European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 25, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Poge 26 the stars and stripes february 1981 baseball Hopes Spring again by Joseph Durso not the season of is sprouting this week in 26 baseball Camps from Palm Springs to Palm for the Sec Ond straight the threat of labor strife is hanging Over the their teams and their negotiating for the next six resorts in the Sun Belt will come alive with the seasonal Call to arms 650 jobs to be 385 exhibition games to be 10 new manag ers to be four japanese teams will even join the Miles from their stadiums Back this is Spring the countdown to the 106th season of major league base it is a time when the Worl Champi on Philadelphia Phillies will be welcomed to in a civic when teenage rookies will compete with 41yearold Willie Stargell and 42year old Gaylord when Pete Rose will be nearing birthday 40 and hit but it is also a time when the drama on the Field will be upstaged by the drama off the As it was in similar disputes in again in 1976 and again in in an Echo of last years training when the players boycotted the final week of exhibition trouble once More is the club owners announced thursday that they were instituting a system of compensation for teams that lose free agents that the team that signs a free agent must surrender a professional player in the players Are just How far they will resist will be decided when the player representatives of All 26 teams meet in Florida at a hotel near the Tampa International the likelihood is that they will Call a strike sometime Between March 1 and june if the crisis that was averted at the Lith hour last May will again confront the sport As it enters the sixth season of the free agent the club owners hold the says Marvin executive director of the players repeating his description of the but they would be naive to think that the players will not i cant replies Dick president of the Cincinnati that 650 Well paid players would go it is an old Story and an old provocation How to Divide the Money poured into the big leagues each year by the 41 million customers who attend the games and by the television stations that cover the but the and the training sea Are being spiced this time by the Arri Val in Camp of transplanted stars with re Cord led by Dave Winfield of the new York Yankees and Fred Lynn of the California both of whom signed Lon term contracts this Winter for substantially More than million a with or without Spring training is an old it probably began 111 years six years before the National league was when a team from Chicago went South with one purpose to get into shape to defeat the Cincinnati red who had cruised through the previous season unde All the big league teams pitch Camps one in seven in Ari Zona and 18 in Florida As the place to build biceps and beat Drums for the regu Lar which opens this year on april there is Only one change of venue this the Montreal expos switched from Daytona Beach Back to West Palm where they Are sharing the stadium with the Atlanta but there is a stunning series of changes in with five bran new and five slightly new ones on the in the american in a kind of exercise in musical Ralph Houk ends two years in retirement and returns As manager of the Boston red the team he regularly tried to destroy when he worked for the Yankees and Detroit to taking aim at the 1981 baseball season Randy Lerch of the world Champion Philadelphia Phillies watches the flight he replaces Don who sur faces with the Texas rangers As the Suc Cessor to Pat the the whirling dervishes of introduce Gene Michael As manager in place of Dick one year after they introduced Michael As general did the red who lost Carlton Fisk to free sign Houk As a manager or As a Catcher a onetime Catcher for the considered the question the other Day while the Jred sox were on a losing Streak in arbitration cases with their Star and said Ive been doing quite a bit of working out just in the american league arrives for its 81st season with three slightly new manag they were hired during the last sea but now Are making their debuts in training Camp Bob Rodgers with the Mil Waukee Brewers in George Bamberger John Goryl with the Minnesota twins for Gene and Maury wills with the Seattle where Darrell Johnson used to in the National season 106 brings Frank Howard onto the Job with the san Diego padres As Jerry Coleman returns to the broadcasting Booth after one Long and losing Frank Robinson starts his second tour As a this time with the san Francisco he replaces Dave who was dismissed just before the managers luncheon during baseballs business convention in Decem in the almost new Joe Amalfi Tano takes the Chicago cubs to Camp in place of Preston who surrendered last Whitey who became manager and general manager of the Louis cardinals during last arrives in Camp still wearing both he succeeded Ken Boyer in one Job and John Claiborne in the the whole system has changed so much that its a constant said who negotiated trades that involved 21 players in one week in Decem you try to figure out who can walk away and when they can and then you struggle to achieve one thing Stabile but Spring is the time when everybody starts work on even terms no no it is also traditionally the time for of the Ball As he does some pre Spring training throwing at the train surging consider the american leagues Eastern which May be the toughest of the four divisions in the two it was won last year by the who then were swept from the playoffs by the Kansas City if we stay says reaching for the cliche favored by manag ers of springtime we can win it the says Earl Start ing his 13th full season As played the Best baseball in the majors Over the last two thirds of the but with the injuries and other problems we had at the it want enough to Over come the if we can play Well in the Early look when we acquired Ted Rollie fingers and Pete says counting his blessings from we were instantly turned into a i feel much better about the club now than i did when we ended the most managers feel better now than when they ended the can match the springtime prose of Sparky Anderson of the who says theres no question we happen to be in the toughest division in the major no doubt about that Doest mean Well Roll Over and play but it does mean Pur Young men Are in for a and its my Job to get them mean and last we scored More runs than any team in the tigers scored 830 runs last and finished but Anderson shows that a realists heart is beating beneath an optimists and adds no team will win with a earned run average like we had last especially in our the Yankees were the first to arrive on this hopeful opening their Early Camp in fort Lauderdale three Days Billy Martin pitched Camp for his soaring Oakland second in the West last year but first in Arizona this by the los Angeles dodgers even had a game under their Blue the who lost their final game of 1980 to the Houston astros with a division title on the won their first game of 1981 with nothing on the they overpowered the Urcla in five innings two weeks but the dodgers ing Camp at the phils open Spring training have been holding informal workouts since mid january in their sunny stadium at so they will arrive in Vero this week with Advance no manager is permitted to order play ers into Camp before March but most of them invite their pitchers and catchers to report late in pitchers need time to shake off and they usually throw for a week before the hitters starting March the exhibition games begin with the tigers playing the Minnesota twins in Lakeland in the open after everybody gets into the three clubs will even travel outside the the royals and rangers go to puerto Rico March 23 for the seventh series in eight years for the Benefit of the Roberto Clemente sports and the padres go to Mexico City for three night games starting March the Lon distance goes to the four teams from the Yakut swallows Are training with the padres in the Han Shin tigers with the mariners in the Taiyo whales with the cubs in and the Tokyo giants with the dodgers in Vero the legendary Sadaharu who hit 868 Home runs before retiring last makes his debut As assistant manager of the but Sadaharu of will feel at Home among some of americas senior citizens of baseball As they approach entering his third season with the will be 40 in he needs Only 73 hits to tie Stan Musial As the National leagues career Leader at 42 last needs 11 victories to reach Carl who is needs 67 games to move into second place behind Henry who played in Star still awarding Gold stars to his team mates at needs Only four Home runs to pass Musial at and Jim at warms up his left Arm for his 23rd season of pitching in the three slightly younger pitchers Tom Steve Carlton and Ferguson Jen Kins Are All Likely to notch their strikeout this a remarkable since Only four other men in baseball history have done for Young and old for winners and for players who become free agents and for owners who sign an other season of Hope arrives in