The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 44

The Pittsburgh Press Wednesday. April 13. 19SS BASEBALL With Dunne disabled, Pirates send message to Garcia By Bob Hertzel "We wanted someone who was strictly a relief pitcher," General Manager Syd Thrift said of the decision to call up the inexperienced Garcia over the veteran Bob Patterson. "He may not have a lot of professional experience, 'but he played in Venezuela before big crowds with noise you can't measure. He may just be Iceman II." Invited to camp as a non-roster player, Garcia had some of the coaches wanting to keep him over Bob Kipper as the left-hander of the bullpen.

Although his spring statistics were not exciting at 0-1 with a 4 OS ERA, he showed an ability to handle left-handed hitters. A second cousin of shortstop Al Pedrique, Garcia was the key player in the deal that sent Johnny Ray to the' California Angels. Signed out of high school in Caracas, Venezuela, Garcia has put together an outstanding record as a minor-league reliever. In three seasons ha has a 21-U record with 14 saves and a 2.36 earned run average. At the Pirates' Buffalo farm club this year he pitched once, earning a save at Louisville with two scoreless innings of relief.

Dunne did not take well to going on the disabled list "He is such a fierce competitor. He wants to pitch." Thrift said. "The problem is he can throw 50 to 60 percent, but when he extends himself it bothers him. "The pain is telling him he shouldn't be throwing. We don't want him to change anything and favor the side.

That's how you hurt your arm. "I explained to him that he came in here last year on June 1 and won 13 games. He'll be ready to go long before then. With complete rest, this could be healed in 10 da vs." Manager Jim Leyland plans to give Vicen-: te Palacios. the hero of Monday night's home opener, a start in Chicago Saturday in a nationally televised game.

John Smiley will start Friday. Doug Drabek will come back on schedule Sunday. Ibe Pittsburgh Press The lingering muscle strain below pitcher M.ke Dunne's left nb cage has forced the Pirates to put their opening-day starter on the 15-day disabled list Dunne will be eligible to pitch April 27. Taking Dunne's spot on the roster is left-handed reliever Miguel Garcia, 21, who was one of the major surprises of spring training. D4 Bisons REAL ESTATE OFFERED FOR SALE r.t ii Ml joking anymore.

Not with the stadium and fan support we have here. We're in the hunt now. Frankly, I think it's inevitable that we get a major-league franchise." Buffalo would seem to have what baseball is seeking: An open stadium with natural grass and a seating capacity of 35,000 to 45,000. Pilot Field can be expanded to 40,000 by removing its green roof and building an upper deck. Rich said the transformation could be completed in one off-season.

Local ownership with community roots. That is Rich. A long-range commitment from local government. That is Griffin. Solid fan support.

If the Bisons draw 1 million fans this season "Hey, listen," Rich said, "I still get numb when I think about what we've accomplished already. But we're not finished. The goal is to bring major-league baseball to Buffalo. The dream continues." 18 Hole Golf Course Banquet Facilities Motel Accommodations Swimming Pool Bowling Alley Residential Dwelling Approximately 275 Acre Site FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL FIRST NATIOWAL BANK 150 W. BEAU STREET WASHINGTON, PA 15301 Phone (412) 228-0200 or (412) 341-2771 Ask For Mr.

Dan Rebovich immmmmmmmm STARTS ENDS SAT. ktsM I M'tW wilopwiet Favorite Store AMIBICA'S MAsna GABOENII, VW i Pirates Jrom page Dl season, winning the job from Rafael Belliard. but he hit better with runners in scoring position than any player in the major leagues. This year he is 0 for 9 in similar situations. Lind hit .322 in his brief trial last September after Johnny Ray was traded to make room for him.

"It is unreasonable to expect him to hit .322 again," Manager Jim Leyland said. It is not unreasonable to see him hit .250, which would be more than acceptable considering that his defense is the best in the National League at the position. Despite Lind's slow start, he has not hit the ball as badly as his average would indicate. Nearly every line drive he has hit has been at someone and, while batting second, he often has merely just tried to move Barry Bonds along on the bases by hitting the ball to the right side. "He is a little anxious but not discouraged," said infield coach Tommy Sandt, who has spent a good deal of time trying to keep Lind's spirits high.

"He is not getting any breaks." The same does not go for Pedrique, who has not been hitting the ball as sharply as he did a year ago. "It will come," Pedrique said, x. One problem both players are lacing is they no longer are a mystery to NL pitchers. Hitting, as pitching coach Ray Miller likes to point out, is a matter of constantly adjusting if the hitter hits, the pitchers change the way they pitch to him until he has to adjust to the change. A year ago neither hitter's weakness was known to pitchers.

Now, they have a "book" on them and are pitching them tougher. It is up to them to adjust accordingly. "The important thing," Sandt said, 'is they can't take it out in the field with them. A middle infielder's No. 1 job is to catch and throw the ball." It is becoming evident the 'Pirates have built this edition Caround their pitching staff and de-lense.

If it hits, fine, and it should hit better than the early season has shown so far. In the first week, Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla have carried the offensive load while Pedrique, Lind Andy Van Slyke have searched their stroke. Van Slyke, the top offensive play on the team last season when he jbatted .293 with 21 home runs, 82 and 32 steals, is hitting the same as Lind. "I really wanted to get off to a good start," said Van Slyke, who missed some of the late games in spring training with an injury to his left hand. "I'm just not hitting." The result has been a team batting --average of .222, ninth in the league.

