The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 66

D4 Sunday, July 19, 1987 The Pittsburgh Press Bream says he was BASEBALL born to be a Pirate "I realize now supposed to be supposed to be ml Martena KartsTha Pttttburgh Prew He is happy as a Pirate, says he wants to remain a Pirate but somehow frustration has followed him from LA to Pittsburgh, albeit a different kind. As a Pirate he has spent his hours residing in last place and, in his heart, he believes the team is better than that "The problem is that we do not know how to win. There is an art to winning and we haven't accomplished it yet" Bream is of the belief that one missing ingredient is an experienced winner. "We have the capabilities to play exceedingly well We have the proper people." But still they lose. "We have to have a veteran who knows what it's about I can remember when I got called up to the Dodgers in 1983.

You could sense the club was going good it just snowballed. You came to the park knowing you were going to win and you did so because these guys had been around winning and knew how to do it "With us here, we can win three in a row, lose one and you come into the clubhouse and it's like we're 40 games out. It doesn't snowball." Butch Davis leads Vancouver in stolen bases PIRATES' PROSPECTS (Through Thursday) Vancouver Pacific Coast League (AAA) In 90 games, second baseman Jom Llad has collected 104 hits, most on the club, for a .280 average. He also has 16 stolen bases First baseman Benny DUUfano (.270) has nine home runs, including a ninth-inning game winner last Sunday at Tacoma to tie him for the team lead with third baseman Denny Gonzales (.255) Outfielder Tonuny Dunbar (.265) leads the Canadiens with 51 RBI Outfielder Batch Davis (.274) leads with 17 stolen bases First baseman-pitcher Dave Leeper is batting .295 and is 2-2 with a 4.85 ERA Shortstop Sammy Khalifa continues to struggle with a .240 average. His only bright spot is a .360 on-base-percentage Also struggling are catchers Dana Bllardello (.216) and Ruben Rodrl-gues (.220) Bob Patterson continues to pitch effectively.

He is 4-2 with a 2.06 ERA, including 68 strikeouts in 70 innings Mike Bleleckl is 1 1-5 and has 3.22 ERA Tim Drummoad is 2-4, but has a 2.64 ERA and six saves Logan Easley (2-2, 3.81) has three saves, but has walked 19 and struck out 17 in 28 Vi innings. Harrisburg Eastern League (AA) Second baseman Jim Reboulet extended his hitting streak to 31 games by going 3 for 4 in the Senators' 7-1 victory over New Britain on Monday, but had it broken the next night when he was ejected for disputing a call. He leads the club with a .376 average and 30 stolen bases Since being sent down by the Pirates, shortstop Rafael Belllard is batting .242 (8 for 33) including a double and a triple. He also has a .324 on-base-percentage Outfielder Glno Gentile (.230) leads with 14 home runs Outfielder Tommy Gregg (.365) leads with 54. RBI Third baseman Dimaa Gutierres is batting .339 Catcher Tom Prince is batting .294 Jim Neidlinger is 8-5 with a 4.34 ERA Chria Ritter is 6-2 with a 4.31 ERA Rich Sauveur is 7-5 -with a 2.82 ERA.

Salem Carolina League (A) First baseman-third baseman Jeff King (.299) continues to be hot. His 20 home runs and .416 on-base percentage lead the Buccaneers. He also has 59 RBI Outfielder Tony Chance leads the regulars with a .314 average (110 for 350) and 67 RBI. He also has 18 stolen Outfielder John Rlgoa (.293) has 10 home runs. Rigos leads with 21 stolen bases Infielder Reggie Barringer is batting .297 Bill Copp is 10-5 with a 4.10 ERA, including 92 strikeouts and 30 walks in 12044 innings Larry Melton is 6-1 with a 3.38 ERA Joee Melendea is 6-3 with a 3.90 ERA.

Macon South Atlantic League (A) Third baseman-first baseman John Love (.294) leads the Pirates with nine home runs and 56 RBI Outfielders Jallo Pegoero (.301) and Scott Ruakia (.301) are the leading hitters First baseman Blane Lockley is struggling with a .198 average, but is second in home runs with six Still in slumps are outfielder Ed Ya-copino (.227) and infielder Tim Vaughn (.215) Mike Tork is 10-5 with a 3.46 ERA, including 114 strikeouts and 55 walks 106 innings Stan Belinda (5-2, 2.04) leads with 13 saves Rick Reed (5-3, 2.98) has four saves Erneato Santana (0-3, 6.25) has walked 30 and struck out 28 in 31 innings. By Bob Hertzel The Pittsburgh Press LOS ANGELES There is a certain kind of justice, poetic or not, that is served every time Sid Bream picks up his glove and trots out to his position at first base here in Dodger Stadium. It is what he always thought he would do, what he wanted to do, only he believed it would be wearing the white Dodgers uniform and not the gray of Pittsburgh. realize now that I was never supposed to be a Dodger. I was supposed to be a Pirate.

