Baseball

White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell is mad again—this time at anyone who wonders about his slow getaway this season (1-2, 5.74 ERA in four starts through Sunday). "Nothing I've ever done here is good enough," says the Angry One, who is usually steamed about his contract.

Blue Jay pitcher Dave Stewart believes that McDowell's anger is what motivates him. That's a view shared by at least one White Sox source, who notes that McDowell is Stanford-educated and an accomplished musician, a guy who doesn't really need baseball; so to keep pitching at a high level, he needs to be angry.

The winner of 74 games in the '90s—he's tied with the Braves' Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux for the most victories in this decade—McDowell was hit hard at times last season, when he won 22 games and became the second pitcher to finish with more hits allowed than innings pitched in a season in which he won the Cy Young Award. (The other was Pete Vuckovich of the Brewers, in 1982.)

Oddly, of the White Sox's seven losses at week's end, five of them belonged to McDowell and Alex Fernandez (1-3), who combined to win 40 games last year.

Short Hops

Shame on those fans in Seattle on April 17 and in Los Angeles last Thursday who tossed giveaway baseballs onto the field in reaction to a play they didn't like. An intentional walk to Ken Griffey Jr. (what's so shocking about that?) started the barrage at the Kingdome, and an umpire's call was the spark at Dodger Stadium. It's time for fans to start turning in the perpetrators, before someone gets hurt....

Since opening in midseason of 1989 and at the start of the '92 season, respectively, the SkyDome in Toronto and Camden Yards in Baltimore have drawn, between them, just two crowds of less than 35,000. With The Ballpark at Arlington having just opened, the struggling Rangers drew four crowds of less than 35,000 (almost 15,000 under capacity) in their first nine home games....

Through Sunday there had been only four days this season in which at least one player did not hit two home runs in a game. In all, there had been 44 multihomer games: 24 in the American League and 20 in the National—a record pace in both leagues....

One of the worst trades of the '80s was made by the Yankees when they dealt then 23-year-old outfielder Jay Buhner to Seattle for 33-year-old DH-first baseman Ken Phelps on July 21, 1988. Since the trade Buhner has hit 109 homers, including 13 against his former team. The leading Yankee home run hitter over the same period is Don Mattingly, with 77....

After five starts this season Texas ace Kevin Brown was 0-4 with a 10.86 ERA and had allowed 10 or more hits in each game. (The Red Sox's Bob Stanley, in 1987, was the last pitcher to get hit that hard in five straight starts.) Brown's hard sinker isn't sinking and his breaking ball isn't moving, yet he's so stubborn that he rarely takes the advice of his coaches. The Rangers may find that Brown doesn't have the mental makeup to be a No. 1 starter....