Southern Illinoisan from Carbondale, Illinois • Page 18

Page 2B The Southern Illinoisan, SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2000 Major League Baseball BASEBALL NOTES Stephenson truly a one-hit wonder NL Mfm a 1 w-'-1" a. in, 4, fiJ i X- Jf 1 By Ken Daley The Dallas Morning News DALLAS St. Louis righthander Garrett Stephenson already has won a career-high 12 games. But he's not quite so proficient with a bat. In fact, though it took some doing, Stephenson managed last week to push his number of shutouts past his number of hits.

He entered last Saturday's game against Atlanta with one of each, then lined a ball into right field in the second inning. Braves right fielder Brian Jordan fielded the ball and threw Stephenson out before he reached first base. Stephenson's revenge was to complete a five-hit shutout of the Braves. But after his no-decision Thursday against Colorado, Stephenson still has two shutouts and one hit (l-for-42, "I would think it's easier to get two hits than two shutouts," Stephenson said. Something in the water? NL coaches have been dropping like flies recently, all connected some way with Cincinnati.

First it was Reds pitching coach Don Gullett, who missed five games while undergoing tests to determine the cause of chest pains he felt while in New York. Two days later, Florida Marlins infield coach Tony Taylor was hospitalized in Cincinnati with stomach pains believed to be related to low blood sugar. Two more days passed before Reds bench coach Ken Griffey Sr. was hospitalized with chest pains. As in Gullett's case, heart problems were ruled out, but Griffey underwent an arthros- AP photo A sign of the times: St.

Louis Cardinals' Jim Edmonds, signing autographs prior to the start of a game at Busch Stadium, has become one of the most popular players in St. Louis. Edmonds, St. Louis a perfect fit ST. LOUIS (AP) Sometimes, you have to leave southern California for your star to shine.

In his hometown of Anaheim, Jim Edmonds was, according to some, a showboat outfielder who always timed his spectacular catches for maximum effect, a malingerer, clubhouse poison. He missed the second half of last season with a knee injury, and shouldered blame in absentia. "I was being blamed for having the manager fired and I wasn't even at the stadium for three months," he said. In St. Louis, he's the people's choice.

This week it's Edmonds, and not home run king Mark McGwire, gracing the cover of The Sporting News. For a story naming St. Louis the best sports town in America, he's pictured with the city's two MVPs, Kurt Warner of the Rams and Chris Pronger of the Blues, the implication made crystal clear that he could, too, be an MVP. The Cardinals acquired Edmonds a week before the season began for 18-game winner Kent Bottenfield and second baseman Adam Kennedy, and though Kennedy has played well there's no doubt who got the better deal. McGwire told Edmonds in spring training that he'd love it in St.

Louis. "There's no other place to play in the country," McGwire said then. "You'll see how these fans appreciate baseball players." The Cardinals' courtship with their new star, and their new star's courtship with his fans, didn't take long. In mid-May, the Cardinals invested in Edmonds for the long term, signing him to a six-year, $57 million contract. It's the longest, most expensive deal in franchise history.

No one can wipe that big smile off Edmonds' face. "Things," he said, "are very different here." He ad. heim play a baseball game, and their scores are never in the paper the next day, and they're on SportsCenter when I'm in bed. "I think you get a little more exposure here, especially with Mark here and what he's done and what the city has done." And, of course, what he has done. "He's the complete player," manager Tony La Russa said.

Edmonds hit the All-Star break as a prime MVP candidate, and he's barely slowed since McGwire was sidelined by a severe case of tendinitis in his right knee on July 6. Edmonds led the major leagues with 104 runs scored and ranked among the leaders in batting average, home runs, walks, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. With almost two months to go, he wras one awray from liis career best of 33 homers and 16 away from Ms career best in runs both set in 1995. "He's a big-time candidate for MVP, there's no doubt in my mind," Cardinals batting coach Mike Easier said. "Take lum off our ballclub, see where we'd be." Easier said Edmonds' smooth, inside-out swing is a classic.

"It's beautiful, one of the prettiest I've ever seen," Easier said. "Championship caliber." Where he'd be without this change of pace and scenery, Edmonds can't say. He just wishes his old Angels teammates could get a taste of the red carpet treatment he receives in St. Louis, and he's running out of ways to express his pleasure playing in a town that lives and dies with his new team. "Every couple days I talk to somebody that says they used to drive two hours to watch Cardinals games," Edmonds said.

"That's ovemhelming to me. "I'm not just talking about the fans, either, I'm talking about the whole picture of what it's like to be in a city that's just driven by sports and generations of people come to see you." So far, the only down side to fame is he has to check the rear view mirror for stalkers every time he leaves the park. "I grew up in Anaheim, so everybody knew who I was," he said. "Here, you're more of an idolized figure, I guess. But I wouldn't say it bothers me." Rodriguez may stay with Seattle copic shoulder operation that will prevent him from pitching batting practice the rest of the season.

