Pudge fill-in a pitcher's dream

By BRUCE LOWITT

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 30, 2000

Leave it to the Rangers to find some good in Ivan Rodriguez's broken thumb.

Let's see now ...

One day he's batting .347, the next he's gone for the season. Check.

One day the Rangers have at least a slim -- okay, very slim -- chance of making a run at a wild-card playoff spot, the next day, no chance at all. Check.

One day he's shooting for a ninth straight Gold Glove and second straight MVP Award, the next day he's shot down. Check.

Anything else?

Oh, yeah. This gives the Rangers' young pitchers the opportunity to work with Bill Haselman, a career backup catcher who works a pitcher the way Jascha Heifetz handled a violin.

Rodriguez's strength, besides his bat, is throwing out runners, not game-calling. He doesn't even sit down with the starting pitcher to formulate a game plan.

"Pudge lets his ability speak for him," young lefty Matt Perisho said, "and it's helped this team a lot. Bill works out a game plan, lets us know about it and helps us execute it."

Haselman has spent 10 years bouncing around the majors, impressing no one with his bat or arm. It's his brains teams love. "He is like having another manager on the field," pitcher Rick Helling said.

A clubhouse office is Haselman's second home. He pores over videotapes and scouting reports until he knows pitchers better than they know themselves.

"When you put all of Bill's knowledge into the equation, we should be pretty smart by next year," Perisho said. "Pudge won't have to spend time worrying about us."

Not that he ever does, but it's a nice thought nonetheless.

STEW'S IN; FREGOSI STEWS: When Blue Jays general manager Gord Ash replaced pitching coach Rick Langford with assistant general manager Dave Stewart, it did not sit well with manager Jim Fregosi.

"We have some young pitchers," said Fregosi, to whom loyalty means everything; he has never gotten rid of a coach in midseason. "Did Rick Langford do a bad job with David Wells?"

Stewart, nearly unbeatable in the playoffs with Toronto and Oakland, was a fierce competitor. His glower was his trademark. Now he is expected to help young pitchers Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay and Kelvim Escobar develop that mental toughness.

"I don't like losing. I don't like being related to losing and I take this real, real personal and I let them know that they're not out there by themselves, that I'm with them," Stewart said. "As long as I trust them, they're going to have to trust me."

YOU MEAN THEY PLAY BASEBALL, TOO?: During weeknight games, Pirates fans at Three Rivers Stadium get to (or are forced to) watch Sauerkraut Saul, Cheese Chester and Potato Pete in an animated pirogi race on the scoreboard (not unlike the soda bottles that race on the Tropicana Field scoreboard). On weekends, three people dressed as pirogi race from centerfield to the Pirates bullpen.

This has Pirates centerfielder Brian Giles as steamed as the pastry turnovers. "It bothers me that the club seems more interested in marketing a pirogi race than its players," he said.

"They buy ads in the newspaper saying "Come see Saul win his first race.' Why not buy an ad that says "Come on out and see (pitcher) Kris Benson stick it up someone's a--,' or "Come out and see a good young scrappy player like (second baseman) Warren Morris?'

"I understand the marketing department is trying to entertain the fans, but they seem to forget we're playing a baseball game, too. It's like winning baseball games doesn't matter to some people in this organization," Giles said. "I played in Cleveland and they have something like 422 straight sellouts and it's not because everybody comes out to watch a pirogi race."

NOW HE TELLS US: Expos pitcher Hideki Irabu says his right knee, which needed surgery May 27 to remove torn cartilage, has been a problem since 1996, when he was playing in Japan.

"The knee was bothering me for three years, even though I didn't tell anybody," he said. "Mentally, when you have something like that, it's very irritating." Not as irritating to him, we would imagine, as to former boss George Steinbrenner.

GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE: Coors Field got the best of Stan Belinda, one reason the Rockies released the reliever (the Braves signed him Saturday). "This place chewed me up and spit me out, just like it has other pitchers," he said.

After striking out the side with the bases full of Giants on June 29, Belinda hit the skids, going 0-2 in 11 games, blowing two saves and giving up 11 hits and 13 earned runs in nine innings.

"I consumed myself with trying to prove you could pitch here," he said. "I tried so hard to prove this place wrong that it just didn't happen. It just wore me down. ... I've been fortunate to play at this level since 1989. This is the first time the wheel of fortune landed on bankrupt for me."

STAT OF THE WEEK: Kenny Lofton, Cleveland's leadoff hitter, is batting .239 from the leadoff spot and .381 everywhere else.

THE FINAL WORD: Pitcher Curt Schilling, traded by the Phillies to Arizona: "I'm in a pennant race, which I haven't been in seven years. That's beyond my wildest expectations."

- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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