"Despite that, the Pirates have won I'four of six as they get ready to face the Phillies tonight in the second game of the series. The party ends tonight when a crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 is expected. "The advance sale is 6,000 to 8,000 tickets. Z2 Jrom page Dl there are people everywhere, people just coming down to get a look at the stadium. I'll bet our business has gone up $500 a day in the past three weeks alone." Nostrant smiled.

"People tell us we're going to be millionaires because of this stadium. I don't know about that, but I do think that every game day is going to be like St. Patrick's Day around here. And St. Patrick's Day is our hottest day of the year." The media has jumped on the Bisons and Pilot Field with what probably is unprecedented coverage of the Buffalo sports scene.

The Buffalo News did a 64-page special section on Pilot Field in its Sunday newspaper. The three major television stations have done or will do 30-minute preview specials on the team and stadium. (A fourth station, WNYB-TV, will televise 20 Bisons games, the most extensive package in minor-league baseball.) Most of the major radio stations will do live broadcasts from the stadium opening day. The media crunch has boosted interest in the community. Nearly 9,000 season tickets have been sold.

Every game but Monday's in the Bisons' initial seven-game home-stand is a sellout or close to it. More than 100 fans camped out overnight in early March to be at the front of the line for tickets to the opener, the 10,500 tickets that went on public sale were sold in 84 minutes. Bisons officials have dared to dream of drawing 1 million fans this season, a figure the Pirates barely made last season. The team needs to average nearly 1 4,1 00 fans per game to make it. The Triple-A Louisville Cardinals drew 1,052,438 in 1983, the only time a minor-league team has topped 1 million.

"We know we're going to get a lot of first-time baseball fans and non-fans out because of the stadium," Bisons owner Bob Rich Jr. said. "It's our job to hook them. We think we have the resources and facilities to do that. We think we can make their experience so enjoyable that they'll want to come back." Food will be big at Pilot Field, and for good reason.

Rich heads Rich Products the world's largest frozen-foods manufacturer, and his family is worth more than $400 million, according to Forbes magazine. He is the fellow Rich Stadium, the Bills' home in Orchard Park, N.Y., is named after; he paid $1.5 million for that honor in 1973. It was Rich's idea to create a gourmet restaurant in Pilot Field Pettibone's Grille which will be open year-round. It also was his idea to build a food court burgers," pizza, Italian specialties, ice cream on the first level. That, too, will be open year-round, catering to the downtown lunch crowd.

Entertainment will be another big part of Bisons games. There will be ethnic nights and theme nights such as Hawaiian Night and Beach Party Night. There will be fireworks nights and postgame concerts by such groups as the Beach Boys. The seventh annual National Old-Timers Game will be played at the stadium June 20 as will the first Triple-A all-star game July 13. Even Spuds MacKenzie and the Spudettes are coming.

"Spuds is supposed to throw out the first ball Friday night," Bisons publicist Mike Buczkowski said, "but we haven't quite figured out how that's going to work yet." The Bisons' motto "Every game is an event" has been the same since Rich bought the franchise after the 1982 season. At the time Griffin headed a group of 40 investors who operated the team, which was failing miserably in the Double-A Eastern League. It attracted only 77,077 fans in 1982 at dilapidated War Memorial Stadium, which was used as the setting for "The Natural," which starred Robert Redford. (The movie's producers had to do little tinkering to create a 1920s atmosphere there.) "We didn't know the first thing about running a baseball franchise," Griffin said. "The Eastern League was all set to take it away from us." Rich came riding to the rescue on his white horse, to hear Griffin tell the story.

Rich, 46, bought the team for an estimated $100,000 and, with the help of his wife, Mindy, and General Manager Mike Billoni, set about building a fan base with his food and entertainment wizardry. Attendance increased to 200,531 in 1983 and climbed each year to 497,760 last season. All that in a lousy stadium. All that with lousy teams. The Bisons have not made the playoffs in the Rich years.

They were the Cleveland Indians' Double-A affiliate in 1983 and 1984, the Chicago White Sox' Triple-A affiliate in 1985 and 1986 and the Indians' Triple-A affiliate last season. "We think the Pirates are going to help us," Rich said. "That's the organization we wanted to be with, largely because of (General Manager) Syd Thrift. He's already exceeded every one of the goals he set when he took over down there." Of course, Pilot Field will provide the Bisons with their biggest boost. "It's the best ballpark in America," Rich said.

"It's not the largest, sure, but as far as amenities for the fans and facilities for the players, it's tops." Added Commissioner Peter Ueberroth at baseball's winter meetings in Dallas in December, "I think one of the best baseball experiences this summer will occur in Buffalo." The feeling here is that Buffalo has climbed to the top of the list of expansion cities. "I'd still have to think Denver is No. 1," Griffin said, "but we're right there in the battle for No. 2, 3 and 4." "In the past we used to be summarily dealt with when it came to expansion talk," Rich said. "I can remember people from Phoenix joking about our presence at the long-range expansion meetings.

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