Baseball

FROM PINSTRIPES TO PALE HOSE

It took Bobby Bonds 14 notable seasons before the "Traded for Bonds" all-star team reached chic status. Now we have Ron Hassey. It was only 26 months ago that Hassey was traded for the first time, but since then he has racked up some serious frequent flyer mileage by being dealt from Cleveland to Chicago to New York to Chicago to New York to Chicago for:

C Joel Skinner
1B Brian Dayett
2B Wayne Tolleson
3B Scott Bradley
SS Mike Soper
LF Ron Kittle
CF Joe Carter
RF Mel Hall
P Neil Allen, Don Schulze, Ray Fontenot and Britt Burns.

As you may recall, Hassey was traded by the Yankees to the White Sox last December, along with Joe Cowley, for Burns, Soper and minor league outfielder Glen Braxton. Then in February, after Carlton Fisk refused to go to the South Bronx, Hassey was sent back to the Yanks for Allen, Braxton and Bradley. Hassey was bouncing back and forth so fast he failed to make either the White Sox' or Yankees' media guides.

Last week Hassey, minor league infielder Carlos Martinez and a player to be named later—either pitcher Brian Fisher or pitcher Bob Tewksbury—went to Chicago for DH Kittle, utility infielder Tolleson and catcher Skinner. The wheeling and dealing between George Steinbrenner and the Reinhorn twins has become tiresome, not only to Hassey and Braxton, who up and quit, but to other major league owners as well.

The Yankee owner is attempting to patch up some holes. At the time of the deal the Yanks were 11-18 in games started by opposing lefties. The five shortstops they had tried had a combined 17 RBIs and 21 errors. And manager Lou Piniella had wearied of catcher Butch Wynegar, who last week pronounced himself weary of baseball and left the team. But the trade—which was engineered by Steinbrenner without the knowledge of titular G.M. Clyde King—didn't address starting pitching, the Yankees' most pressing weakness. While the Red Sox were losing 10 of 13 on their post-All-Star Game road trip, New York stayed 6 games back in the loss column by dropping 6 of 7. In the 6 defeats they were out-scored 26-3 in the first three innings.

The new acquisitions pose questions. Will Kittle fizzle in the heat of the owner's irrationality? Can Tolleson, who has never been an everyday player, solve the shortstop problem? Is Skinner, whose release, quickness and bat speed have already been doubted, a legitimate starting catcher? The Yankees have now used 40 players so far this season.

And what did the White Sox get? Well, Hassey has bad knees, and Martinez has an attitude problem.

NO TAKERS AT THRIFT SALE

The White Sox-Yankee exchange was the only significant deal before the Aug. 1 deadline. Most baseball people believe that Pirates general manager Syd Thrift blew it by not trading pitcher Rick Rhoden. Thrift said he couldn't get "equivalent value," but he asked the Yankees for third baseman Mike Pagliarulo and either Fisher or Doug Drabek, an absurd request. Now all this last-place team will get is a draft choice when Rhoden hits the free-agent market in November, because he's not sneaking through waivers. "We're all weary of being run around by the Pirates," said one owner. "Anyway, waivers are going to be harder to get this time around. The Pirates are stuck."...The Mariners still expect to get waivers on centerfielder David Henderson, whom the Red Sox covet for the stretch....