Baseball's Back
Ted Kane

It's about that time…baseball is back. As I write this Opening Day is less than a week away (with the Tribe in Anaheim and the Giants in L.A., and me with tickets to both!) and I am about as many days removed from my annual pilgrimage to Tucson to attend a few spring training games and visit my folks. Tucson is the spring home of the Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies and the world champion Arizona Diamondbacks, and I was able to see all three of those teams plus the San Francisco Giants over a three-day period.

I arrived in Tucson early on the morning of St. Patrick's Day and headed straight to Hi-Corbett Field for a 1:05 split-squad game between the Rockies and a visiting (from all the way across town) of Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rox wore green hats in honor of the day and sent their ace Mike Hampton to the mound to face the D'Backs, who counted with their (and, arguably, baseball's) best hurler, Randy Johnson. Last year I saw him pitch a spring training game and-in a freak accident-kill a bird that was hovering around the plate. Hard-throwing indeed. (of course, in light of the much more serious incident that happened at the Columbus Blue Jackets game this may not seem as morbidly humorous as it did at the time) It promised to be quite a pitcher's duel.

Well, promises-like home run records, dynasties and any number of other things-seem at times to be made to be broken. The game was a 10-9 debacle that went to Arizona, with neither starter demonstrating their typical form. Hampton's performance was especially perplexing. He gave up five earned runs in his first two innings, and it was particularly disturbing the way that he did it. Almost every at-bat followed the same pattern: he would get ahead of the batters, 0-2 or 1-2, throwing good, hard strikes and then he would lose them, running the count full and grooving the payoff pitch right down the plate. What was he thinking? Maybe the prospect of another year at Coors Field has messed with his mind; he started out looking like he had good stuff, but seemed to be afraid to throw strikes past a certain point. He rallied a bit to throw two shutout innings in the 3rd and 4th before reaching his pitch limit for the day but didn't factor in the decision. One real positive for their pitching staff-and for baseball-was the performance of central Ohio's favorite son Kent Mercker in relief. The journeyman lefthander faced the minimum, striking out two batters over his two innings of work. A non-roster invitee, Mercker will hopefully make the Rockies' staff-apart from his flawless performance, it was inspiring to see him out there at all in light of the brain aneurysm he survived a couple years ago.

Randy was less of a disappointment than Mike Hampton, but not by much. He opened the game by serving up a homer to Brent Butler and also gave up five runs in four innings, although only two of them were earned. (the Diamondbacks, fielding a preponderance of minor leaguers and bench players, made an eye-popping ten errors in the game. Of course, the Rockies' performance was even more embarrassing when you consider the fact that they somehow managed to lose despite their opponent's ineptitude in the field) Johnson struck out four and walked none, but very seldom looked like the man who has won three Cy Young awards and as many games in last year's Fall Classic. Another feel-good story, though, was the performance of reliever Byung-Hyun Kim, who struck out two in 1 1/3 perfect innings and seems to have weathered his World Series meltdown just fine.

The next two games I saw were held at Tucson Electric Park, the home of both the Diamondbacks and White Sox. The first game featured both teams and was a "Home" game for Arizona. Curt Schilling was toeing the rubber for Arizona against Todd Ritchie and the White Sox , another match-up that looked good going in. Like most of Chicago's games this year, (their team ERA this spring is up around 8.00) it ended up being a high-scoring affair. Schilling gave up two runs in four innings and Ritchie was tagged for seven. The final score was an amazing 16-13. Were these the Bears and the Cardinals? Luis Gonzalez homered twice for the world champs, a day after hitting a two run homer against Mike Hampton. I think it's safe to say last year was not a fluke.

The highlight of the day for me, though, came before the game when Sandy Alomar, Jr., the former Cleveland and current Chicago catcher signed my hat before the game. I saw that a player was signing autographs behind the plate a couple sections from where we were sitting, and when I figured out that it was Sandy, I ran over. He was pretty funny. One guy handed him something to sign and he said "You again? You're here everyday; how many of these do you need?" It seemed appropriate that the hat I was wearing featured the Sesame Street character Oscar the Grouch, though the fact that Alomar went out before the game and signed everything anybody handed him showed his real character more than his feigned impatience.

Another longtime Indian now on the White Sox is center fielder Kenny Lofton. I can't say I was happy to see either player leave the Tribe after rooting for them for a decade, and the way they've played this spring hasn't changed the way I feel. As of this writing (March 25, 2002) both are hitting over .400 on the spring, and both looked good in the games I saw. Kenny was 4-5 with a walk and three runs scored in those games. Sandy sat out the game with the Diamondbacks, but did play the next day against the Giants, going 2-3 with a homer off a pretty good pitcher in Livan Hernandez. Hernandez went seven innings and struck out six for Dusty Baker's squad, holding on for the victory despite giving up six runs, the last five in the fifth, six and seventh. Hernandez actually pitched well that day. He was pretty tough for the first four innings, and I think the reason he faltered a bit after that had more to do with his having to go deep into a ballgame for the first time this spring. Dusty seemed to have decided that he was going to have him pitch seven innings no matter what. Since White Sox starter John Rauch had given up seven runs in his 4.2 innings, he had a pretty good cushion. And another good story: J.T. Snow, a former star at the University of Arizona, hit three homers in his return to Tucson, delighting the crowd. Although the Giants have two young prospects at first bidding for time, I'd say his job looks safe.

Here's what I saw. The Diamondbacks managed to win two games despite sub-par outings from their two aces. The Giants look good. The Rockies look lost. I didn't see them, but I know the Dodgers are lost because I read about them here in L.A., and San Diego is still thinking small. The Diamondbacks should repeat in the NL West and could repeat in October if Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling rise to the occasion again. The White Sox have got the bats, but their arms look dead. Barring some deals for competent pitching, a quantity not generally available on the market, I don't see how they can hope to compete with the far superior staffs of the Indians and Minnesota Twins. But the season hasn't even started yet and everyone is still in the race, even the Montreal Expos, who play their games beneath the sword of Damocles, and even the hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Well, maybe not Tampa Bay. Anyway, to sum up: PLAY BALL!