Baseball Stunned By Loss Of One Of Own

Looking back on the death of National League umpire John McSherry, Montreal Manager Felipe Alou said: "It was like losing a member of the family, and I mean that. Baseball is a big family and that includes the players, the coaches, the managers and even the writers."

A number of Expos said that while they didn't realize it before their game in Cincinnati, there were indications McSherry was having trouble of some kind:

-- He arrived late for the national anthem.

-- Pitching coach Joe Kerrigan: "The first pitch of the game Pete Schourek threw (to Mark Grudzielanek) was right down the middle and he called it a ball. That shook me."

-- Coach Jim Tracy usually goes to home plate to hand in the lineup, but Alou went on Opening Day "to wish Ray Knight good luck because it was his first game as a major-league manager." Alou said he didn't notice a thing except at one point McSherry slurred a word.

-- Rondell White was the hitter with two out and a 1-1 count. "Last thing he said was `Time,' then he started walking and collapsed."

-- Moises Alou was the on-deck hitter and saw McSherry headed toward him: "I was getting ready to say hello and wish him a good season, I haven't seen him all spring. I froze. You don't expect anything like that."

-- Wire reports said McSherry died at the hospital, but Expo trainer Mike Kozac was first on the scene. "He never opened his eyes."

Schott's insensitivity

McSherry's death underlined another unfortunate situation baseball will have to deal with at some point - what to do about Reds owner Marge Schott, whose eccentric behavior is a frequent embarrassment to the game. Schott visited the umpires room and wanted the game to resume. "First snow in the morning, then this," she said. "What's the delay? How about those 50,000 fans out there?" She also called National League Vice President Katy Feeney and pleaded with her to order the game resumed.

After a resumption time of 3:15 was announced, players from both clubs asked that the game be called off. Cincinnati's Eric Davis and Barry Larkin visited the umpires and told the remaining ones that the players did not want to continue the game, even though Jerry Crawford and Steve Rippley said they would work. Tom Hallion had gone to the hospital with McSherry.

Montreal catcher Darrin Fletcher told the umpires they shouldn't have to continue with the game. "The only thing we were thinking about was praying for John. It wouldn't have been fair to the other umpires to try and continue."

The next day Davis was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts - the last two called by Crawford. After Crawford called Davis out the second time, Davis stood and glared at the umpire for several moments, then walked away.

"I knew those guys needed somebody right then, and who did they have?" Davis said of his visit to the umpires room after McSherry's death. "I knew they were sitting in that little room by themselves. I just wanted them to know we were here, that we were all in this together and we should lean on one another.

"That's why I didn't get angry and blow my top the next day. I think I got called out on a couple of bad pitches. Tomorrow and the next day, those pitches would be called balls. But the fellows had a lot on their minds today. It was courageous that they even walked out there. The last thing they needed was me screaming in their ear."

An ump you had to like

Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine on McSherry: "I think what everyone remembers about John is that he was a real good guy and he tried real hard. That's not to say he didn't make mistakes or have quarrels with players. But John was always a guy who, when you thought he made a bad call, it was hard to get mad at him because you knew he was trying and you knew he genuinely was giving his best out there. And that's a type of guy you wanted to see on the field. That's the kind of guy baseball needs. So there's no question it's sad to see him go."

Dodger center fielder Brett Butler: "Two years ago, I was talking to John and we were talking about his health problems, when he told me, `You know something, I'd just as soon die out here than anywhere else.' When I heard he died, I said, `Wow, what a way to go. Opening Day. All of the festivities. He loved the game so much, that's the way he wanted to go.

"I never heard anybody say anything bad about John McSherry. He was like the Dale Murphy of umpires."

Rogers a puzzled pitcher

The Yankees moved $20 million left-hander Kenny Rogers out of the rotation for one day, but that was long enough for some damage to be done. "The fact that I'm back doesn't make everything all better," Rogers said. "I still don't understand a lot of things. I have questions, but I don't even know where to go to get the answers. This whole thing is so off-the-wall I don't know how to react to it. I just figure maybe this is the way things go on around here. Tomorrow I could be right back out.

"I had told them I'd do whatever they wanted (start anywhere in the rotation, two-five), but they took it one step further. That's when it started. The next time, I won't open my mouth."

Unintimidated by L.A.

Rockies Manager Don Baylor isn't impressed with the Dodger talk about intimidating other teams. "They don't intimidate me or the club," Baylor said. "They might irritate, but they don't intimidate. They can talk a great game, but you have to win on the field. We're not going to be distracted by idle threats when we go on the field."

