middle of the air-controllers' strike. For Manager Billy Martin and his youthful A's the split season was a mixed blessing: they have a playoff spot in hand but now have to contend again with the Kansas City Royals, last year's American League champions, whose slump left them twelve games out and going nowhere when play was suspended.

In the National League East, the St. Louis Cardinals, who were only 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies when the strike began, will have a tough task from now on, playing 30 of 52 games away from home. In the N.L. West, the Cincinnati Reds, a mere half game behind the Dodgers last June, should benefit from the possible return of Catcher Johnny Bench, who is recovering from a broken ankle. Fans will be interested to see if Dodger Pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, 20, recaptures the magic he had at the beginning of the season.

At the outset, play will probably be lackluster. Pitchers will have trouble going more than five innings, and the timing of hitters will be rusty. On the other hand, players should not lose their energy and enthusiasm, as they sometimes do at the end of a long season. Orioles Manager Earl Weaver promises: "You'll be seeing some great baseball between now and October." For the game's sake, he better be right. --By James Kelly. Reported by Dean Brelis/New York and Steven Holmes/Chicago, with other U.S. bureaus

With reporting by Dean Brelis/New York, Steven Holmes/Chicago

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