The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 29

The Beacon Journal Tuesday, December 9, 1997, Page 5 Tribe having trouble replacing Score in radio booth Team seeks a former player to pair with Hamilton, but finding applicants and talent in short supply ants. The hangup is money. Kui-per's demands are far beyond what Cleveland club officials are willing to pay. A recent applicant is Dave Nelson, who has had a long career as a player and coach. Nelson also spent a couple of years as a broadcaster for the Cubs.

But there's a conflict of interest problem for Nelsoa Or at least there should be. He was fired as the Tribe's first-base coach fewer than two weeks ago. As Hamilton's radio partner, he would be required to comment on the activities of the folks who fired him, including Manager Mike Har Duane Kuiper would be the obvious choice to replace Herb Score, but his salary demands may be too high. ence or talent for the job. For example, among the applicants is Sam McDowell, whose audition tape apparently failed to move the ballclub's "search committee" to beg him to take the job.

difficult for two reasons: It's one thing for a former jock to offer insights as a color commentator about a game he has played his whole life. It's quite another matter to master play-byplay skills on radio, where the ideal announcer can paint an enticing word picture of the action taking place on the field. Moreover, relatively few ex-players have applied for the position, and many of the broadcast wannabes have little or no expert- In baseball Eckersley takes less to go home grove. If that hasn't raised a red flag to the search committee, it should The Indians have yet to narrow the field to the point where interviews can begin. Moreover, at the moment they are not in any hurry to fill the positioa And there's really no rush.

The choice will be made by executive vice president for business, Dennis Lehman, and vice president for marketing and communications, Jeff Overton, with the approval of owner Dick Jacobs. But public relations vice president Bob DiBiasio and Hamilton also will have input players, including Rick Wise, on the eve of the '78 season. "That was so long ago, a whole lifetime ago," Eckersley said. "Going to a different club with different personalities, that's no big deal. But standing on that (Fenway) mound, that'll probably be the toughest part, the weirdest part" In other news: Former Cleveland Indians infielder Jose Vizcaino, who started his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, agreed to a $9.5 million, three-year deal with the Dodgers.

San Francisco acquire Vizcaino last season in a deal that sent Matt Williams to Cleveland. Toronto signed 34-year-old catcher Mike Stanley to a $6.15 million, two-year contract and 35-year-old second baseman Tony Fernandez to a one-year deal. Fernandez hit .286 with 11 homers and 44 RBI in 120 games for Cleveland last season. After earning $1.55 million last season, Fernandez will get $2 million in 1998. Toronto has a $2.2 million option for 1999.

Texas agreed to a $1.65 million, one-year deal with shortstop Kevin Elster. Paul Molitor agreed to a $4.15 million, one-year contract with Minnesota. Gary Gaetti agreed to a $1 million, one-year contract with the Cards. The Blue Jays didn't offer salary arbitration to outfielder Joe Carter, probably ending his seven-year stay in Toronto. HEALTH SPA 5468 CURKHS AISTLMOWN.

OH 44515 Body Shampoo, Sauna, Massage Eait 1-76. Follow 1-80 Eut to Rt. 46 Exit. Turn Uftf at Traffic Light then Right at Country Kitchen. 330-792-2255 Um.lMfiJ52 JAPANESE SPfl (330)799-0844 I wmm NEW MANAGEMENT I 5534 Mahoning Ave.

Austin Township I $10 OFF COUPON 1 JS OFF COUPON 'A HR. i ALL ORIENTAL STAFF 24 HOURS 7 DAYS Follow 1-76 to Route 46 lEnit 223). Follow 4f South to Mahoning Ave. Turn right, 110 mile on the right. llcetw, -fl3 Mckinley health spa Oriental Massage, Sauna, IS Bnrlv Shamnnn innn 11 it.