The talk of Boston

Keep an eye on Boston's defense, so horrendous the Sox actually had a team meeting last Sunday to discuss how to handle negative questions about it.

"We've talked about it as a club," said Manager Kevin Kennedy. "It's the media's right to ask the questions. When you have a championship club (huh?), there's going to have to be something negative that's harped on. We're trying not to make a big issue out of it. The team is aware of it. That's why I don't get on them about it when we make errors. They know they have to be focused on defense, so I just try to dwell on more positive things with them."

So bad is the Boston D - four errors Thursday, three by second baseman Wil Cordero - that Kevin Mitchell, all of him, could possibly be asked to play right field in place of Jose Canseco - and it would be considered an improvement. Mitchell was to rejoin the Sox on Friday in Kansas City after the Sox managed only 18 hits in three games and four extra-base hits, one homer by Tim Naehring.

Reds, Phillies hurting

The hottest competition in the National League is between Cincinnati and Philadelphia - to see who can put the most players on the disabled list. Just before Opening Day, the Reds placed second baseman Bret Boone on the DL - their fifth placement already (Jose Rijo, Jeff Brantley, Eric Anthony, Thomas Howard). Boone had bone chips floating in his right elbow before Dr. James Andrews performed arthroscopic surgery in Birmingham, Ala., a procedure that came mere hours after Boone's wife, Suzi, gave birth to their first child in Cincinnati Christ Hospital. Boone's injury, expected to keep him out 4-6 weeks, left the Reds just one disabled player behind the Phillies, 6-5, until Thursday when first baseman Gregg Jefferies went out with torn ligaments in his left thumb, to join pitchers Curt Schilling, Tyler Green, Bobby Munoz and David West and outfielder Tony Longmire on medical leave.

Marlin miscues

As you might suspect, Devon White was anticipating SkyDome-like conditions when he went out to play his Marlins' opener without his sunglasses and lost a flyball in the sun. "The only glare there," he said of SkyDome, "was off somebody's watch."

Next night, the unthinkable: Devo dropped a routine liner and was loudly booed. "I missed the ball, and they have a right to boo," said White, normally a super defender. "I don't know what happened. It hit the palm of my glove and, boom, it was on the grass."

Phils see silver lining

With four pitchers on the disabled list, the Phillies' starting rotation to open the season (Fernandez, Grace, Mulholland, Williams, Hunter) won a total of 15 games in the big leagues last year. The defense may not help them, either. As new ESPN color analyst Andy Van Slyke said of the Phils, his last team: "They don't have anybody who can catch the ball."

But Philadelphia is not without hope. GM Lee Thomas, on why he thinks the Phillies might not be facing as bad a season as many people think: "The one thing that makes me feel better is that, if you look around, there are some other clubs that aren't so damn good, either."

Angels due for changes

Now that Disney has an agreement with Anaheim about the stadium, changes can be expected. Not only will the Angels be able to acquire badly needed bullpen help and a frontline catcher (Terry Steinbach?), but expectations will rise for increased attendance and stadium revenues.

Maybe it was the opposition, the Brewers, or the fact both games were on TV, but the Angels' Tuesday night opener drew only 27,836, and the Wednesday night game attracted only 15,034. Disney vice president Tony Taveras believes season attendance should average around 2.5 million, a figure the Angels haven't reached since 1990.

Disney is talking about demolishing the outfield stands as part of a redesign, which prompted DH Chili Davis to say: "It should look really nice. And when they take all the people who sit out there now - all three of them - and move them over, it will make the crowds look bigger."

Learning to walk

Texas catcher Ivan Rodriguez walked in the season opener, a rarity for a man who took only 16 walks last season and still hit .303. Manager Johnny Oates took the unconventional move of having his catcher bat second this year in an attempt to make him more selective.

"It's going to make him a better hitter," Oates said. "With Will Clark, Juan Gonzalez and Mickey Tettleton behind him, do you think pitchers are going to throw (Rodriguez) anything but strikes?"

This does not impress Rodriguez, who said, "If I see my pitch, I'm going to swing. If I walk, I walk. But I want to hit the ball."

`Not into frustration'

It might be a long year with the White Sox, thanks to Manager Terry Bevington. The guy used 16 pitchers in his first series.

He told Chicago writers he didn't have to explain why he used two left-handed batters against Randy Johnson, then four the next night against left-hander Sterling Hitchcock (reason: right-handed batters hit only .230 last year against Hitchcock, and because the lefty struggled with his curve last year, left-handers hit .304 against him).

