Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 34

8C FLORIDA TODAY, Sunday, November 12, 1989 3 HrWiitorfiiMMf ififftliiiii'niffiifi Drug conviction, jail ended Aikens' hope for stardom 4 2 DAVID SP0XTS double knits. The muscles don't look quite as strong and yet Aikens hit 11 home runs out of a spring training ballpark in Bradenton on his second day of workouts. "Like I said the other day, this league is good for a lot of folks for a lot of reasons," Aikens says carefully. "It's not going to do so much for me, but maybe some of these guys will get the chance to go back to the major leagues." Blue, incidentally, plays for the St. Lucie Legends.

Martin is a member of the St. Petersburg Pelicans. The three see each other from time-to-time. But 1983 is not a hot topic of discussion. "It's a time of my life that I really don't talk about anymore," Aikens said.

"What happened, happened. Probably what happened to us happened because we were the first in baseball (to go to court over drugs). We went to prison about it." But it's not that the man has forgotten. He's just moved on. "I was blessed with the ability to get as far as I got" Aikens said.

"For that I am thankful. I have no right to feel wronged." Willie Wilson went on to resume their playing careers after being sentenced at the same time Aikens was. Aikens, in turn, moved to Mexico and started moving heads with his long-distance homers. This past season, he just missed winning the Mexican League triple crown. He hit a league-high .395 with 37 homers (second in Mexico), 40 doubles and a league-best 131 RBI.

Surely, someone could use a pinch-hitter off the bench? "I've accepted the fact that I probably won't get another chance," Aikens said softly, admitting he's probably blackballed from the big leagues for life. "I'm just trying to carry on with my life from there." There was 1983. Now is 1989. Bradenton. The Explorers.

The Senior Professional Baseball Association. Now 36, the black beard twisting with gray, Aikens knows the best is behind him thanks largely to the worst The belly peeks out just a little through the The year was 1983, and Willie Mays Aikens had it all. He was married, he was a hero in Kansas City, as a member of the Royals and he was rich. In more ways than one. Named after the legendary Giants and Mets outfielder, Aikens broke into the big leagues with a splash in 1979.

He hit 21 home runs, drove in 81. He was 24 and playing for another California team, the Angels. He was going to be great. Just like his namesake. On April 1, 1980, just days before the season opener, the Royals gave up Ranee Mulliniks, Al Cowens and Todd Cruz plus a player to be named later for the rights to the big first baseman with the shotgun bat.

In '80, Aikens hit 20 homers, knocked in 98 runs and Kansas City went to the World Series. He hit .364 in the championship series and .400 in the Series. Willie Mays Aikens was a comer. Then something went terribly wrong. Aikens was one of three Kansas City Royal players sentenced to prison in a subsequent trial about a month later.

On Jan. 3, 1984, Willie Mays Aikens became one of the first players in professional baseball's history to serve a jail sentence for drug violations. "I used to wonder why," Aikens said. "But I'm a little more realistic now. I know." He's also a little straighter.

Or so Willie Mays Aikens claims. He's also a lot poorer. Aikens was suspended without pay from Dec. 15, 1983-May 16, 1984. Kansas City released him.

The Toronto Blue Jays gave Aikens a final chance. He played two years in Canada, with averages of .205 and .200 in 93 and 12 games during the 1984 and 1985 seasons. In '85, the Jays shipped Aikens to their Class AAA Syracuse club. The man with the famous name never returned to Toronto. His big league career was over.

Vida Blue, Jerry Martin and Grote home run lifts Legends 10-9 FLORIDA TODAY Wires PORT ST. LUCIE Jerry Grate's three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday afternoon lifted the struggling St Lucie Legends past Fort Myers 10-9 in senior league baseball. Grote's game-winning homer overshadowed a three home-run game by Amos Otis of the Sun Sox. The game stayed tied until the top of the ninth, when Otis hit his third home run, a three-run shot, to give the Sun Sox a 9-6 lead. In other Senior Professional Baseball Association play: Bill Madlotk hit a second-inning home run and a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the fourth, lifting Orlando to a 6-4 win against the St.

Petersburg Pelicans. Juice starter Bob Galasso (2-0) pitched seven innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs and striking out two. A solid pitching performance by Jim Bibby and an unearned run in the eighth inning enabled Winter Haven to hang on to a 4-3 victory against the Bradenton Explorers. Bibby, who suffered a pulled hamstring, left the game in the sixth inning with two outs after he gave up four hits and two runs. Tom Underwood stranded runners in scoring position during three innings as the West Palm Beach Tropics defeated the Gold Coast Suns 6-2.

