Daily News from New York, New York • 326

Baseball rJolDoaBODS life IflD XDlaODa1iDDD 'Arrest was misunderstanding5 MMfMHEU. Dick WBBams (L) managed A's to 2 titles, now scouts for Yanks. Uencfelll lost, then found never pleaded no contest. I'd have pleaded not guilty." According to Williams, after he saw the police arrive, he closed his door, put on his pajamas and went to bed. Moments later, the officer placed him under arrest- He was then taken to the police station in his pajamas and spent the night in jail.

The next day, they took me before the judge the whole thing took about 30 seconds and they said I was charged with indecent exposure," Williams said. That's all they said. I was never read my rights or given the opportunity to give my own statement of what happened. I never knew about this other (masturbation) stuff until I read it in the newspapers. The judge said if I pleaded no contest, they wouldn't prosecute the case and the charges would be dropped." Williams said he called George Stein-brenner to give his side of the story and the Yankees owner told him he'd get back to him regarding his future status with the balklub.

Compounding the embarrassing arrest is that Williams, who managed the Oakland A's to back-to-back world championships in 1972-73, is a leading candidate to be voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee next month. "I'm angry about how this got reported," Williams said, "but I'm even more embarrassed for my wife and kids. I did not do the things I'm accused of. I didn't leave my room. The only thing I'm guilty of is bad judgment." Bf BU MA0OOI An embarrassed and contrite Dick Williams angnly denies the lurid details of his arrest on indecent exposure charges in Fort Myers.

Fla. two weeks ago and contends he'd have never pleaded no contest had he been informed of the details. "This is a terrible misunderstanding," Williams said in a phone conversation with the Daily News yesterday. "I admit I was guilty of indecent exposure, but I was definitety'not flashing anyone and the other things in the report are just ridiculous." The 70-year-old Williams, who managed three different teams to the World Series and now works as a part-time scout for the Yankees, was arrested Jan. 17 at the Radisson Hotel in Fort Myers after a woman, who worked at a drug store next door, called police with a complaint that he was "walking naked and masturbating" on the balcony outside his second floor room.

According to the police report, upon his arrival the arresting officer spotted Williams standing in his hotel room doorway "naked and when he saw me he turned and went inside." "I just wasn't thinking," Williams said. 'Yes. I was standing in front of my door with no clothes on and, yes, 1 had my hand over my private parts. But I wasn't on the balcony, I wasn't flashing and 1 definitely wasn't masturbating. My god, I'm 70 years old.

If -I had known that that's what was in the report, I'd have By RAFAEL HERM0S0 DWUr NEWS SPORTS WRITER A routine trip into the woods for Turk Wendell nearly turned into the "Blair Witch Project" when he was stranded overnight in the Rocky Mountain foothills outside Denver. But Wendell and his guide suffered only dehydration and provided a scare for Wendell's eight-month pregnant wife, Barbara. And they got their prey, a 180-pound mountain lion. "I'm as home in the woods as I am on the baseball field," Wendell said through a team spokesman. "My only concern was for my wife, Barbara, because I left my cell phone in my car several miles away and I had no way of contacting her.

I was really concerned she might go into labor worrying." Wendell safely returned to his family yesterday after his wife had notified authorities, the team said. Wendell and guide Jeff Parise went hunting into Pike National Forest, about 30 miles outside of Denver. They decid ed to spend the night when they realized they could not return to their car by nightfall. Without sleeping bags or overnight equipment, they made a fire in the minus-10-degree temperatures. Rescuers found the two on their way out of the park at about 10:30 a.m.

yesterday. Brooks a Met: Country megastar Garth Brooks agreed to join the Mets for spring training to raise money for his Touch 'Em All Foundation for children's charities. "We're part of the entertainment industry and I think it will add some excitement to our spring," Mets GM Steve Phillips said. Brooks, a switch-hitter who plays third base and left field, first spoke with several Mets players at a foundation function this winter. He is expected to participate with the Mets until the team breaks camp for a trip to Japan on March 24.

