St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 17

aJUN 16 19831 SECTION June 1 6, 1 983 parte DusinessPagea 10-14 General NewsPages 14, 21, 22 ObituariesPage 14 ClassifiedPages 15-21 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Kevin Horrigan Sports Comment bin IPitehirag am r- 7 Hernandez Trade Is Ridiculous, But It Makes Sense existing that they would have lost him for nothing if he became a free agent after 1984. Granted, that is more than a year-and-a-half away. Youth must be served. Lefthanded-hitting Andy Van Slyke, 22, was batting .364 at Louisvillle when he was summoned to be the Cardinals' new right fielder.

"If you can't gamble on a guy like that, then there's no sense in having minor leagues," said Herzog. "I like Van Slyke. You know how I like speed and we haven't had that in our lineup. We haven't done what we had to do. Keith stole 18 bases by Aug.

5 last year and then he only stole one the rest of the season. He only had one this year." Change in philosophy. From wanting to trade Hendrick at the winter meetings in December, Cardinals hierarchy has changed its thinking to the point that it regards Hendrick as its most valuable player. "By moving him to first base, we just got a good righthanded hitter for another five years," said Herzog. "(Tony) Perez, (Pete) Rose and (Steve) Garvey all play there and they're all 40 or close to it and George is a better athlete than those guys." Hendrick is 33.

McDonald said that Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of the Cardinals, had changed its thinking, or at least he understands it better, in regard to players who have no-trade contracts in Hendrick's case, a power to veto any trade because he has been with the Cardinals five years and in the major leagues 10 years. "The By Rick Hummel Ot the Post-Dispatch Staff News item: Cardinals trade Keith Hernandez to the New York Mets for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Big news. Film at 10. Why? Here are the reasons, spoken and unspoken, like them or not, as to why the Cardinals Wednesday night traded one of their most popular players, a former Most Valuable Player in the National League and current five-time Gold Glove winner: Lack of confidence in their pitching staff.

The Cardinals figured Joaquin Andujar to be 8-3 now. He is 3-8. Middle relief has been suspect lately, with Doug Bair being hit hard after not being hit at all for a month and with Jeff Lahti injured. The rest of the starting pitching has been erratic, although John Stuper and Dave LaPoint have prospered more often than not. The hopes of the past, present and future, John Fulgham and Andy Rincon, are both injured.

Contracts and money. Hernandez, in 1984, would have been on the last year of his $3.8 million, five-year contract. The Cardinals likely would not have been eager to sign him to a new contract at $1.5 million a year. George Hendrick, who is their new first baseman, works for about half as much as Hernandez and has two more years left on his contract. Manager Whitey Herzog and General Manager Joe McDonald determined that this was the time when they would get most value for Hernandez, with the potential brewery did not want to be in a situation where a player could not be traded," said McDonald.

"But it was a misunderstanding on our part, in regard to George's 5-10. You know we did not want to trade George. We thought they did." Personality differences: Though Herzog publicly lauded Hernandez for being "as good a first baseman as I've seen since I've been in the game," and applauded him for playing with injuries that could have forced him out, the theory exists that Herzog never has been enamored of Hernandez's pace, i.e., the belief that Hernandez sometimes needed a boost to put him in high gear. Hernandez's lack of production. He had driven in only 28 runs in the team's first 56 games, and he had batted only about .200 with runners in scoring position.

Scapegoat might be too strong a term to use here, but fingers were pointed at him. Hendrick's adaptability. Hendrick, figuring he would be the one to be traded, asked Hernandez to help him play first base in spring training "When I saw him play first base, that made a tremendous difference," said Herzog. Those are most of the reasons, anyway. Whether the Cardinals got equal value in return for one of the game's acknowledged best players is certainly in question, considering Allen's record this year.