nj nj P. North Rd. Center Plaza Warren, OH? 330652-5444 or 1-800-856-7649' licensed by State of OH Open 7 Day; 24 Hours vy- if I Car Alarm w2 Remotes I $99.99 installed Keyless Entry I $89.99 installed I Remote Car Starters $149.99 installed I Good thru 122597 I 3716 E. State Barberton PACEs Call for our daily Drink Specials Career statistics for the players involved in yesterday's trade between the Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers and the trade between the Indians and the Oakland Athletics: TO CLEVELAND (From Milwaukee) BEN MCDONALD Regular Season Year Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1989 Bal 7.1 1-0 4 3 8.59 1990 Bal 118.2 8-5 35 65 2.43 1991 Bal 126.1 6-8 43 85 4.84 1992 Bal 227.0 13-13 74 158 4.24 1993 Bal 220.1 13-14 86 171 3.39 1994 Bal 157.1 14-7 54 94 4.06 1995 Bal 80.0 3-6 38 62 4.16 1996 Mil 221.1 12-10 67 146 3.90 1997 Mil 133.0 8-7 36 110 4.06 Totals 1291.1 78-70 437 894 3.91 RON VILLONE Regular Season Year Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1995 Sea 19.1 0-2 23 26 7.91 1995 SD 25.2 2-1 11 37 4.21 1996 SD 18.1 1-1 7 19 2.95 1996 Mil 24.2 0-0 18 19 3.28 1997 Mil 52.2 1-0 36 40 3.42 Totals 140.2 4-4 95 141 4.09 MIKE FETTERS (To Oakland from Cleveland) Regular Season Year Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1989 Cal 3.1 0-0 1 4 8.10 1990 Cal 67.2 1-1 20 35 4.12 1991 Cal 44.2 2-5 28 24 4.84 1992 Mil 62.2 5-1 24 43 1.87 1993 Mil 59.1 3-3 22 23 3.34 1994 Mil 46.0 1-4 27 31 2.54 1995 Mil 34.2 0-3 20 33 3.38 1996 Mil 61.1 3-3 26 53 3.38 1997 Mil 70.1 1-5 33 62 3.45 Totals 450.0 16-25 201 308 3.38 STEVE KARSAY (To Cleveland from Oakland) Regular Season Year Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1993 Oak 49.0 3-3 16 33 4.04 1994 Oak 28.0 1-1 8 15 2.57 1995 Oak Injured Did Not Pitch 1997 Oak na 3-12 na na 5.77 Totals 77.0 4-4 24 48 3.51 TO MILWAUKEE (From Cleveland) MARQUIS GRISSOM Regular Season Year Team AB HR RBI SB Avg 1989 Mon 74 16 19 1 2 1 .257 1990 Mon 288 42 74 3 29 22 .257 1991 Mon 558 73 149 6 39 76 .267 1992 Mon 653 99 180 14 66 78 .276 1993 Mon 630 104 188 19 95 53 .298 1994 Mon 475 96 137 11 45 36 .288 1995 Atl 551 80 142 12 42 29 .258 1996 Atl 671 106 207 23 74 28 .308 1997 Cle 558 74 146 12 66 22 .262 Totals 4458 690 1242 101 458 345 .279 Division Series Year Opp AB HR RBI SB Avg 1995 Col 21 5 11 3 4 2 .524 1996 LA 12 2 1 0 0 1 .083 1997 NYY 17 3 4 0 0 0 .235 Totals 50 10 16 3 4 3 .320 League Championship Series Year Opp AB HR RBI SB Avg 1995 Cin 19 2 5 0 0 0 .263 1996 StL 35 7 10 1 3 1 .286 1997 Bal 23 2 6 1 4 3 .261 Totals 77 11 21 2 7 4 .273 World Series Year Opp AB HR RBI SB Avg 1995 Cle 25 3 9 0 1 3 .360 1996 NY 27 4 12 0 5 2 444 1997 Fla 25 5 9 0 2 0 360 Totals 77 12 30 0 8 5 .390 JEFFJUDEN Regular Season Year Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1991 Hou 18.0 0-2 7 11 6.00 1993 Hou 5.0 0-1 4 7 5.40 1994 Phi 27.2 1-4 12 22 6.18 1995 Phi 62.2 2-4 31 47 4.02 1996 SF-Mon 74.1 5-0 34 61 3.27 1997 Mon 130 11-5 57 107 4.22 1997 Cle 31.1 0-1 15 29 5.46 Totals 349.2 19-17 160 284 4.35 League Championship Series Year Opp IP W-L BB SO ERA 1997 Bal 1 0-0 2 2 0.00 World Series Year Opp IP W-L BB SO ERA 1997 Fla 2 0-0 2 0 4.50 After being fired as an Indians coach last week, it would be difficult for Dave Nelson to broadcast Tribe games. Former Indians second baseman Duane Kuiper probably would have been the choice of most if not all Tribe officials.

Kuiper is a veteran television and radio voice of the San Francisco Gi key hits in October, a man who was the MVP of the American League Championship Series. Grissom batted .292 for the Tribe in the postseason, the only Cleveland player with a higher October batting average was Tony Fernandez. Oh, he's gone, too. So is Orel Hershiser. So are Bip Roberts and Jeff Ju-den, that's assuming you even noticed they were with the Tribe in the first place.

Maybe this deal will work out for the Indians. If he's healthy and reasonably happy, Lofton is a superior player to Grissom. But Grissom is a good person, a real role model who has bought homes for all 11 of his brothers and sisters, and a home for his parents. He is a kind, caring person who actually thinks about others, a rare trait among pro athletes. And he happens to be a very good baseball player.