Underwood left with a 3-0 lead in the sixth. Rennie Stennett hit a two-run homer off Lowell Palmer and it was suddenly 3-2, but that was as close as the Suns would get Standings, In 1981, the Royals lost a divisional playoff. Aikens had 17 homers, a total he matched in '82. Then came 1983. And suddenly, it was over.

Word began to leak throughout baseball that there were serious problems in the game and with its players. By the time the Pittsburgh drug trial ended, a long line of baseball's stars had marched into a courtroom and admitted to selling, buying and-or using drugs. 10TES Morley re-creates big-league dreams 1 WMMM. IHIW A. I Seniors long way from Old-Timers WEST PALM BEACH It is 15 minutes before the game, and the ground crew is at work fixing the field.

All three of them. Two guys are putting down the chalk lines fv" fJ" Leaving family 2nd time tough And you think baseball fans are confused. Imagine being a member of one of the senior league players' families. "At first, my family was a little (upset)," Orlando Juice outfielder Jose Cruz said of his return to baseball. "I have a 5-year-old son and before I left (Houston) to come here, he came up to me and said, 'Dad, don't go.

Please stay Cruz chuckles, then quickly adds, "My family understands a little better now." Friends of the former Houston Astros star were a little more understanding. "They were excited for me," he said. "People always want to know what I'm doing. They know I could still be playing for the Astros and helping the team. "But I had to go a different way.

I'm playing now because I enjoy it. I still love the game." A question that is screaming for an answer: Why in the world is the senior league playing night baseball games in December and January? a It's a well-known fact St. Petersburg, Orlando, St. Lucie and Bradenton will see temperatures dipping into the 40s with several nights in the 30s during those months. Florida is Florida, but it still gets colder during the winter nights.

The league says it is caught in a situation where day games wouldn't attract large enough crowds (though it is smart in scheduling mostly day games on weekends). Players' opinions vary. "What's going to happen when these guys come out here and a lot of them are a little older and it starts getting cold at night, their team is in last place and there aren't any fans in the stands?" asks Orlando player Bill Madlock, who also admits the teams are playing too many games (with a 72-game schedule plus playoffs and an all-star contest). "Sure it's going to get a little cold," St. Lucie outfielder Bobby Bonds said.

"But the game is still played the same. It shouldn't bother the players that much. 1 FALLS stcxts while another is raking the dirt around home plate. Welcome to the Senior Professional Baseball Association this new venture in which some of these older geezers are trying to prove they can pull a ball into the right-field corner and make it into second base without hobbling. Or without a wheelchair.

When a pro golfer can't make it on the PGA Tour anymore, he winter to dip into the fans' (and advertisers') pockets even earlier and further. "From a business standpoint it's another area of competition for our ballclubs," Florida State League president George MacDonald said prior to being voted out of office in mid-October. "I think a number of our clubs expect possible difficulties. "If someone has already dipped into their pocket once, they may be a little less likely to dig a little deeper to come back for the (FSL) season. And that's not to mention the advertising dollars, which there are only so many available." Morley admits the new league could be an adjustment for all concerned, but makes it clear he isn't after anyone else's revenue.

In fact he is conceding that every team in the league will lose money this season. "I would expect each team to lose $200,000 or so the first year," Morley said. "In St. Pete, we expect to do very well and I'd be very happy if we didn't lose more than $100,000. That would be doing great "But, really, I don't think anybody can really lose that much.

Everybody's total budget for the season is at the lowest $870,000, with the highest at $1.05 million. That means if they didn't sell one ticket, one hot dog or one parking place, that's all they could lose. "And you're talking about some pretty influential people here. One of them is mentioned in the Forbes 400 and another is into five digits in the millions of dollars. Really, of all the teams, ours at St Pete has the weakest ownership." And if an owner wants to spend more would the league allow it? "Probably not" Morley said.

"Remember, you're not talking about the USFL here. They'd probably have to do something else." Morley notes that written into each player's contract is a stipulation each player must do a certain amount of community service. The idea is to give something back to the communities and show, at the same time, that the teams are here for the long haul. It was his idea. Morley insists that the league will work.

But the multi-million dollar owners will have to lose, between them, about $1.5 million this year and possibly a little more next year. But what owners are hoping for is an investment in time will lead to something bigger and better using the Senior PGA Tour phenomenon as a guiding light. "We've got a lot of good, solid players in this league," Morley said. "The talent is going to show, that's what's going to make the league. "I really, honestly, think we can makeagoofit." 77 So do a lot of others, who are putting their money where their mouths are.