The Kansas City, product is 2-7 with two saves See HERNANDEZ, Page 3 77 AA 0 J.B. ForbesPost-Dispatch Keith Hernandez discusses the trade with reporters Wednesday. Keitti Expected Trade iut Later he kept to himself. "No one can ever say whether it's fair or unfair," he said. "It depends on what the club needs." Hernandez was called off the field during batting practice at 5:50 p.m.

"I knew I was gone," he said he thought as he approached Manager Whitey Herzog's office. "It wasn't an easy thing for him to tell me," said Hernandez. "I know if I was a manager, it would be a very difficult thing for me to tell a player that I've traded him." Hernandez was a .299 lifetime hitter here and drove in 105 runs in 1979 when he shared the National League Most Valuably Player award with Pittsburgh's Willie Stargell. He has won five consecutive Gold Gloves and played in two All-Star Games. And suddenly he was gone.

On reflection, he said, "I am a little shocked, to say the least." So were his teammates although several had heard trade "rumors involving Hernandez. Most, however, By Rick Hummel Ot the Post-Dispatch Staff Keith Hernandez said he expected to be traded sometime this year, although he said he was surprised it was to the New York Mets and rather surprised that it happened now, rather than later, because of Lonnie Smith's absence for drug rehabilitation. Hernandez, accepting the news in impassive fashion, for the most part, said he had expected to be traded to Houston. He was made aware of a possible trade involving him for Houston first baseman Ray Knight and pitcher Vern Ruhle a couple of weeks ago. Moments after his trade to the Mets had been announced Wednesday night, the Cardinals first baseman thought there might be an escape clause in his contract that would allow him to veto the trade.

When Hernandez signed his $3.8 million, five-year contract in 1980, he could designate six teams to which he could not be traded without his consent. He thought the Mets were one Carlton Sent Packing By Surprising Cards of those teams although he later discovered in reading his contract that they weren't. Cardinals General Manager Joe McDonald said, "If it's in the contract, I'm in deep trouble. But I can tell you that all six teams he had were American League teams." Hernandez said it wouldn't have mattered anyway. "If they don't want me here, I don't want to be where a team doesn't want me.

I'll go anyway. "There are a lot of things involved that I won't get into. They felt they needed pitching with all those doubleheaders coming up. "I'm disappointed. I loved it here and the fans were great to me.

The hard part is that my family gets uprooted. But that's part of the game. I knew that one day I would be traded." Hernandez said that Mets General Manager Frank Cashen had told him he was counting on Hernandez bringing a winning attitude to the downtrodden Mets. Whether Hernandez thought the trade was fair or unfair was something lead over the Montreal Expos in the National League Eastern Division, Whitey Herzog kept shaking his head and saying, "Imagine beating Lefty twice in a row. This must be the first time that's happened since the Cardinals traded him." Carlton, 35-12 against his former club, never before had lost twice in succession to the Redbirds in the same season.

Wednesday's victory, which gave the Redbirds the series, two games to one, appeared to take away some of the disappointment that teammates felt about popular teammate Keith Hernandez having been traded to the New York Mets for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Beating Carlton was all the more surprising because he was done part bv a lefthanded swinger rarely is used against southpaws Dane Iorg; a newcomer to the NL who See CARDINALS, Page 7 American league who In the quiet of the Cardinals' clubhouse before Wednesday night's game, coach Dave Ricketts was standing before a blackboard writing out the schedule for batting practice. "Hey," someone yelled. "What time are we supposed to show up tomorrow?" It was a thin joke. Tomorrow, meaning today, would be a day off.

"Shoot," someone else muttered. "We all may be gone by tomorrow." Gallows humor. On one side of the room, stacked atop a red canvas director's chair with the nickname "Che-de-Beep" embroidered across the back, were two Cardinals duffel bags with the number 37 scrawled across them. They belonged to Keith Hernandez, who an hour earlier had become the property of the New York Mets. HERNANDEZ DIDN'T LINGER long after he had packed his bags.

