BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Orioles’ Season Has Flown Away

It’s an apt description of the Baltimore Orioles’ season.

As shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., has continued his relentless march on Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games, the Orioles have emerged as the year’s biggest disappointment.

Considered the teams to beat in the American League East, the Orioles and New York Yankees have been buried by the Boston Red Sox.

The Orioles have not won more than four straight games since 1993 and trail Boston by 18 games after being only 4 1/2 out on June 28, when they acquired Bobby Bonilla.

A Baltimore columnist reacted to that deal by saying the race was now over. “Boston is cooked,” he wrote.

What he may have meant was that the Red Sox would now begin cooking, compounding the Orioles’ ineptitude, which is not an indictment of Bonilla.

The former New York Met is batting .282 since his acquisition, although not with any catalytic power. Nor has his glove turned gold in right field.

Frustrating? Deflating? Maybe embarrassing?

“Of course,” center fielder Brady Anderson said in the Baltimore clubhouse at Anaheim Stadium. “It’s mostly been a struggle all year. We’ve never played with any consistency.

“People talk about injuries, but I don’t know if we’ve had any more than anyone else. It’s hard to pinpoint what it is. All I know is we haven’t put it together.”

And should have? Anderson said he agreed with those who felt the Orioles were good enough to win “but it’s hard to predict until you see a team play. Even now, you can look at teams on paper and say there’s not that much difference, but when you’re giving three or four games away a month, that adds up to 20 to 25 games a year. That’s hard to overcome.

“For me, the defense has been the most disappointing part of our game and I thought it would be the strongest. We made a lot of changes, before the season and during it. I don’t know if that’s the reason.”

The Orioles lead the league in team fielding and fewest errors, but there’s elements of execution not documented by statistics.

The Orioles are also 14th and last in team batting, 12th in runs, 12th in saves and desperate for a veteran player, relief pitcher Jesse Orosco said recently, to step forward and provide clubhouse leadership.

”...somebody needs to do something,” Orosco said of the mellow atmosphere. “This is too good a team to play like this since the All-Star break.”

Aside from rookie second baseman Curtis Goodwin, hitting .285 with 21 steals; first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who has 28 homers and 79 runs batted in; designated hitter Harold Baines, .297 and 20 homers, and starter Mike Mussina (14-7), it’s difficult to find an Oriole performing to expectations.

A bullpen in which veteran Doug Jones and rookie Armando Benitez have been the primary closers has 24 saves in 34 chances. Lee Smith, last year’s closer in Baltimore, has 31 saves in 34 opportunities for the Angels. Jose Mesa, traded by the Orioles to the Cleveland Indians in 1992 for the now forgotten Kyle Washington, is bidding for a Cy Young award with 38 saves in 38 chances.

The killer for Baltimore has been the disintegration of a rotation that figured to be the league’s best. Mussina is having a Cy Young caliber season, but...

--Ben McDonald has been on the disabled list twice and has two wins for his $4.5 million;

--Kevin Brown was on the DL for almost month in mid-season, hasn’t won since June 2 and has a 5-8 record for his $4.225 million;

--Sid Fernandez was winless when the Orioles bought out the remainder of his $3 million contract and sent him to Philadelphia, where he is enjoying a modest revival;

--And Arthur Rhodes is 2-5 and pitching out of the bullpen. The Orioles’ collapse has cast shadows across the futures of General Manager Roland Hemond, whose contract expires at the end of the season, and rookie Manager Phil Regan, signed through 1996.

Owner Peter Angelos, known to admire Oakland Athletic Manager Tony LaRussa, said this week that the entire organization will be evaluated in October.

Angelos said he was obviously disappointed but vowed that money would be spent to rebuild the team and farm system.

“We’re going to make it work. We’re not going to be discouraged,” he said.

He cited the team’s many injuries and said: “Now, it’s true, as a lot of people will say, that other teams have had a lot of injuries too. But other teams have been more fortunate in dealing with their injuries. If anybody wants to suggest [that Boston’s] signing of Tim Wakefield was a move of genius, they need to have their head examined. They were lucky, and that’s great for them.

“Could we have been more aggressive in dealing with the bullpen situation? Definitely. Can I say the checkbook has been open since Day One? Yes. We haven’t held back in any way from giving the fans a winner and giving them a return on the tremendous support they give this ballclub, and that will continue to be our policy.”

Angelos cited the Orioles’ solid nucleus and hopes for next year. It’s just that no one expected the owner or any of his players to have to be talking about 1996 in August of ’95.