And there were times when the Dodgers made me feel like I wasn't supposed to play for them." The Dodgers put him into their own brand of people shredder. Now, he is bitter about the experience and eager to prove the Dodgers wrong at every opportunity. "I didn't fail there. They failed in not giving me the opportunity to show what I could do. Bream always found himself stuck behind Greg Brock in the Dodgers' scheme.

No matter what he did, it wasn't good enough. Five consecutive seasons he batted better than .300 in the minor leagues. All it bought him were one-way tickets to Albuquerque. Brock remained ahead of him, not Pirates Jrom page Dl Only Guerrero had Drabek solved, adding a single and double. Through six innings those three hits represented the entire Dodgers offense.

The Pirates lost Fermin and almost lost Drabek in the seventh. Leading off, Fermin tried to bunt and had the ball hit off his right thumb, mashing the nail. He was sent to a local hospital for X-rays. was just trying to make contact." Al Pedrique "It could be bad," Leyland said. Then, after John Cangelosi struck out hitting for Fermin, Drabek bent down into a curveball and had it hit him in the helmet Drabek never went to the ground and, after a brief examination, remained in the game with nothing worse than a ringing in his ears.

p. "I saw the ball coming and I ducked right into it," said Drabek, who probably was the first player in baseball history to be hit in the head with a knee-high breaking ball. "I closed my eyes and tensed up. I was just glad when I opened by my eyes that I could see things straight." NOTES The series concludes today with Mike Dunne (4-4) making his first Dodgers Stadium appearance since the 1984 Olympics. He will be opposed by Rick Honeycutt (2-9) Johnny Ray owns a nine-game hitting streak Dodgers second baseman Steve Sax had to be removed from the game with a sore shoulder after making a throwing error Dodgers pitcher Alejandro Pena was unavailable after straining his rib cage Friday night while warming up Reynolds' three walks were a career high Bonilla has not struck out in his past 17 games, 56 at-bats.

Smizik Jrom page Dl lineup. The Pirates wouldn't be hapless losers. Think of those 37 one-run losses the Pirates had last season. A lot of those games would have been one-run victories with Clark in the i Clark's presence in the lineup would make better hitters of the players already on the team. With Andy Van Slyke in front of him and Bobby Bonilla, Mike Diaz or R.J.

Reynolds behind him, Clark would give the Pirates an imposing batting order. Just what Clark can do for a team is obvious by what he has done for St. Louis, the team that acquired him from the Giants in 1985 for a lot less than the Pirates offered in 1983. In his first season in St. Louis, Clark led the Cardinals to the National League pennant.

Last season, when Clark was hurt and played only 65 games, the Cardinals finished third, three games under .500 and 28 ft out of first place. With Gark back this year the Cardinals are running away with the East Division title. At the All-Star break Clark had 26 home runs and 86 runs batted in. He might not have matched those feats and those numbers with the Pirates, but he would be a threat around whom a lineup could be built. And remember, Clark has been sensational at Three Rivers Stadium.

With Clark in the lineup, the Pirates might not be a champion, but they wouldn't be in last place. But Clark isn't in the lineup. It wasn't for a lack of trying. Tom Haller was general manager of the Giants in the early 1980s. He had many conversations with the Pirates about Gark.

"The Pirates were always trying to get Clark," Haller said. "They were after him for a couple of years. He's all they really wanted to talk about with us." "We tried to get him a number of that I was never a Dodger. I was a Pirate.91 Sid Bream a good average and was quickly demoted, having only five hits in the 15 games. "After so many years of yo-yoing up and down you start asking yourself if you are good enough.

I knew I was, but you start to question yourself," Bream said. That is when the Pirates entered his life in the person of Joe Brown, the interim general manager, who sent Bill Madlock to the Dodgers for Bream and R.J. Reynolds, a trade that ranks as one of the best in years for the Pirates. But the Dodgers have not been the shrewdest of dealers in recent years. They traded Candy Maldonado, Da-vey Lopes, Rick Rhoden, Dave Stewart, Ted Power and Rick Sutcliffe.

