BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Giants Step Into Ballot Box Again

Pessimistic or optimistic? Nervous or anxiety free?

Bob Lurie, owner of the San Francisco Giants, said he is all of the above regarding Tuesday’s vote in San Jose on a utility tax increase to finance a $265-million stadium to open in 1996.

“I’m excited about the prospect of winning, but I think it will be a very close vote,” Lurie said the other day.

It is the Giants’ fourth and possibly last appearance on a ballot. San Francisco voters have twice rejected a downtown stadium, and voters in seven Santa Clara County municipalities voted down a stadium proposal in November of 1990, although it was approved by about 600 votes in San Jose.

The proposal would raise the residential utility tax about $2.90 a month, with businesses being hit harder. Supporters are optimistic, based on the 1990 vote in San Jose, the city’s 1988 approval of an arena financed through redevelopment funds, the registering of 16,000 absentee voters and the Giants’ commitment to pay about $35 million of the cost and any override.

Lurie’s Candlestick Park lease expires in 1994. A San Francisco group has said it will attempt to get another downtown stadium proposal on the ballot in November if the San Jose project is defeated, but Lurie probably would sell rather than face another vote.

It is also doubtful that he could get American League approval for a move to the Tampa-St. Petersburg dome, the American League already having lost Miami to the National League. There is also the lingering possibility that the Seattle Mariners will still move to that Florida dome.

“I may have some thoughts, but I haven’t talked to anyone, and I’ve made no contingency plans,” Lurie said.

“The only thing I’ve said publicly and repeatedly is what I think of Candlestick. I mean, it’s simply not a major league facility.”

DRAFT DISTRESS

A big week gets started Monday when baseball begins its annual amateur draft under the owners’ new rules, which could be overturned even before anyone signs.

Aimed at controlling signing bonuses in the aftermath of the $1.55 million that the New York Yankees gave untested high school pitcher Brien Taylor last year, the rules effectively eliminate much of the player’s bargaining power by tying his rights to the club that drafts him for five years rather than one.

The Major League Players Assn. has filed a grievance that arbitrator George Nicolau is expected to hear June 10.

If the union loses, several agents and players are expected to challenge the rules through antitrust suits.

Baseball is so unsure of its legal footing, it has been learned, that the commissioner’s office has sent a memo to scouting directors notifying them that any player signed before a decision on the grievance also must sign a waiver guaranteeing that he will not sue over lost bargaining power if the rules are overturned.

The Houston Astros have the No. 1 selection--they had baseball’s worst record last year--and are not affected by the new rules so much as by their own budget restrictions.

The buzz word is signability. Pitcher John Burke, the Astros’ first-round pick and the sixth player selected overall last year, rejected a $360,000 bonus and returned to the University of Florida for his junior year.

There is no clear-cut No. 1 in this year’s draft. Stanford outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds might be the closest. He is said to be seeking a $1.8-million bonus, ostensibly so that the Astros, Cleveland Indians and Montreal Expos will reject him and, for personal and family reasons, he still will be available when the Baltimore Orioles draft fourth.

On the other hand, Don Reynolds, the brother of Hammonds’ adviser, Larry Reynolds, is a coach in the Houston farm system, so Hammonds has ties there as well.

The Astros have been talking to five or six candidates, trying to determine signability before the draft, with the focus apparently on third baseman Phil Nevin of Cal State Fullerton. The Angels, drafting eighth, desperately want him.

“There are a half dozen players who are very equal, and we should be able to find one who doesn’t want to break the bank at Monte Carlo,” Houston General Manager Bill Wood said. “We don’t have unlimited resources. All things are not equal in baseball. The Dodgers and Astros do not play on the same field.”

Wood favors any rules aimed at controlling costs. He said the five-year provision still allows players to negotiate and break into the game; that the clubs, particularly those in small markets, have to retain some equity.

“We’re signing players to $30- and $40-million contracts,” he said. “What do we give them next? The franchise?”

WHO’S NO. 1?

The Dodgers forfeited their first-round pick in Tuesday’s amateur draft to the Toronto Blue Jays when they signed class A free agent Tom Candiotti. Big deal. The Dodgers’ recent log of No. 1 picks proves this is an inexact science, indeed.

The sorry record began in 1983 when they picked left-hander Eric Sonberg, long since out of their system and the game, ahead of Roger Clemens. Then:

--1984: Pitcher Dennis Livingston, no longer playing.

--1985: Chris Gwynn, now a reserve outfielder with Kansas City.

--1986: Outfielder Mike White, gone.