RIPKEN NONSENSE

How stupid of Robert Lipsyte in the New York Times and Larry King in USA Today to say that Ripken should end his streak after tying Gehrig or when he is within a game of tying to honor Gehrig and his memory.

It is by continuing to play that Ripken best honors Gehrig. It is that ethic and approach that Gehrig was all about and which is their common link.

The streak, as Ripken pointed out for the umpteenth time in Anaheim the other night, is nothing more than an extension of his desire to play every day and it would be contradictory and dishonest to discard his philosophy in some preconceived strategy. Teammate Anderson was even more appalled by the Lipsyte-King suggestion.

“[Ripken] is not lessening the memory of Lou Gehrig,” Anderson said. “If anything, he’s making people remember Lou Gehrig. Lou Gehrig is probably being talked about more than ever right now.”

Anderson added that sitting out to preserve the record for Gehrig “goes against every reason why [Cal] has accomplished the streak. Why would he take a day off and hurt our team when we’re trying to win? His being part of the lineup is not a gift. It’s something he’s earned. What, Hank Aaron should’ve stopped at 714 homers? Pete Rose should’ve stopped when he tied Ty Cobb’s record? When does it stop? I mean, whose record did Lou Gehrig break. Everett Scott, right? He had a lot of nerve.”

TOUCHING BASES

Acting commissioner Bud Selig says Disney’s proposed purchase of 25% and controlling interest of the Angels is advancing without a hitch but is unlikely to be ready for full ownership approval at a Sept. 12 meeting in Detroit . . . On the phone from his Texas bank, Nolan Ryan said it’s not hard to believe” there’s no labor agreement yet “because you have the same cast of characters dealing with it now that were dealing with it before. Besides, the games are going on and these people seem to need some sort of deadline. It’s a shame. Neither side seems to think there’s any urgency..”..Red Sox ace Roger Clemens said in Anaheim that no pitcher is going to want to pitch Ripken inside over the next two weeks because nobody wants to run the risk of being the guy who injures him. Said Ripken, smiling: “It would be nice if they all made a pledge not to throw inside, but in the heat of a game I guarantee that guys like Clemens and Randy Johnson would still come in on me or any hitter..”..

It would be nice if all those columnists taking shots at Tom Lasorda--the Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Montreal Gazette and Sports Illustrated among them--would be specific regarding his deficiencies rather than nebulously insisting the Dodgers would be a better team without him . . . Houston Astro second baseman Craig Biggio complained when Cincinnati Red Manager Davey Johnson had Darren Lewis bunt while leading, 7-1, in the fifth inning last Sunday, but Johnson said: “It’s aggravating to me that losers think they can dictate how I should play the game. If they don’t want to play the game and defense the plays, that’s their problem. It’s weak, weak, weak. My idea is to beat a team into submission, not barely beat ‘em..”..Biggio was obviously frustrated. The Reds are 10-0 against the Astros this year, the difference in their race. Houston is still alive in the wild card scramble but 7-16 since Jeff Bagwell broke his hand. “I don’t want to hear any excuses about this injury or that injury,” Manager Terry Collins said. “If we don’t get it done, everybody better take a good look in the mirror because that’s where they’ll find the reason. It’s not Jeff Bagwell’s hand..”..The resilient Philadelphia Phillies are also still alive in the NL wild card race, although Manager Jim Fregosi has been forced to use 73 different lineups through 110 games and is now going with a lineup in which not one player was with the team in 1994.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--As John Smiley, David Wells and Pete Schourek continue to pitch the Cincinnati Reds to a division title in the National League Central, Jose Rijo underwent elbow surgery Tuesday--the tendon transplant procedure--and could be out through 1996. Rijo didn’t know whether to be more pained by his uncertain physical future or the $49.95 he spent for the McNeeley-Tyson cablecast. Of that investment, Rijo said: “They can talk about Al Capone, but those people committed grand larceny and nobody is going to jail. What a country.”

--Paper Drive: Red owner Marge Schott has ordered media notes cut from five pages to one for home games, a saving on paper of about $80 over the rest of the season. The St. Louis Cardinals responded by sending Red publicist Mike Ringering a supply of paper, and the Atlanta Braves, with whom Ringering used to work, phoned to tell him they’d be sending some for his birthday.

--Detroit Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson says he’s hopeful the Chicago White Sox retain interim manager Terry Bevington because the White Sox figure to be 20 games over .500 next year and “why should he take the beating now and let someone else get the credit? John Doe could manage that team next year and they’d be 20 games over.” Let’s see: the White Sox are now 15 under but are going to be 20 over? What does Sparky know that no one else does?