Dave Righetti

For the next few weeks, we'll be hearing a lot about quality. The best teams in baseball will be deciding the championship, and some of the best players will be doing the deciding. In the interest of balanced portrayal, however, let's remember that no one can excel all the time. Over 162 games, tragedy and comedy can occur--sometimes simultaneously. Some of the 1986 lowlights stretched over a series of months. We're not concerned with those. The record book will make its own indictments.

Still hoping to fill a need that has not changed with the signing of Darryl Strawberry, the Dodgers have begun discussions with another New York star, Yankee free-agent relief pitcher Dave Righetti. Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, spoke with Righetti's agent, Bill Goodstein, Thursday. Although no contract figures were discussed, Goodstein said he made it clear that Righetti would like to return to his home state of California.

Despite their vow to avoid plunging into the free agent market, the Angels could become serious suitors for the services of left-handed reliever Dave Righetti, who has spent all of his nine-plus major league seasons with the New York Yankees. Whether the Angels pursue the San Jose native apparently hinges on his desire for a five-year contract. The Angels have said in the past they are reluctant to sign pitchers for more than three years, a sentiment that has also been expressed by the Dodgers.

It may be that in his desperate effort to overhaul the Toronto Blue Jays, Manager Billy Martin has worn out his bullpen. For the third time this week, Dave Righetti, the ace of the New York Yankees' relief corps, faltered Saturday night. Righetti came in with one out, a runner on and the score tied, 2-2, in the sixth inning at New York. He faced four batters, didn't get one out, and the Blue Jays scored five runs.

The San Francisco Giants may have jilted Brett Butler in a negotiating difference over money, but they continue to spend it almost with indifference. Free-agent relief star Dave Righetti became the latest to benefit when he agreed to leave the New York Yankees and return to his Bay Area roots for a $10-million guarantee over four years.

Turmoil? The New York Yankees have survived it before. Talent? The lack of enough of it on the mound could prove fatal. Bolting into a 6-0 lead, the troubled Yankees couldn't hold it Friday night. Starter Rick Rhoden, in a performance characteristic of the patchwork rotation, left in the sixth inning, his 6-0 lead reduced to 6-5.

Returning suddenly and unexpectedly to the free-agent market, the Dodgers presented a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer to relief ace Dave Righetti. The former New York Yankee's agent rejected it but said Saturday that he expects to get another crack at it. "My own feelings are that we may see a renewal of this," Bill Goodstein said from his New York office. He alluded to what sources in the Dodger organization said was a two-year offer for more than $1 million a year.

The San Francisco Giants never have bothered to conceal their deep-rooted contempt for the Dodgers. They despise Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda. They accuse Dodger fans of being phonies. They recoil at the mere mention of Dodger Blue. "We're tired of all that rah-rah bull . . . " one Giant player said. And this time, they say, the Dodgers flat out insulted them. This time, they're going to be sorry.

It was enough to make New Yorkers start thinking about October already. It's well known that the Yankees have plenty of hitting. Monday, Dennis Rasmussen and Dave Righetti gave New York plenty of pitching, too. With Rickey Henderson supplying the hitting, Rasmussen and Righetti combined for a five-hitter at Detroit as the Yankees beat the Tigers 2-1 in 10 innings in the season opener for both teams.

Dave Righetti of the New York Yankees became the first free agent of 1987 when he filed six minutes after midnight Monday, one of 12 players who filed on the first permissible day. "The surest way of establishing in an emphatic way that David was interested in testing the free-agent market was to file six minutes after he was permitted to," Bill Goodstein, the reliever's attorney, said Monday.