BASEBALL INSIDER

Steroid warnings were ignored

By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

Either Major League Baseball wasn't subscribing to HBO in 1991, it didn't pay the cable bill or it just didn't pay attention to Brad Andress.

If they had, Commissioner Bud Selig might not have been in a congressional hearing room recently looking like a moose caught in the bright lights of an onrushing freight train.

In 1991, before Jose Canseco's book, before Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds could have formed a singing group called The Paul Bunyan Trio, Andress appeared on an HBO special about steroids.

Andress was a trainer with the Detroit Tigers at the time and said he thought at that time 30 to 35 percent of major-league players used or had tried steroids.

Did anybody pay attention? Yeah, they sure did. Andress was ostracized.

"I was labeled a whistleblower," he said. Andress is a former lineman at Penn State and worked for former University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler. He later worked for Bo with the Detroit Tigers, toured the team's minor-league system and said, "I told Bo that within seven years steroids would be an issue because I fielded so many questions about them."

How true, how true.

Andress is now strength coach for the Colorado Rockies and said, "I'm happy to see the attention given steroids. and it has dramatically improved."

Money talks and ...

This is the way baseball works, outside The Evil Empire. Former Cincinnati Reds left-handed relief pitcher Gabe White, 33, had a 4.32 earned-run average and opponents hit .273 against him this spring.

Left-hander Tom Martin, 34, had an 11.74 earned run average and opponents hit .436 against him this spring.

Guess which pitcher the Atlanta Braves kept.

A hint. If they released White, they owed him $150,000. If they released Martin, they owed him nearly $1 million.

If you said the Braves kept Martin and released White, you probably are a good Monopoly player and know how to handle finances. White was released.

The travelin' man

Speaking of White, Springfield's Rick White, 36, made the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen and credits a long winter of work at Wittenberg University for his success this spring. White had a 2.25 ERA this spring.

White began his career with the Pirates in 1994, then made stops at Tampa Bay, the New York Mets, Colorado, St. Louis, Chicago White Sox, Houston and Cleveland. Now he's back where he started. And he isn't even left-handed.

He wants to pitch for Cincinnati before his career ends, but the Reds never have called him.

"This might have been my best spring, at least numbers-wise," he said. "It comes from the hard work I put in (at Wittenberg) before I went to camp. I knew I had to come in and win a job, so I had already faced hitters and was up to throwing 50 pitches at a time before I even got to camp."

White is a good guy and a hard worker . . . and could have helped the Reds, who signed three bullpenners as old or older than White — Kent Mercker, David Weathers and Ben Weber. He could have given the Reds four 'W's in the bullpen, along with Ryan Wagner.

He's the, er, man

You know it is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when a pitcher gives up 11 hits and three home runs in four-plus innings, as Hideo Nomo did, and right after the game manager Lou Piniella says, "He's in our rotation."

We won't even go into the numbers of the candidates who didn't make it.

The D-Rays, though, should quit after Opening Day. They've won five straight openers and their goofy blue furry mascot, Raymond, guaranteed they'd win their opener this year.

"I don't know if I can stand that pressure, said reliever Lance Carter. "But who in the world is Raymond?"

"It is a lot of pressure," said catcher Toby Hall. "And if we don't win, what happens to Raymond?"

Don't you know, Lance? Everybody loves Raymond.

Serving up youth

When Jeremy Bonderman starts for Detroit, he will be the youngest Opening Day starting pitcher in nearly 20 years, says Dave Smith of retrosheet.org.

Bonderman, 22, becomes the youngest since Dwight Gooden was 20 when he started Opening Day for the New York Mets in 1986.

Big deal. Anybody ever heard of Joe Nuxhall pitching in the majors when he was 15? Of course, after that one game, it took Nuxy about a decade to get back.

Cleaning up

Victor Martinez will become the first catcher in 31 years to bat cleanup for the Cleveland Indians on Opening Day. The last time was 1974, a guy named John Ellis. Since 1948, the last time the Tribe won the World Series, a catcher has batted fourth only two other times on Opening Day, Ray Fosse in 1971 and Duke Sims in 1968.

Johnny Bench did it four times and batted fourth on Opening Day, 1983. . .as the Cincinnati Reds third baseman.

Green not envious

Dallas Green, whether a manager or general manager (Phillies, Cubs), was never afraid to express harsh opinions. He is a special adviser these days for the Philadelphia Phillies and, frankly, he doesn't like what he saw this spring.

"This team still needs work, in my opinion," said the only Phillies manager ever to win a World Series. "I worry about the pitching staff. The starters need to pick it up. I see us making too many mistakes. We're hitting a lot of bats.

"This team has been together for a good amount of time now. It's time it played up to its capabilities. It's time to look in the mirror and recognize that they're the ones who have to perform," he added. "It's not the manager that has to perform. They can blame Larry Bowa for last year, but now there's no one to blame."

Oh, they can always blame new manager Charlie Manuel, Citizens Bank Park, GM Ed Wade, the fickle Phillies fans or the clubhouse meals.

Ichiro not impressed

Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, who sometimes couldn't make an out if he tried, broke Ken Griffey Jr.'s record for spring training hitting streaks by hitting in the first 19 games he played.

Said the unimpressed Ichiro, "If I broke Griffey's home run record, that might be something."

Suzuki set a major-league single-season hits record last year. Eight were homers. Of his 924 hits in four years, 37 left the park. Griffey sneezes and hits more homers than that.

Not well-armed

St. Louis shortstop David Eckstein hit .420 this spring with a .517 on-base percentage as the Cardinals new leadoff hitter.

But his arm is another thing, and even he worries about it.

"I hate the way I throw," he said. "Oh my gosh, it's disgusting. I hate watching myself throw on TV."

Solution? Press the 'Off' button on your remote, David.