Bevington also said he wasn't frustrated by the pair of 3-2 losses the first two games. "I'm not into frustration," he was quoted as saying in the Chicago Tribune. "You guys keep wanting me to say that. When I say I'm not, you write it anyway.

"So don't even ask it. Just go ahead and write it."

Cleveland's odd deal

It's not often that Cleveland GM John Hart makes a trade just for the sake of making a trade, but that's what happened when he decided to dump Mark Clark into the lap of the Mets in exchange for Ryan Thompson and Reid Cornelius. The Indians have no need whatsoever for either and both were assigned to AAA Buffalo. Thompson? Cleveland already has the best outfield in baseball, and they all are under 30. True, they could lose Albert Belle after this season, but the $7 million freed up by the exits of Belle, Eddie Murray and Dennis Martinez will bring in a replacement. Cornelius? The reason the Indians moved Clark was they already had too many pitchers.

Chad Ogea replaced Clark in the No. 5 spot, while Albie Lopez, Brian Anderson, and Joe Roa were sent to Buffalo, where they will join Cornelius and a prospect named Jim Lewis to give the Indians a better rotation at Class AAA than the Tigers and Brewers (to name two) have at the big league level. Not only that, but former closer prospect Paul Shuey lost 20 pounds over the winter, had a sensational training camp (a team-best 1.88 ERA, and only two walks in 14 1/3 innings) and will start the season at Buffalo. He's expendable. Not only does Jose Mesa have a stranglehold on the big-league job, but hot prospect Danny Graves (a combined 4-1, 0.64, 31 saves at three levels last year) is also at Buffalo and will split closing duties with Shuey.

Cleveland outfielder Manny Ramirez accidentally ran over a 5-year-old child while fans surrounded his car looking for autographs in Winter Haven, Fla. Ramirez had stopped but was pulling his car over to let another car past and did not see the youngster, who had crouched down near the front of his car. Police did not cite him. The boy suffered a broken pelvis. But two days later, Ramirez was given not one but two traffic tickets while driving in downtown Cleveland. One was for running a red light, the other for speeding.

Umpires club shaken

Umpire Tim McClelland to his fellow umpires before the Tigers-Twins opener, after they got word via TV in their dressing room that McSherry had died: "It's really hard to get dressed when your hands are shaking."

Umpire Tim Tschida, McClelland's crewmate, on McSherry: "The sad part is that people will see a 300-plus-pound man collapse of a heart attack, and wonder, `What else would you expect?' What they didn't see is that he worked six months a year at Duke University with nutritionists battling his obesity. That's the part I would like everybody to know - he wasn't as big as he was because he didn't care about it."

Eric Gregg, an NL umpire who weighs 330 pounds, after McSherry's death: "My wife called me three times last night and said, `You'd better slow down on the road.' This is a helluva warning sign. I've got to slow down. After what happened, I'm scared to eat anything. I'm scared to drink anything. I'm going to exercise like those other guys. I'm going to go out and start walking."

Short hops

-- Cecil Fielder, on his first career stolen base in his 1,097th game, which came in the ninth inning Tuesday with a 9-6 lead: "Before I retired, I was going to get a stolen base . . . even if I had to steal it."

-- Trouble in Paradise: Baltimore likes its outfield of Brady Anderson between Jeffrey Hammond and Mike Devereaux, with Tony Tarasco backing them up. But Bobby Bonilla told his agent that as a DH, he "feels like an animal locked in a cage."

-- In the Opening-Day 15-9 win over California, three Brewers matched their career highs for hits in a game - Jose Valentin and Chuck Carr with four each and Jeff Cirillo with three.

-- Former Newport standout Todd Hollandsworth after being informed by the Dodgers that he will platoon in left with Billy Ashley: "I wanted to win the everyday job, and I still want to play every day. But I'm going to do what's asked of me. I want to contribute to a team that goes to the World Series."

-- Toronto has a week to trade or sell catcher Randy Knorr, or he will wind up in AAA Syracuse making $280,000.

-- After Chisox left-hander Joe Magrane won Wednesday's game with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, his first victory since June 5, 1994, he said, "Yeah, I'm pretty good on 670 days of rest."

-- Phillies and Twins say, despite widespread rumors, they have not spoken with the Yankees about their respective second baseman Mickey Morandini and Chuck Knoblauch.

-- Baltimore Manager Davey Johnson on Roberto Alomar: "He's the Barry Larkin of the National League. He can do just about whatever you need to win."

-- Atlanta's wonderful pitching staff finished Grapefruit season with a 3.02 ERA, best of anyone this spring. Said Manager Bobby Cox, "That's the thing about working in Florida instead of Arizona. In Arizona, they're all 5-something."