And after two more days, Atlanta pitching coach Leo Maz-zone fainted on the visiting bench at Cinergy Field, succumbing to a strenuous afternoon workout with no food in his system. Mazzone suffered a scrape and bloody nose when he turn- bled off the bench, but otherwise, checked out fine. "They did a CT scan of my brain, and found Mazzone said, awaiting his rim shot. Sosa to stay? Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa, who was eager to join the New York Yankees six weeks ago until George Stein-brenner decided not to offer him a $17 million annual salary, now says he expects to finish his career at Wrigley Field. "There is no doubt we are going to work together and resolve the whole situation," said Sosa, whose current contract runs through 2001.

"There is no doubt I'm seeing my career finish here. When 'the trade talks started, it was pretty close. It could have gone either way. But now I have nothing to worry about." Nothing, so long as Cubs president and GM Andy MacPhail meets Sosa's expected price. MacPhail more likely will offer $14 million to $16 million per year, testing Sosa's claim that liis next deal "is not about the money, not about dollars, it's about respect." AL league record of 257 hits in a season, Erstad now is on pace for 249 hits.

That would still be the most in the majors since 1930, when Bill Terry had 254 hits and Chuck Klein 250. I want you to want me Jose Canseco's transition this week into New York Yankees pinstripes was more than a little awkward. Manager Joe Torre made it clear he was no fan of an acquisition he said "stunned" and "surprised" him. And general manager Brian ashman admitted he claimed Canseco off the waiver wire only to block him from being traded to another contender, never expecting Tampa Bay would surrender him for the $20,000 claiming price. Now the Yankees are obligated to pay the final $1 million of Canseco's $3 million salary, and are stuck with a one-dimensional player they really don't need.

The move also cost the champs their best defensive outfielder off the bench, as Ryan Thompson was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Canseco. "I'd definitely rather play where I'm wanted," Canseco said, "but I'll adapt to it the best I can." THE REAL DEAL SINCE 1932 UNIVERSITY PLACE (Across from University Mall) 1340 E. MAIN 618-549-0765 Also in Paducah 270-443-1401 and Cape Girardeau 573-335-9194 BeanbaU victims also take a mental beating So far, the fit has been perfect. For the first half of the season, Edmonds was the perfect compliment to McGwire, deflecting fame from a player happy to have a little peace and quiet. Living in the Midwest, surprisingly, has been good for publicity, too.

The brief character assassination he was subjected to in the first week of the season first came a Sports Illustrated piece, "He's no Angel," and next came an ESPN sitdown interview on the same subject subsided quickly. Last month, Ken Griffey Jr. spent a few days trying to deny reports he complained to ESPN that SportsCenter was filling its highlight reel with Edmonds' wall-scaling catches and clutch hitting while ignoring liis exploits. "I heard all kinds of stories," Edmonds said. To him, it's more about timing and time zones than anything he's done on the field.

It's not surprising that he's already purchased a home in St. Louis County. "We're not playing at midnight on the East Coast," Edmonds said. "I've had people tell me they've never seen Ana am bone and a cut sewed up with three stitches. Once the swelling of his face subsides, the only physical reminder Girardi will have is a slightly crooked nose.

He did not go on the disabled list, and says he hopes to be back in the lineup this weekend. The hardest part of coming back from a pitch to the head, however, may not be the physical recovery, but the mental rehabilitation. "I hope it will be the same, and I envision it being the same, but you don't really know until you go through it," Girardi said. "I don't have any fears about playing, but we'll have to see what happens when I go up there." If he has put aside his fear, Girardi already has overcome liis biggest obstacle, Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. "To be a good hitter, you can't have fear," Piniella said.

"You've got to feel comfortable that the helmet offers you ample protection, number one, and number two, that these tilings happen very rarely and the chances of it happening to the same player twice are very remote." Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo, hospitalized after being hit in the left cheek by a pitch from the Mets' Jack Fisher in 1966, said his return which came less than two weeks after he'd been carted off the field on a stretcher was aided by the fact that he knew why he was hit. In an effort to foil an oversliifted defense, Santo shifted his feet and tried to go to right field. "I moved my body and locked myself up," he said. "The ball was up and in where a normal knockdown pitch was that I would get away from. But I locked in and got it.

