Deal 'em up!
Clemens, Brown ready to move as winter meetings resume
Posted: Thursday December 10, 1998 10:22 PM
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First prize: Putting all of baseball's power brokers in one place could help determine where Kevin Brown will play next year Al Bello/Allsport |
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Welcome back, winter meetings.
Shut for six years, the popular swap shop reopens for business Friday
when all of baseball -- except for the New York Yankees, that
is -- gathers at the sprawling Opryland Hotel.
Roger
Clemens is available. So is Kevin Brown. Jim Edmonds, Ryan Klesko and
Orel
Hershiser also could find new homes in the next few days.
Dozens of trades, free-agent signings and rumors on deck. Plus, a
sensitive off-the-field subject: a discussion about androstenedione, the
over-the-counter supplement used by Mark McGwire.
"To me, there's more chance of secondary type moves being made than any
blockbuster coming out of there," Houston Astros general
manager Gerry Hunsicker said, "but you never know when you get everybody
together."
Judging from the past, something big usually does happen, making the
meetings a fan's delight -- especially this year with baseball enjoying
such an amazing, riveting season.
Remember what happened the last time they held this event, back in
December 1992 in Louisville?
Greg
Maddux, Barry
Bonds and Paul Molitor
changed teams. Marge Schott publicly apologized for racial slurs. The Rev.
Jesse Jackson showed up to chastise owners. Florida Marlins
president Carl Barger collapsed and died.
And the deals kept coming, about three dozen in all. At one point,
several teams were stacked up waiting to announce moves when Philadelphia Phillies
spokesman Larry Shenk stepped to the podium.
"We've been cleared by air traffic control to go ahead," he said.
More often than not, that's how it's been at the winter meetings, which
began in 1901 and led to the term "the hot stove league."
In 1991 at Miami Beach, 51 players switched teams in less than a week. In
1990 in suburban Chicago, then-Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda applauded when
Toronto and San Diego announced a huge trade: Joe Carter and Roberto
Alomar for Fred McGriff
and Tony
Fernandez.
Need some power in your lineup? Ryan Klesko could be the answer Al Bello/Allsport | |
In 1989 at the Opryland Hotel, "Trader" Jack McKeon chomped his way
through 18 cigars during an all-day blitz that brought Carter, Fred Lynn
and Craig Lefferts to the Padres in different deals.
So much action that it brought back memories of the time Chicago White Sox
owner Bill Veeck and GM Roland Hemond actually set up an "Open for
Business" sign in the lobby of the meetings hotel.
Such fun for fans, too, that it seemed unfair when baseball decided to
stop holding them after the Louisville session.
The reason? Acting commissioner Bud Selig and other executives felt that
agents turned the gathering into gigantic bidding wars -- $43.75 million
for Bonds, for example -- and were scared off.
But this year, Selig and friends were convinced to reconvene the
meetings. They loved the offseason publicity generated by last winter's
expansion draft in Phoenix, particularly the trades of Pedro
Martinez, Robb
Nen, Travis
Fryman and others that followed, and felt safer because owners -- and
their wallets -- were holding separate meetings.
"We thought there would be more positives than negatives," Selig said.
Most everyone else appeared to agree. But the Yankees, perhaps in the
best position to trade for Clemens, decided to stay away following their
organizational meetings in Tampa, Florida.
That won't prevent the World Series champions from working out a deal
with Toronto, however, especially if owner George Steinbrenner decides he
wants the five-time Cy Young winner.
By the way Blue Jays GM Gord Ash sounded Thursday, it seemed like there
would be no deal until the weekend, at the earliest.
"I'm going to Nashville tomorrow," he said. "Some clubs aren't getting
there until Saturday, some clubs aren't getting there until Sunday."
Among the other players mentioned in trade rumors: Edmonds, Klesko, Greg Vaughn, Butch Huskey
and Brian
Anderson. Among the free agents still available: Brown, Hershiser, Rickey
Henderson, Tony Phillips,
Tim Belcher
and Tim
Naehring.
On Saturday, team doctors and trainers will talk about androstenedione,
the supplement banned in the NFL, NCAA and Olympics but so far OK in
baseball.
Also on the agenda: a draft of players left unprotected on 40-man
rosters, and a discussion by GMs on the playoff format -- specifically,
should division champions and wild-card winners meet in the first round if
they come from the same division.
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