SPBA founder likes chances for league By David Jones FLORIDA TODAY Morley Companies is a real estate firm which has made Jim Morley a well-off man with a high standing in society. But it is the game of baseball which kept calling him through the years. The 33-year-old Colorado Springs, resident once dreamed of being a big league baseball player. He played on a Fresno team in the California League that featured Chili Davis and Dan Gladden in the same outfield. Alas, Morley was a .200 hitter with .350 ambitions.

The San Francisco Giants released him. Morley went on to join the real world. Ten years later, he's back with new dreams and ambitions. Morley is the father of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. Only this time, hitting a curveball or a cutoff man is child's play.

Morley's creation has Old-Timers and establishment abuzz. Not everyone's happy, either. The Chicago White Sox, for example, were less than pleased, according to Morley, that an SPBA team wanted to play on its spring training field Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota until early February. "We just said, 'We don't need it. Let's go to Morley says.

Originally supposed to be based in Daytona Beach, the team jumped to Sarasota then got a new ownership (headed by Greg Sirota) and shifted to Bradenton. All this without playing a single game or selling a single ticket (which costs, by the way, about $6 on the average). Asked what such a double move does to his league's credibility, Morley says, "We've had absolutely no trouble at all anywhere else. If there have been problems (besides Daytona Beach-Sara-sota-Bradenton), they have been small ones. I think we're in good shape "The Pirates, the Twins, the Red Sox, the Expos, the Mets, the Cardinals; they've all been very good to us." Rumors contradict his claims.

In St. Petersburg, the Florida State League's franchise could be damaged by the presence of an SPBA team, the Pelicans owned, incidentally, by Morley. St Lucie rolled out the carpet to the Legends at the tune of in rental fees for the rights to play 36 games there. Out of the eight clubs, only the Miami-Pompano Beach, Bradenton and Fort Myers clubs will get the majority of the concessions and parking rights. Everyone else must give large shares to cities.

Those rights are probably the difference between seeing red or black at the end of the season. waits until he is 50 and goes on the Senior Tour. Almost nobody notices the difference in his play, and everyone is glad to see him back. Chi Chi Rodriguez over a putt is a wonderful sight, especially when he cans the ball and dances merrily around the hole, using his putter as a saber. It's fun for all.

It is a little different in baseball. You need legs to play this game and the For FLORIDA TODAY JIM MORLEY: Played in the San Francisco Giants organization. Perhaps the most concerned about the new league is the Class A Florida State League owners. Traditionally, FSL clubs have suffered badly in the first two months of the 140-game season. With most of the FSL clubs being affiliated with the major leagues 13 of the 14 teams replace big league clubs in huge ballparks after spring training fans are often baseballed-out or financially tired of paying for opportunities to view the game.

The fact the FSL is low-minor leagues hurts even more. Now, along comes the SPBA in the We ve all played in different types of conditions before." Attendance in the first days of the Senior Professional Baseball Association season was about as different as a 50-year-old pitcher and a 32-year-old catcher. Winter Haven drew 324 fans for a midweek game. The Gold Coast club had 609 at its second game in Pompano Beach. On the flip side, St Lucie drew 3,100 opening night St.

Pete had 4,071, while Fort Myers averaged 1,408 for its first five home dates (2,302 on opening night). David Jones Sun Sox's Otis still has lot of sock left in his swing concern is these 35-and-older players will only make themselves look foolish and taint the game that was so good to them and so special to us. The legs go first, and if a player can't run, he can't hide it, and the embarrassment is felt by all. Well, folks, forget it. These guys are not going to remind us of Rickey Henderson, but neither are they going to look like the fat men at an office picnic.

They are not like the ones you see at Old-Timers games. After just a few innings, you could see they still know how to play the game. They can do many of the things they used to do in their younger days. That includes legging out a double into the right-field corner. Not as fast maybe, but not bad.

(Remember, the right fielder is a touch slower, too). I was surprised. I expected the worst. I feared the worst. Some of these guys become a part of your life and you don't want them to look silly for the sake of a few bucks.

Say hello to El Tiante, the bearded, happy-go-lucky, tobacco-chewing senor of the Gold Coast Suns, pitcher Luis Tiant, now 49. If it brings back a memory or two, fine. If Dave Kingman can put one into the palm trees, even better. It might make the fans twitter a little. What's wrong with a little twittering? No harm done and, besides, how much TV or how many movies can you see on these balmy nights in Florida.

A ball game and a cold beer might be a pleasant diversion. Besides, El Tiante went four innings the other night and gave up only four hits and one earned run, walking none and striking out one. I saw the Gold Coast Suns (Miami-Pompano), managed by Earl Weaver, play the West Palm Beach Tropics (managed by Dick Williams). As I say, the quality of play surprised me. They looked in shape not a belly in the bunch and they knew how to make the plays.