Now, we'll see if the Indians will be better without him. BY SHELDON OCKER Benam JuunuU slajf writer Finding a replacement for retired radio voice Herb Score is turning into an ordeal for Indians officials. The Tribe's preference is to hire a former player to team with Tom Hamilton, who will take over as the No. 1 announcer in the WKNR booth and handle play-byplay duties for six innings each game. Landing an ex-player has been Tribe Return of Lofton is center of attention Continued from Page CI Regardless, the Tribe already has committed about $60 million to 17 players for 1998.

One of them, John Smiley, will be on the disabled list with a broken arm when the season starts and probably won't pitch until after the All-Star break, if thea To complete the 25-man roster that is, signing such players as Brian Giles, Jaret Wright, Bartolo Colon, Pat Borders and Jeff Branson will require another $3 million or so, pushing Cleveland's payroll to $63 million or more. For some reason, Hart figures it differently. "I don't see us coming in that high," he said. "We should be right around what we were last year, about $53 million. And I think right now, we still have a little leeway." Hart mentioned that the club received $3 million in the Matt Williams trade, but that hardly brings the payroll into line with what the Indians spent in 1997.

There have been rumors that Hart is willing to peddle Travis Fryman, the third baseman he acquired from the Diamondbacks for Matt Williams. That would lighten the Tribe's obligation by $6.5 mil-lioa One of Hart's priorities for the winter was to find a leadoff hitter, and it would be difficult if not impossible to do better than Lofton, who batted .333 with 90 runs and 48 RBI for the Braves last season. Lofton's stolen-base total was down (27-in-47 tries for a mediocre 57-percent success rate), but he attributed that to a lingering groin injury that cost him 40 games. It was not a happy year in Atlanta There were stories about Lofton's aloofness in the clubhouse and that Manager Bobby Cox abhorred his attitude. "I can be myself here," Lofton said.

"Over there, I didn't say a whole lot. Maybe that was a problem for them. But I just went out and did my job. "A lot of times, you think the grass is greener, but that's not always true." There was no doubt that Lofton was genuinely happy to return to Cleveland. "This was a little hard for an agent," said Steve Zucker, who represented Lofton in contract talks.

"An agent tries to get the best deal he can for his client. But emotion came into this situatioa Kenny wanted to come back here in the worst way." Lofton turned down Milwaukee's offer of a five-year contract worth just over $40 million, and Zucker thinks the Brewers were prepared to go higher. "When I came here for the All-Star Game, it hit my heart dearly," Lofton said of the reception he received by the fans. "They really let me know how much they appreciated me. "When I watched the Indians in the World Series, I felt like I was there, right there with the guys.

It was like I was part of it I was disappointed, because I felt the PLUTO A Marquis player as well as person Continued from Page CI stormy summer in Atlanta matured him, that he'll be happy with the Tribe. As for Grissom? There was nothing to decide. He just keeps losing jobs to Kenny Lofton. Loyal, schmoyal This is another lesson in loyalty and pro sports. There is none.

Usually, it is the player who stiffs the team and the fans. It's the player who chases the last dollar, and it's the player with a short memory and long list of grievances against the team that gave him Ace reliever returns to Red Sox for $1.5 million. Dodgers reel in Vizcaino Aisimnled Prm Dennis Eckersley, who arrived in Boston before Larry Bird, left Boston for Bill Buckner, and beat Boston more times than any Red Sox fan cares to remember, has returned. Eckersley, who was a longhaired 23-year-old when he won 20 games as a starter for Don Zim-mer in 1978, comes back as a longhaired 43-year-old to close games for Jimy Williams in 1998. Yesterday, Eckersley, who has 389 saves, agreed to a one-year contract to pitch for the Red Sox, ending an 11-year association with Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan in Oakland and St.

Louis. Eckersley, who could have gotten double the money by going to Baltimore as a free agent or to arbitration with St. Louis, the team with which he spent the last two instead agreed to a hometown discount of $1.5 million. Eckersley has lived in the Boston area since the Cleveland Indians traded him and catcher Fred Kendall to the Red Sox for four WHO'S ON SECOND? Considering that the Indians already have spent a king's ransom on players, promising rookie Enrique Wilson will likely be at second base. "We like Enrique very much," John Hart said.

"We also have Jeff Branson, so I feel comfortable with what we have. And with Kenny (Lofton) leading off, it takes some (offensive) pressure off Enrique." NEEDS WORK Ron Villone has one big problem he has a hard time getting left-handed batters out, a severe handicap for a southpaw reliever. Lefties batted .352 against him last year; righthanders only .227. The problem allegedly is his curveball. COME IN, MARQUIS The Brewers were having a difficult time locating Marquis Grissom.