Ballplayers who are traded never do. The clubhouse, so familiar, suddenly feels cold and foreign. Men who are your friends have trouble meeting your eyes, and you have trouble meeting theirs. What is there to say? Hernandez packed quickly, throwing shoes and gloves and balls into the duffel bags, talking quietly to reporters who crowded around him. One thing you can say about Hernandez good day or bad, he always held his head up.

Even after Game 4 of last year's World Series, wearing a zero-for-15 collar, Hernandez didn't duck and he went seven for 12 in last three games of the series. And he didn't duck Wednesday. The firm set of his jaw indicated he was smoldering inside, but he said all the right things. He said he was shocked, but he understood. He said he hated to leave his teammates, the men who called him Taco and Mex and Che-de-Beep, part of a standing joke about the Spanish-American kid from San Francisco being a Mexican.

When his parents were named "Little League Parents of the Year" earlier this year, someone had come up with a photograph of Keith as a 12-year-old Little Leaguer. It was enlarged to poster size and pasted over his locker. It had been there Tuesday, but Wednesday it was gone. The Mets are getting a great hitter and a great first baseman, but they're also getting a good guy, a man who has grown up a lot in the last three years. He used to get angry and say things he shouldn't and tear up things that didn't belong to him.

Now, at 29, he is mellow, and in full bloom as a ballplayer and a as a human being. The Mets' incumbent first baseman is Dave Kingman, who as a fielder and a hitter isn't in Hernandez's league, and who as human being isn't even in his universe. Hernandez will supplant Kingman, and that alone makes it a brilliant trade for the New Yorkers. IT'S A GOOD TRADE for Hernandez, too. The Mets are starved for good ballplayers, and their fans are starving for a hero.

They've latched onto 20-year-old Darryl Strawberry, brought up from the minors a few weeks ago for a quick fix he hasn't yet delivered. Hernandez will deliver, and he'll sign a big contract, and with his good looks and stage presence, he'll become fabulously well-to-do in the large apple. It's a good trade for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey, the pitchers for whom No. 37 was the price. Allen, who grew up in Kansas City, will be 250 miles from home.

His dad lives there, and he is blind, and Allen worried a lot about him in New York. Ownbey, tall and fair, looks like an escapee from a surfer movie. He's going to see the sights in Louisville for a while, but not for long. He throws very hard, and has been in search of a. tutor.

You can almost hear Hub Kittle growling at him now. It's a good trade for Andy Van Slyke, the small-town kid who has been shredding the American Association for three months. He'll get a chance to play in the big show but with a big asterisk. His ticket to the show comes with the awful burden of knowing that he's replacing a certified hometown hero. So it's good for Keith, good for the Mets, good for Allen and Ownbey and good with an asterisk for Van Slyke.

But what of the Cardinals? They've had to pay a fearsome price for two pitchers with question marks stamped all over their resumes. But the Redbird arms that showed such promise in the rains of St. Petersburg have withered. SO THE CARDS had to enter the pitching market, which is so badly inflated that it looks like it's being run by an Argentinian junta. Inflation touches us all.

Ten grand for a Chevrolet? Outrageous. A buck for hamburger? Absurd. A buck and a quarter for a gallon of gas? Ridiculous. A Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey? Outrageous, absurd and ridiculous. But you've got to have a car, and you've got to eat.

And you've got to have pitching. Look at it this way: As bad as the Cardinals pitchers have even if Hernandez hit .320 and drove in 100 runs, the Birds were doomed. If Allen and Ownbey can win or save a dozen games between them, the Cards just might squeeze under the gate. It's just a sjjame No. 37 won't be.

here to see it. Rose Questions Trade's Wisdom By Neal Russo Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Pete Rose had some mixed emotions about the Keith Hernandez trade. "Personally, I've always felt very hesitant about trading an everyday player of quality, one who can help you win in many ways, for a pitcher. "But, on the other hand, I learned long ago not to second-guess trades that Whitey Herzog makes, because he makes so many good ones and most of the players he gets have helped him win." Still, the more Rose talked, the more it appeared that he would have hung on to Hernandez. "There aren't many third-place hitters like Hernandez and Andre Dawson who can help you win with their bat and their glove and their See ROSE, Page 7 J.B.