--1987: Pitcher Dan Opperman, still battling arm problems the Dodgers knew he had when they drafted and signed him.

--1988: Pitcher Bill Bene, the converted outfielder whose wildness has become minor league legend.

--1989: Outfielder Tom Goodwin, recalled recently to fill an injury void and considered a bona fide prospect; pitcher Kiki Jones, beset by arm problems even before his recent arrest on charges of false insurance claims, and pitcher Jamie McAndrew, demoted recently from triple-A Albuquerque to double-A San Antonio.

--1990: Pitcher Ron Walden, sidelined because of arm problems since pitching only four games that summer.

--1991: No pick.

SENSITIVITY QUOTIENT

There have been periodic incidents when he could be second-guessed for strategy and the handling of players, but Tom Lasorda has nothing to apologize for during his 16 years as the Dodgers’ manager.

Lasorda, however, has made himself and the organization look foolish this year by overreacting to media comments he deemed critical or inaccurate.

He blasted USA Today’s Rod Beaton in a long-distance call this spring.

He used the dugout phone to dial the press box during a recent game in Philadelphia and asked Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News to stop by after the game so he could debate Hagen’s story claiming Lasorda had not wanted Juan Samuel and Kal Daniels on the club this season.

And on Monday in St. Louis, he made an unsolicited call to a talk show on radio station KMOX in response to critical comments about decisions he had made in the game of that day.

Lasorda may be an ambassador for baseball, but he needs to be reminded about diplomacy. He needs to manage his team and forget about trying to manage the media.

POWER OUTAGE

Major league home runs are down 8.9%. Consider Chili Davis, Kevin Mitchell, Jack Clark and Mike Greenwell, who had combined for six. Consider the Boston Red Sox, who were suddenly leading the American League in earned-run average through 42 games but were last in home runs with 17.

Red Sox observers cite persistently cold weather in the East and structural changes that have altered wind currents at Fenway Park.

Closer to the truth, batting instructor Rick Burleson said in Anaheim the other day, is that this is a Boston team built more on pitching than traditional power, “not the same type Boston team.”

“We don’t have a 40-home run guy,” Burleson said. “We’re not going to hit 250 homers (a club-record 213, actually) like the ’77 team.

“We don’t have a Yaz, Fisk, Rice or Lynn. We don’t have a Butch Hobson hitting 30 home runs batting ninth.”

Hobson is now the manager, and what the Red Sox have in the way of power is a perennial late starter in Clark, diluted potential in Tom Brunansky, who plays three positions now and is in and out of the lineup, and reduced production from an adjusting Greenwell, who became a front-foot hitter last year because of an ankle injury.

The Red Sox also have only one home run from the touted Phil Plantier, who hit 11 in 53 games last year. The void is made worse by the absence of equally touted Mo Vaughn, who recently returned to the minors.

“We’re very fortunate to have received the pitching we have,” Burleson said. “If it continues, we should do well. We should compete with Toronto and Baltimore because our offense can only improve.”

WORKLOAD

The Angels began a weekend series with the Cleveland Indians having hit .226 since May 3. In reaching predicted depths, the offense has left closer Bryan Harvey without enough save chances to maintain his effectiveness.

He has converted 13 of 15 save opportunities, including one Saturday night, but had entered six other games that were tied or that the Angels were losing, assignments that seldom go to the relief ace.

“It’s a Catch-22,” interim Manager John Wathan said. “We haven’t been playing well enough to get him the lead, but we can’t let him sit for 10 days waiting for a save situation.”

Said Harvey, on a pace through to work a career-high 72 games and 86 innings: “I’ve got to pitch, that’s the thing. I don’t want to go more than two days without pitching.”

Another aspect of the Catch-22 is that Harvey hasn’t been as effective in the non-save situations. He is 0-3 in those six appearances, with a 6.43 ERA in seven innings.

“I’m a little more juiced up for save situations,” he acknowledged. “But every situation isn’t going to be a save situation, and I have to learn to do the job. I have to do what’s best for the team at the time.”

MARINERS’ MESS

The group trying to buy the Seattle Mariners has met every request made by the major league ownership committee, including a reduction of the Japanese financial involvement and control, but the arrogance continues.

Now the committee, humorously insisting it has no ulterior motives, no desire to see the Japanese out and no plan of helping Jeff Smulyan keep the club and move it to Tampa-St. Petersburg, wants King County to sign a waiver guaranteeing it won’t sue if the group is rejected. The reaction of King County Executive Tim Hill: “Shove it.”