Bream has been bordering upon stardom for the Pirates since the deal. He hit .284 after coming over in 1985, followed that up with a .268 season that included 16 home runs and 77 RBI, then has added a .289 average this season. V'lj:" ssn- Anderson tags out Barry to becoming one of the top second basemen in the National League; Rod Scurry, a marginal relief pitcher with a live arm, and Lee Lacy, a journeyman outfielder. In return, the Pirates were to get Gark and Gary Lavelle, a good relief pitcher. The problem was and this is hard to believe the Pirates were too good at the time.

They were in second place, a game or so out of first when the package was finally put together and could not afford to give up Ray and Thompson not even for Clark amid a division race. Although Gark, then used almost exclusively in the outfield, might have taken over for Thompson at first base, the Pirates had no one ready to replace Ray. Haller and Peterson tried to put the deal together this way: Clark and Lavelle to the Pirates for Scurry and Lacy and two players to be named. At the conclusion of the season, Thompson and Ray were to go to the Giants, who were not contenders. It might have worked, except it was against the rules.

"The way I recall it, it was very close to being consummated," Haller said. "It wasn't that the club nixed the deal. The player to be named later couldn't be on the roster of the club that year." Indeed, if word had slipped that Thompson and Ray were going to San Francisco the next season, how would it have affected their play against the Giants? National League President Charles Feeney stepped in and told the clubs the deal could not be made. The deal was pulled back and the teams never got it together again. The Pirates always wanted Clark and Clark said he wouldn't mind playing in Pittsburgh.

But this was one hammer not meant jo be a Pittsburgh hammer. 4 Associated Press Bonds trying to steal ZIEBART SLIDING PFAD I NT I 11 JJ Siblings ZIEBART RACKS on ability but because he was the man anointed by the Dodgers' public relations machine as being Steve Garvey's replacement Garvey had left the Dodgers amid controversy, Peter O'Malley failing to pursue nun as a free agent even though he was one of the team's popular players. "Brock got all the hype. He got all the publicity. They had to keep him.

They had to give him the opportunity to prove he was better than Garvey, Bream said. And, when they gave him that opportunity, Bream was left hanging, unhappy, confused and frustrated. "I'd sit back in the chair some nights and ask my wife, 'What's going on? What are they doing to The answer never was anything certain. Bream's one shot was a 15-game run when Brock was injured. He led the Dodgers in home runs during that time but failed to hit for Dodgers shortstop Dave Giamatti belongs Newsday OAKLAND, Calif.

Any time major-league baseball replaces a Chub with a Bartlett, questions are going to be asked. Such as: Who is this guy? Chub Feeney, president of the National League for 17 years until a year ago, was a baseball man. Plus, Chub is a great baseball name. But A. Bartlett Giamatti? Whoever heard of a Bartlett in the big leagues? It's a good name for a university president, which, in fact, Giamatti was for eight years before inheriting Feeney's job last June.

Giamatti was president of Yale. He was an English professor and an expert in Renaissance poetry. Surface perceptions suggest that Giamatti was an odd addi- tion to professional baseball, the perceived realm of spitting, scratching and double negatives. But Giamatti always has treated surface perceptions as a batter might a curveball. times," said Peterson, who was fired in 1985.

"We always liked Jack Clark." In August 1983 Peterson thought he had Clark. The deal was to go like this: The Giants were to receive Thompson, whose decline had started but was nowhere near being confirmedJohnny Ray, on his way I Watertown New Tork-Penn League (A) Catcher Ed Shea is the Pirates' leading hitter at .273 (15 for 55) First baseman Junior Vlscaino is batting .250 (13 for 52) First baseman Ed Hartman is batting .279 and leads team with four home runs and outfielder Wesley Chamberlain is .200 with three home runs Joe Pacholee is 3-1 with 2.57 ERA, including 29 strikeouts and 17 walks in 35 innings Keith Shepherd (4-2, 2.57) has 25 strikeouts and 14 walks in 35 innings Chip Duncan (0-1, 2.50) leads with four saves. He also has 16 strikeouts and eight walks in 18 innings Ben Webb (1-1, 2.04) is tied for the team lead with Duncan with four saves. He also has 22 strikeouts and five walks in 17 innings. By Luka Krneta i A A I ummrpeil ZIEBART USED CAR RUST PROTECTION LUGGAGE Optional be rock available i ex ZIEBART BURGLAR ALARM H39 SAVE S80 ZIEBART Professionally Installed lifetime no-teak warranty FROM '229 WINDOWS $89 Sr INSTALLED ONLY Warranty available 1W INSTALLED ZIEBART SPLASH GUARDS ONLYSf SfT Of 4 INSTALLED INSTALLED 1 8 11W i ZIEBART RUNNING BOARDS smart.

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