ForbesPost-Dispatch great glee in discussing preparations at( Oakmont. "Contrary to popular belief, we don't always make things more difficult," said Jim Hand, USGA vice president. "This year we widened five fairways and narrowed three." The lack of alterations is a tribute to the difficulty of conditions under which Oakmont members normally play. "For the first time in my years as chairman of the championship we have come in on a Monday morning (before the tourney) and started play and would have been delighted with the conditions," said Hand. "We will be playing the course generally as the members play it." Actually, it might be a little easier than the members play.

The greens reportedly were slowed for the event and the rough trimmed back. "There is no other word for the rough than penal," said Hand. "We've trimmed it to four Inches and it will grow to five, but the thickness of the blades of grass is what makes it so difficult. It is tougher than I would prefer." Some Oakmont members were indignant that the rough was trimmed at all. Too fresh ln some minds is Johnny Miller's 63 ty the closing round See OPEN, Page 7 were guarded in their assessment of the trade because (a) they knew what Herzog's track record in trades had been and (b) they didn't want to make him mad.

Second baseman Tom Herr was hardly militant when he said, "I'm disappointed. It's tough losing a friend like that. Keith was really great in the clubhouse besides on the field. It's not going to be the same without him going crazy in the clubhouse, the way he acted, his demeanor. That's what made him fun to be around." But he said, "I can't imagine Keith getting traded.

I really don't understand why they had to trade Keith. It's difficult taking his bat out of our lineup. "To assume that (Andy) Van Slyke can bring the same kind of production that Keith gave us would be wishful thinking. But I think anybody would say that." Pitcher Dave LaPoint said, "1 was in a pretty big trade that Whitey made See REACTION, Page 5 U.S. Open, most of the time I'll win.

In the two I won, I was even once and seven over in the other." Irwin terms the course conditions the most difficult since Winged Foot. "The potential for high scores is there. The potential for low scores is not," he said. "You might see some low scores the first couple of days, but when guys get into contention on the weekend, the swing gets a little tighter and the apple get a little bigger. Scores will come back (toward par) a little." Irwin also discussed his serious-minded image.

Though he is becoming quicker with the smile and one-liners, Irwin's attitude on the course remains primarily business-like. He says he can't combine the role of entertainer with good golf, as Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Fuzzy Zoeller do. "I was tempted to do a Jerry Pate routine (jump in the water after a victory) at Houston one' time when I was an amateur," Irwin related. "But I didn't do it because I didn't want to embarrass the sponsors. "I'm glad I didn't.

I found out later there were snakes in the lake." The United States Golf Association, which has been in the past for "tricking up" Open courses, is taking syV Ca yy i Ozzie Smith of the Cardinals is tagged out by Phillies catcher Bo Diaz in the eighth inning. Irwin's Game Solid Enough To Win pen Even Par By Neal Russo Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The enemy might as well pack early and plan a fast getaway after the final game of a series against the Cardinals. The dandy habit of sticking it to rivals in series finales has even begun working under almost impossible odds. Like beating Steve Carlton a second time in succession. And even with Carlton having a three-run lead as late as the eighth inning.

Yes, even though the Cardinals before Wednesday night's game had a terrible record, 4-21, in games in which the opposition led after seven innings. But that's what happened Wednesday night at Busch Stadium. By overcoming Carlton, 7-6, by wiping out a 6-3 deficit with a four-run splurge in the eighth inning, the Cardinals improved their record for series finales to 15-6 (8-2 at home). After the victory that enabled the Redbirds to cling to their one-game How They Stand NATIONAL LEAGUE Eastern Division 31 30 26 28 22 22 Pel. .544 27 .526 28 .481 31 .475 GB 1 Vi 4 8Vj CARDINALS Montreal Philadelphia Chicago Pittsburgh New York 34 36 .379 Wsstsrn Division 40 38 31 31 28 27 Pet.

