Baseball

COMING ATTRACTION IN FENWAY?

One newsman asked Darryl Strawberry, "What kind of psychological advantage will this give you if you win tonight?" Mets public relations director Jay Horwitz had received a call the previous day asking if Dwight Gooden was starting. The game was a sellout and almost outdrew the combined total of the night's three regularly scheduled major league games. Scalpers were getting $30 a ticket, and there were nearly 100 media people on the field before the game. If George Steinbrenner—who had effectively ended the Mayor's Trophy game in New York—wanted to, he could have watched the phenomenon on cable down in Tampa.

With the four races so stretched out, the East Coast's eyes turned to Fenway Park last Thursday for a charity exhibition game between the Mets and the Red Sox. When it was scheduled by the Mets as a substitute for the Mayor's Trophy game, there was no way of knowing that both teams would be in first place, but when it rolled around, the game was such an event that the Boston Herald ran a full page of matchups with the introduction, "Hopefully a preview of the World Series."

When one of the two team buses broke down outside the Sumner Tunnel leading from Logan Airport to downtown Boston, some Mets flagged cabs, some hitchhiked. "You guys don't seem too upset about having to be here," a writer observed to Mookie Wilson. "When you're 20 games up," Wilson answered, "nothing bothers you." Red Sox pitcher Joe Sambito had been sent a supply Of HOUSTON POLICE 4, NEW YORK METS 0 T-shirts by an old friend on the Houston force, so he walked over to his former teammates, tore open his uniform and revealed the message.

The game was anticlimactic, with the Kevin Elsters, Danny Heeps and Eddie Romeros soon taking over. However, for the large portion of the 33,057 who came in Mets caps and T-shirts, the six-run, eighth-inning rally off Sambito that gave the Mets a 7-3 win was cause for loud celebration. In Houston and Anaheim, the point of the game may have gotten lost.

MORE FROM THE DAMNABLE YANKEES

As all of baseball laughs louder and louder at the Yankees, the owner looks everywhere but the mirror for a scapegoat. Now Steinbrenner has begun threatening Lou Piniella, feeding Howard Cosell the notion that Piniella had lost 10 to 14 games through his managing. The owner is also telling friends his beleaguered skipper won't be back. The problem, of course, is the organization. Things were so bad that after Piniella had told the front office he needed a starting pitcher in Oakland Sept. 1, his three top choices—Bob Tewksbury, Brad Arnsberg and Scott Nielsen—all started in meaningless weekend games for Columbus. Piniella was forced to start reliever Mike Armstrong, who allowed six runs and got five outs. "It's crazy, it's ridiculous," says Don Mattingly. "It's absurd for a team that's in a pennant race to have to deal with that. No other club operates this way." That night Piniella had to write out a lineup that made the days of Horace Clarke and Celerino Sanchez look positively halcyon: Bryan Little, Leo Hernandez, Joel Skinner, Wayne Tolleson, Ron Kittle, Henry Cotto, Armstrong. And the owner blames the manager?...The new front-runner for the Twins managerial job is Bob Lillis....

With George Foster gone, the Shea Stadium boo-birds have turned on Strawberry, who was 0 for 47 at home from July 29 to Sept. 7. Manager Davey Johnson gave Strawberry Sept. 1 off, then had him only pinch-hit in the next two games. "He's more disappointed in himself than I am," said Johnson. "He thinks he has to hit 40 home runs." For the season, Strawberry is hitting .207 with 6 homers at home, .293 with 13 homers on the road....

The best second baseman in the American League has been Boston's Marty Barrett. He has performed in the clutch from the first day of the season, and he has more extra-base hits (42) than either Eddie Murray or Reggie Jackson....

Barrett's counterpart on the Mets, Wally Backman, is hitting .333, slightly better than National League batting leader Tony Gwynn of the Padres, but Backman will probably fall short of the 502 plate appearances needed to qualify....