Add White Sox: After aborting last year's attempt to move Carlton Fisk to left field, the Sox have been tinkering with Fisk at third base. Fisk, 39, said he has played there.
"I played a whole season there my first year in high school," he said. "Of course, by the time the season started in New Hampshire, we only played 11 games."
Second add White Sox: The recent release of veteran second baseman Julio Cruz is indicative of why the owners have chosen collusion over their previous free spending.
The White Sox must still pay Cruz $900,000 in each of the next three seasons, plus $5 million in deferred money between 1994 and 2009.
Larry Himes, the general manager who released him, was Cruz's first manager at Idaho Falls after Cruz signed with the Angels in 1973.
Said Cruz: "Himes was my first manager and he could be my last general manager."
Said Himes: "I think he signed for a glove and some spikes. He's earned everything he's gotten."
And is still to get?
In three spring games between the Angels and the Oakland A's, Reggie Jackson came to bat only once, as a pinch-hitter. No accident.
"I never wanted to play against Billy (Martin) in the spring, either," he said. "I wanted to play for keeps whenever I faced him."
In his first spring at-bat since returning from knee surgery, Willie McGee popped into a double play with the bases loaded last week. Said St. Louis Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog: "I don't compare it to Ted Williams coming back from the service."
Quickies:
--Atlanta Braves General Manager Bobby Cox reportedly won a power struggle with Manager Chuck Tanner last week, firing iconoclastic pitching coach Johnny Sain, who became the scapegoat for the Braves' pathetic pitching. Bruce Dal Canton replaced Sain.
--Joaquin Andujar, who has a strained elbow, will join Moose Haas, who has a strained rotator cuff, on Oakland's opening-day disabled list. That leaves the A's with a rotation of Chris Codiroli, Eric Plunk, Jose Rijo, Dave Stewart and Chris Young, who have combined for 120 major league wins, two fewer than Andujar.
--It was a non-business lunch between old friends, but when Steve Carlton and Ron Schueler, the A's assistant general manager, got together in Arizona last week, there were inevitable rumors that Oakland was about to sign Carlton. Said A's General Manager Sandy Alderson: "I'd say it's a wild, idiotic and stupid rumor, except that we started it."
--Rick Rhoden gives the New York Yankees some much needed pitching help, but the Pittsburgh Pirates might not have done badly in that deal. Former Yankees Doug Drabek and Brian Fisher have allowed one run in 26 spring innings.
--And can the Yankees win with six ex-Pirates on their roster? They are Pat Clements, Willie Randolph, Joel Skinner, Cecilio Guante, Jay Buhner and Rhoden.
--Len Dykstra's .147 batting average as of Friday and his nonchalant spring attitude prompted manager Johnson to say that Mookie Wilson, batting .401, would be the Mets' center fielder if the season started tomorrow.
--The Texas Rangers have decided that touted second baseman Jerry Browne isn't ready and are now weighing alternatives. Among them: signing Bob Horner and moving third baseman Steve Buechele to second; moving Buechele and using a platoon of fringe players at third; trading for either Vance Law of the Montreal Expos or Glenn Hubbard of Atlanta.
--San Francisco farm director Carlos Alfonso rushed to the living quarters of several young Dominican players when they informed him that they had been unable to start their microwave with a cigarette lighter.
--Tonny Cohen, a 21-year-old right-hander from the Netherlands, paid his way to Florida for a tryout with Pittsburgh, who recommended that he join his country's Olympic team. Cohen said he preferred to turn pro and was signed to a Macon farm contract. The Dutchman does not use a windmill windup.
--Florida freshman Jamie McAndrew didn't like the home run trot that the Yankees' Rickey Henderson laid on him in an exhibition game last week. "If this had been a Southeastern Conference game and a guy did that, I'd have decked him next time up," McAndrew said.