GB 20 .667 23 .623 2'j 30 ,508 9'j 32 .492 11 32 ,467 12 35 ,435 14 Los Angeles Atlanta San Francisco Houston San Diego Cincinnati WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS Cardinals 7, Philadelphia 6 San Franclso 7, Houston 1 Chicago 7, New York 4 (10 innings) i Montreal 7, Pittsburgh 4 San Olego 5, Cincinnati Atlanta 3, Los Angeles 2 TODAY'S GAMES (St. Louis Times) Cincinnati (Pastor 2-5) at San Diego (Lollar 1-4), 3:05 p.m. Houston (M. Scott 1-3) at San Francisco Atlanta (Camp 5-6) at Los Angeles (Pena 5-1), FRIDAY'S GAMES Chicago at St. Louis, 7:35 p.m.

New York at Montreal, 6: 35 p.m. Philadelphia ot Pittsburgh, 6: 3i p.m. Houston at San Diego, Cincinnati at Lffi Angeles, 9: 35 p.m. Atlanta at ian Francisco, Eastern Division Pet. GB Baltimore 37 24 .607 Detroit 33 27 .550 31 Toronto 32 27 .542 4 Boston 30 29 .508 6 New York 30 30 .500 6 Milwaukee 28 30 .483 71 Cleveland 27 33 .450 Vh Western Division Pet.

GB California 34 27 .557 Texas 31 28 .525 2 Oakland .31 30 .508 3 Kansas Cltv 28 28 .500 3V4 Chicago 28 32 .467 5Vb Minnesota 26 37 .413 9 Seattle 26 39 .400 10 By Steve Kelley Of the Post-Dispatch Staff OAKMONT, Pa. St. Louisan Hale Irwin reports his game still is solid after his victory three weeks ago in the Memorial Tournament. After taking a week off, he played well though he was not a contender last week at Westchester. And, says Irwin, it's a comforting feeling to be hitting the ball solidly as you tackle the high rough and hard, slick greens of Oakmont.

"I'd hate to come here not playing well," said the Old Warson Country Club member. "Oakmont is no place to find your game. You might not even find your ball." Irwin has the game to handle the U.S. Open. He's proven that.

He's won two of these things in 1974 at Winged Foot and 1979 at Inverness. Irwin is not exceptionally long, but he's straight. He doesn't tame courses with his putter, but he can two-putt from difficult places. In short, he could be a factor this week. "The test of a U.S.

Open is going to eliminate many players. How many, I don't know," Irwin said. "They throw around' the number 20 (golfers with a chance to win). 1 "I believe I shoot even par In the WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS Baltimore 11, Milwaukee 8 (10 Innings) Oakland 10, Toronto 1 Detroit 4, Boston 2 New York 8, Cleveland 5 California 5, Chicago 2 Minnesota 6, Kansas City 2 Seattle 6, Texas 4 TODAY'S GAMES (St. Louis Times) Oakland (McCattv 1-0) at Toronto (Gott 3-5), 5p.m.

New York (Guldry 8-4) at Cleveland (Blvleven 4-5), 6:15 p.m. Boston (Hurst 4-5) at Detroit (Berenauer 2-0), 6:35 p.m. Baltimore (McGregor 8-3) at Milwaukee (Haas 4-2), 7 :30 p.m. Minnesota (Oelkers 0-3) at Texas (Darwin 4-5), 7:35 p.m. FRIDAY'S GAMES California at Toronto, 6: 30 p.m.

Boston at Baltimore, 6:35 p.m. Detroit at Cleveland, 6: 35 p.m. Milwaukee at New York, 7 p.m. Oakland at Chicago, Seattle at KoiOas Cltv, 7:35 p.m. Minnesota at ftxasf 7:35 p.m..