A season in the minor leagues was not discussed, Phillips said. Brooks, who did the same thing last season with the Padres, will report with position players on Feb. 20 and begin workouts Feb. 21. if Oft GMOSft lb pDODD ftOGDD uuu DURING THE last days of October 1998, the New York Mets signed Mike Piazza to the richest contract in baseball history.

At $91 million, it was about S3 million more than the deal he turned down with the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier that year. This record-breaking deal incited a predictably grim rituaL First, came the obligatory observation from our leading social scientists that S9I million er. What's more, Gonzalez's status as the third batter in a gloriously potent lineup did nothing to prevent the Texas Rangers from dropping their last six playoff games to the Yankees. In fact, if Gonzalez was really so big and bad with the bat, you wonder how a big-spending, big-revenue team like the Rangers could have ever let him go in the first place. MARK KRIEGEL j' was an obscene amount as compensation for a grown man playing a child's game.

Second, the warning: Contracts like these would only serve to accelerate the game's demise- The empire was about to topple, a victim of its own greed and excess. Notably absent from this chorus of wise men (this wise man included) was Over the next year, these same arguments will be advanced on behalf of prospective free agents Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Chipper Jones, Manny Ramirez, Mike Hampton and Derek Jeter, whose proposed $118.5 million deal went from richest -ever to dinosaur-hood in a mere nine days. Who'd have thought George Stein- "Since 1876, every single owner has been of the same mind," Orza said Friday. "He'll tell you he doesn't have enough pitching or enough money." Now some owners complain about competitive balance, too. It's a problem.

That's why baseball needs minimum team payrolls before a salary cap. You also hear about teams with one nine-figure salary superstar teaming with a bunch of underpaid, glorified minor leaguers. This is not such a problem, as evidenced by the fact that the median player's salary has almost doubled since the '94 strike. So maybe the game isn't about to go under after all. "At a certain point," Orza said, "after hearing the same thing for 30, 40, 50 years, you begin to wonder." Even sportswriters begin to wonder; salaries only lag behind the ability to imagine them.

Once upon a time, in 1976, Reggie Jackson asked: "Do you ever think there will be a million dollar ballplayer?" Ten years later, Don Mattingly, then the best hitter in baseball, asked for twice that much in arbitration. "Mattingly is a hell of a ballplayer," Steinbrenner said. "But I don't think there is a $2 million one in the picture." STEINBRENNER LOST that arbitration case. Twelve years later, he has an $87 million outfielder and a $1 18.5 million offer on the table for another dinosaur, his shortstop. Soon, you'll hear about how Steinbrenner can't afford to be Steinbrenner anymore.

But, someway, somehow, Mike Ditch, the pizza guy one Gene Orza, associate general counsel for the players union. "In three years," be said, "the contract will be brenner would find himself upstaged by Mike Ditch, the Tiger owner who made his fortune franchising Little Caesars Pizza. The Tigers are a small-revenue club; the Gonzalez deal is four times the team's 1999 payroll. Even with a new stadium like the one that opens this coming season, the Tigers are not supposed to be able to afford players like Juan Gonzalez. Ask Bud Selig.

Ask all the usual suspects. What this deal signifies (beyond middle America's insatiable appetite for bad pizza) is nothing less than the beginning of the end. What Ditch has done here is terrible and irrational. Doesnt matter if the American economy is more prosperous than ever. In the long run, owners cant afford to a dinosaur.

Never has Orza been so wrong. Three years? In fact, it was closer to three weeks. That same offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers who couldnt afford Mike Piazza went out and committed $105 million to Kevin Brown, a veteran pitcher still in pursuit of his first 20-win season. Now. comes word that the Detroit Tigers will sign Juan Gonzalez to a deal worth $140 for eight seasons, just as soon as he takes care of some personal matters in his native Puerto Rico.

Gonzalez is one of baseball's top RBI men. By the same token, he is a mediocre outfielder and, as his self-imposed exile from last year's AD-Star Game suggests, something less than you want from your franchise play-, as CO pay these prices. Then again, they always da from Detroit, he can afford to be Steinbrenner. I I.