And I knew it was my fault. I had no ill effects because I knew why I had been hit." Most players are not that sanguine. The Marin 3rs' Edgar Martinez has avoided a beaning in the big leagues, but wr hit in the head as a minor leaguer. "It takes some time until that image and that thought get off your mind," Martinez acknowledged. "At the time it happened to me, it was probably late in the season, and I remember the thought (of being hit) was there the rest of the season." By Avani Patel and Teddy Greenstein The Chicago Tribune CHICAGO He held a towel to his face, trying in vain to stanch the blood flowing from his nose.

Aided by teammates and members of the Cubs' medical staff, he stumbled groggily toward the clubhouse. That he could stand up at all might have been considered a minor miracle. Joe Girardi was down for only a couple of minutes after getting hit in the face by a Woody Wil-. liams fastball in the eighth inning of the Cubs' 6-3 victory at San Diego on Aug. 5.

But they were the kind of minutes that, if vou to treat it as an accident. "When you're in a car accident, you're not afraid to get back in the car. It's like an accident. It happened. You've got to get back in there and try to forget about it.

You can't let it affect you or your hitting." The Mets' Mike Piazza has followed that advice, continuing to put up big numbers in the wake of a beaning last month by the Yankees' Roger Clemens that Piazza charged wras intentional. Johnson expects Girardi to resume his All-Star season seamlessly. "A guy like Joe Girardi, he's one of those hard-nosed type of players where he might just let it go and just keep playing and forget about it," he said. With his lingering congestion and a voice muffled by what sounds like a head cold, Girardi is still not fully recovered. But he knows the injury could have been much worse.

"Hie way I look at it is that I was really blessed because tliis (the fractured nose and the stitches) is all I have," he said. "It could have been a lot wrorse, but God was protecting me." Said Piniella: "The first few at bats after you get plunked pretty good, it's a little difficult. When I played, I got hit one time, and the first couple of at-bats were not the most comfortable. But then I did what I had always done, which was go into the ball." Fisher made it a point to tell Santo he had not hit liim on purpose. "It's almost always a mistake," Johnson said, adding that a beaning can affect the pitcher as much as it does the batter.

Hard-throwing reliever Ken Ta-tum seemed to lose his effectiveness after liitting the Orioles' Paul Blair in the head in 1970. And though shoulder problems are blamed for former Sox reliever Bobby Tliigpen's rapid decline from liis record-setting 57-save season of 1990, he was visibly upset after liitting Oakland's Terry Steinbach in the face in 1991. "Some guys really get bothered by it," Johnson said. "You don't want to hurt somebody's career or end somebody's career on a ball that you didn't mean to hit them in the face." The best way for a batter to get over a beaning, said White Sox liitting coach Von Joshua, is By Ken Daley The Dallas Morning News DALLAS New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said good friend Alex Rodriguez of Seattle could well follow the lead of Atlanta's Chipper Jones, passing on tliis winter's free-agent auction by signing a contract extension to stay put. "Alex likes Seattle," Jeter said.

"He likes (that the) team is winning now. Everyone's making it seem like they have no chance of signing him. I don't think that's necessarily true." Rodriguez, who has had little to say about his pending free-agent status this year, smiled when told of Jeter's remarks. "He's my friend, right?" Rodriguez said. "Friends are supposed to talk and share their thoughts.

He knows me better than anyone in the game. So maybe everyone might listen to what he says." Fading fast Anaheim's Darin Erstad entered the Angels' weekend series against New York mired in liis first extended slump of the season. Erstad, who was batting .383 after liis first 100 games, was ll-for-62 (.177) in his next 14, dropping lus average to .357. Erstad's record-breaking liits pace has also fallen off. On track at the All-Star break to shatter George Sisler's 1920 major TO (f (T 'V Shoes And Boots, I Hard Working DUU15 10 OFF ROCKY Shoes 6 Boots I shoecamival com I i CM -r- sX' rVv cms; were watching, you remember them second by second.

Inflicting physical pain on. an opponent is nothing new in sports. Hockey players use their full body weight to check each other into the boards. Football players plow into each other dozens of times a game, the harder the better. Boxers, unprotected by pads or cushions, attempt to pound the opponent's face into an unrecognizable stew.

Still, the sight of a batter being hit in the head by a baseball is singular in the horror it induces. It's simple science. Force, as we are taught in high school physics, equals mass times acceleration. Stationary, a five-ounce baseball is harmless. But speeding up to as much as 100 miles an hour in a fraction of a second, that baseball becomes a dangerous projectile by the time it travels the 60 feet, six inches from mound to batter's box.

Some careers have ended with a beaning. One player, Cleveland's Ray Chapman, was killed when he was hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch in 1920. Others have resumed their careers with no visible problems, but the fear is always there, even if it goes largely unspoken in the macho world of baseball. "Some guys really forget about it, but I've seen some guys get timid," said the White Sox's Charles Johnson, a catcher who is usually first on the scene when batter goes down. Girardi was fortunate.

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