That was the most impressive thing. They knew what they were doing, which set them apart from minor league players, who, though younger and stronger, struggle to learn the intricacies of the games. It doesn't make these older guys more appealing, just different The one factor that is all important is this business of pride. These players are not here to make a lot of money. That's just not available.

Their teams have salary caps, which means the most anyone can make is about a thousand bucks a game. What drives them is a desire to play to still be involved in a game they knew since childhood and it is the same as ever when they take the field. They don't want to look bad, so they keep pushing themselves to do well. (Joe Falls is columnist tor Gannett News Service and the Detroit News.) Home ran leaders Through Thursday Otis, Fort Myers 4 Lacy, W. Palm Beach .3 Madlock, Orlando .....2 Morrison, Bradenton .2 RBI leaders Through Thursday Otis, Fort Myers ..17 Driessen, Fort Myers 14 Henderson, St.

Pete .9 Cooper, Winter Haven .8 Benton, St. Pete ...8 All the Royals except Otis dropped down two bunts before taking their cuts. When Otis stepped in the cage, he gestured for the player fielding bunts to step aside. Coach Steve Boros took the player's position on the third-base line, about 10 feet from home plate. He told Otis to bunt.

Otis ignored the command and lined a shot past Boros, who didn't budge. The coach stayed on the field. The "Baseball Anecdotes" account continues: "Get out of the way," Otis said. "Throw it!" Boros yelled to the mound, still staring at Otis. "Throw the ball," Otis yelled to the batting practice pitcher.

"Throw it!" Boros yelled. The pitcher threw. Otis swung. He bounced the ball off the overhead rail of the cage. Boros didn't move.

The pitcher threw once again. Otis drew his bat back. This time, he dropped a bunt down in front of Boros. Boros moved toward the first-base line. Otis dropped down another perfect bunt "How's that rjeve?" Otis asked.

I By Glenn Miller FLORIDA TODAY FORT MYERS Amos Otis had never done it. Fort Myers Sun Sox manager Pat Dobson had never seen it. In a combined half-century or so in professional baseball, the two have played, coached or watched thousands of games. All those games went by without a player whacking three consecutive three-run homers. Until last week.

Otis, a 42-year-old outfielder with the Sun Sox of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, hit a three-run homer Monday against the Gold Coast Suns. In his first two at-bats against the Suns on Tuesday, he hit two more three-run shots. Otis, often known by his initials, was modest. "When the wind blows, A.O. will go," he said.

Despite his home run binge, Otis said he doesn't go to bat thinking home run. "Never crossed my mind," he said. "Just trying to put it in py" the last year I had in the major leagues," Otis said. "That was a disastrous year for me, like a thorn in the side. I wanted to go out on a good note.

"I don't want to be embarrassed. I was embarrassed in '84." Otis played 17 years in the big leagues, was an All-Star five times, led the American League in doubles twice and steals once, hit .300 twice, played in four American League Championship Series and hit .478 in the 1980 World Series. Most of his career was spent with the Kansas City Royals, where he's among the club's all-time leaders in virtually every offensive statistic. Now, Otis is a hitting instructor for the San Diego Padres and Dobson is their pitching coach. During his career with the Royals, Otis nearly made one of his coaches eat a baseball during batting practice.

The incident has been retold in the book "Baseball Anecdotes." According to authors Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf, Manager Whitey Herzog ha1 ordered the team to practice itsfrunting. "They'll do," Boros said. Last week, Otis was asked about the incident. "To this day I can remember exactly what happened," he said, offering details a little different from the written account but substantially the same. "Taking batting practice.

I was struggling a little bit. I wanted to get some good hacks in. I thought that was more important, but what's more important is the man in charge. "He stood there. Right on the first-base side.

I said throw the ball, so the guy threw the ball. I hit a rocket by his head. He didn't bat an eye. He said, 'Come on, Otis, you got to bunt one. I said throw the ball.

I hit another rocket by his head. He never did bat an eye. I said what the hell." Otis said he then bunted the next two pitches. "He said, 'Thanks, Otis said. "I said, 'All right fine, Otis said his line drives missed Boros' head by about 2 feet.

"I apologized to him in front of the guys," he said. "He never hld it against me." Although Otis had a long, distinguished career, he said he's motivated in the senior league by the memory of his last dismal season 1984 when he hit .165 with no home runs for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He left his family in San Diego and drove cross-country last month with one goal in mind. "Just try to redeem myself for.