Midway through last evening, they had not been able to contact him to tell him he'd been traded. Of the deal, Milwaukee GM Sal Ban-do said, "Our strength was our bullpen and we've weakened it. But I'm very excited to be getting a premier center fielder who is signed for five years." Grissom will receive $25 million over that span. CLOSING IN ON BORDERS Hart said he is close to reaching an agreement with backup catcher Pat Borders. SHELDON OCKER A same pain that they felt I'm an Indian, and I think I'll always be an Indian." McDonald might be an Indian for only a year, because free agency will beckon in the fall.

On the other hand, Hart is in no hurry to sign McDonald to a multi-year deal in the wake of arthroscopic surgery to his right rotator cuff on July 29. But Hart is optimistic about McDonald's future, though he wants to see him pitch before he enters into any sort of negotiations. Last season, McDonald posted an 8-7 record and 4.06 earned-run average before shutting it down. In a nine-year career, he is 78-70 with a 3.91 ERA "I expect McDonald to be 85-90 percent by the time spring training starts," Hart said. "We want to bring him along slowly.

We think he'll be ready when the season starts, but we don't want to push him." So even though Hart calls McDonald a "front of the rotation pitcher," he might be used as the No. 5 starter for a while, giving him more time off. Gooden compiled a 9-5 record and 4.91 ERA for the Yankees in 1997, and Hart admitted that he tried to make a deal for him midway through last summer, after Gooden came back from hernia surgery. "Doc is only 33 and still in his prime," Hart said. "He did great things against us.

He will give us innings, and he's going to compete every fifth day." Gooden posted a 3-0 record and 2.25 ERA in three starts against Cleveland. "I just want to be a piece of the puzzle," Gooden said. "I want to be part of the community in Cleveland and get involved with kids in schools." Gooden has pitched his entire career in New York, first with the Mets. About leaving New York, he said, "I am definitely looking forward to the challenge. I've known John Hart and his family for many years.

If I was going to leave New York, I'm glad it was to come here." Gooden has had some well-publicized problems with substance abuse, and is required to undergo drug tests three times a week. Karsay will have a chance to earn a berth in the rotation, but it won't be easy wedging his way into a group that includes Charles Nagy, Chad Ogea, Wright, McDonald, Gooden and Bartolo Colon. Hart admitted that Karsay does not have the kind of numbers likely to make a positive impression. Last year, he posted a 3-12 record and 5.77 ERA. But two years ago he underwent a ligament transplant in his elbow (Tommy John surgery) and missed all of the 1995 and '96 seasons.

"Steve has power stuff," Hart said. "His stuff might not be quite as good as Jaret Wright's, but this kid excites us. We wanted to bring back a young pitcher, and Karsay has a huge upside." Villone gives the Indians another left-handed reliever. Before going to Milwaukee, he posted a 1-1 record and 2.95 ERA in 21 games with the Padres. In 23 relief appearances with the Brewers, he compiled no won-loss record with two saves and a 3.28 ERA his chance.

Does the name Albert Belle come to mind? Even to a lesser extent, Lofton copped that attitude. He turned down $44 million from the Tribe last spring. When he was traded, he had the gall to say he felt sorry for the children of Cleveland. Of course, Lofton could have signed for the $44 million and donated $1 million of it to kids projects in Cleveland. Then none of this would have happened.

Lofton would have stayed with the Tribe. Grissom never would have had to leave Atlanta. And we certainly would not have had this bizarre turn of events witnessed by Tribe fans yesterday. But baseball executives often treat the players just as the players treat them. It's all business.

"Players don't come cheap," said Hart "You use some assets, The place for your family's golf gifts. CALL TOLL FREE 1-888-667-7522 you hold some assets." You trade Lofton because you can't sign him then you bring back Lofton because suddenly you can sign him. Then you exile Grissom to the cold of Milwaukee. "We needed a leadoff hitter and we needed pitching," Hart said. "Trading Marquis was very painful, but these moves give us things we need." That much is true.

It just too bad baseball involves human beings. Uniforms rule After a while, you don't cheer for players anymore, just uniforms. Matt Williams wants to leave because of his divorce. Belle leaves for the love of money. Lofton comes and goes because of money.

Grissom just does what he is told. Here is a man who had several muc food wows Coming Soon HTHQ81 The Valley's Newest Sports Bar Gathering Place Watch Monday Night Football and other Sporting Events on our 2 big screens and 7 T.V.'s 1730 Merriman in the Valley, Open M-F 5pm-3am, S-S llam-3am.