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Foulke tale has happy ending
Posted: Friday May 26, 2000 04:14 PM
Despite an ordinary fastball that rarely tops 90 mph, White Sox reliever Keith Foulke has pushed aside Bobby Howry and taken over as the club's primary closer. Howry throws harder, but Foulke hasn't blown a save since the second day of the season. Foulke is durable, too, getting at least four outs in nine of his 21 outings, and scouts see him as a Doug Jones-type who could have a long career closing games. One scout told me: "He's got this drop-dead changeup that may be one of the best in the game. He's not a power guy. But he's fearless and he throws strikes."
Feeling a draftWith the June 5 amateur draft fast approaching, there's still no consensus on who should go first overall. The early line has San Diego high school catcher Scott Heard, a Charles Johnson-type with tremendous defensive skills, going first overall to the Marlins. There is consensus among clubs, however, on another point: Signing bonuses must be kept under control, without exception. No more J.D. Drew-style cave jobs. Scouting directors recently gathered in Atlanta for a one-day seminar on negotiating tactics. No word on whether Janet Reno gave the keynote address. But with hard-driving agent Scott Boras advising eight players considered to be potential first-round picks, teams will need all the help they can get.
All for oneDiscipline czar Frank Robinson certainly threw the book at the Dodgers after the ugliness at Wrigley Field, but privately the Dodgers had to be pleased with the esprit de corps the incident created. One day after Kreuter-gate, the Dodgers team charter spent five hours on an airport runway waiting out weather delays. Players like Terry Adams and, believe it or not, Kevin Brown took turns entertaining the team over the intercom system. Oh, it's still 25 guys, 25 cell phones in the clubhouse, but one opposing manager said he could sense "great chemistry" in the Dodgers this year."The difference," Dodgers closer Jeff Shaw told me, "is when we used to get behind last year, it was almost like the game was over. Guys were like, 'Let's get it over with. Let's go home.' That doesn't happen anymore. Winning cures everything." Mike Berardino covers baseball for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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