European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 29, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 26 the stars and stripes sports thursday october 29,1992 so Odberg baseball s Best Elias sports Bureau says by Ronald Blum new York a Ryne Sandberg in t just the highest paid player in baseball he s also the Best according to the annual statistical rankings. Sandberg got a 98.137 score Over the 1991 and 1992 seasons and replaced Cal Ripken As the highest ranked player in the game the Elias sports Bureau said tues Day. Barry Bonds of the Pittsburgh pirates was second at 97.838, while Ripken dropped from a perfect 100 to third at 97.449. Cincinnati Pitcher Jose Rijo was fourth at 97.304. Sandberg and the Chicago cubs agreed last Spring on a $28.4 million four year contract that begins next season. His average salary of $7.1 million is tops in the game. Ripken in t too far behind though. He and the Baltimore orioles agreed last summer to a $32.5 million five year Extension the second highest by annual aver age and the top Deal Ever in total guaranteed Money. Bonds who on monday became a free agent May be joining them soon. He is expected to get a contract at or near the top of baseball s pay scale. Sandberg was the highest ranked National league second baseman for the ninth straight season. Fred Mcgriff of san Diego repeated at first base Terry Pendleton of Atlanta replaced Cincinnati s Chris Sabo at third base and Barry Larkin of the reds was first at shortstop for the third straight season. Bonds and former Pittsburgh teammate Bobby Bonilla who signed with the new York mets following the 1991 season repeated in the Outfield while Andy Van Slyke of the pirates replaced the dodgers Darryl Strawberry. Tom Pagnozzi of St. Louis replaced Mike Scioscia of los Angeles at Catcher and Rijo repeated at starting Pitcher. Cincinnati s Rob Dibble was the league s High est rated Relief Pitcher for the third straight year. In the american league Detroit s Mickey Tettleton was first among catchers ending the four year reign of Chicago s Carlton Fisk. Frank Thomas of the Chicago White sox replaced Rafael Palmeiro of Texas at first base Roberto Alomar of Toronto replaced Julio fran co of the rangers at second Robin Ventura of the White sox replaced Boston s Wade Boggs at third and Ripken was the top shortstop for the seventh time. Ken Griffey or. Of Seattle repeated in the Outfield As did Danny Tartabull who signed with the new York Yankees after leaving Kansas City via free Agency. Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota twins among the top three outfielders in 1988 and 1989, replaced Jose can Seco traded from the Oakland athletics to Texas on aug. 31. Jack Mcdowell of the White sox replaced Boston s Roger Clemens As the Al s top starting Pitcher and Duane Ward of the Blue jays ended the four year reign of Oakland s Dennis Eckersley at reliever. Paul Molitor of Milwaukee repeated at designated hitter. The rankings created in the 1981 strike settlement Are based on statistics Over two seasons. They Are used to Divide free agents into three classes that determine Ryne Sandberg named highest rated baseball player. What draft picks Are Given a player s former club As compensation if he signs with a new team. The top 30 percent in each grouping get an a rank ing the next 20 percent Are ranked b and the group Between 50 and 60 percent Are ranked c. For position players the rankings includes statistic such As plate appearances batting average on base percentage Home runs Bis Fielding percentage and chances and assists. Pitchers categories include games innings wins winning percentage Era strikeouts and saves hits per nine innings and strikeout ratio. Differing positions Are evaluated on different sets of categories. The rankings do not always follow perceptions. For instance Bill Swift of the san Francisco giants an Curt Schilling of the Philadelphia Phillies Are ranked second and third among no relievers. Swift led the Nowith a 2.08 Era and made 22 starts but he had More Relief appearances Over the last two years. Schilling made 26 starts last season. 32 others opt to be free agents by the associated press new York three Days after winning the world series the possible breakup of the Toron to Blue jays began when game 4 Winner Jimmy key and reliever Tom Henke filed for free Agen More Oakland athletics and six St. Louis cardinals were amt Fig the 32 players filing Rais ing the total of free agents from the Al West champions to eight and the Overall total to 58.at least six More a s and As Many As 107 total player still Are eligible to file by the nov. 8 deadline. The new York Yankees declined to exercise the$2.5 million option on Pitcher Scott Sanderson opting to give him a$250,000 buyout instead. The Philadelphia Phillies declined to exercise a $2.1million option on Pitcher Henke Ken Howell. Both Howell and Sanderson Are now eligible to also said it would not offer salary arbitration to second baseman Wally Backman who had been covered by the five year restriction on repeat free California Angels said arbitration would not be offered to infielders Hubie Brooks an Ken Oberkfell and Catcher Mike Fitzgerald. Teams must decide by thursday whether to offer arbitration to 22 players still covered by the repeater rights restriction a group that include Carlton Fisk of the Chicago White sox Jim Gantner of the Milwaukee Brewers Mike Moore of the a s and Jeff Reardon of the Atlanta addition Baltimore must decide by thurs Day whether exercise to a $400,000 option on Tim Hulett the Kansas City royals have until saturday to exercise a $2.5 million option on George Brett and Robin Yount has until Sunda to exercise a $3.2 million option with the Milwaukee Brewers. Harold Baines Kelly Downs Jamie quirk an Randy ready filed from the a s. They joined Mark Mcgwire Jeff Russell Terry Steinbach and Ruben Sierra who filed on monday. Frank Dipino Andres Galarraga Rich ged Man Pedro Guerrero Bob Mcclure and Mil Tthompson filed from the cardinals. Among the others filing tuesday were Dan Plesac and Kevin Seitzer of the Milwaukee brew ers Randy Bush and Greg Gagne of the Minne Sota twins Gary Redus of the Pittsburgh pirates and Dave Magadan of the new York mets. Prime time world series a ratings bust by Ronald Blum a sports writer new York while the world series was a Success on the Field the television ratings were the second biggest bust in baseball s prime time history the six games Between the Toronto Blue jays and the at Lanta braves averaged a 20.2rating with a 34 share Nielsen Media research said tuesday. The Only lower rated series in prime time was in 1989, when the Oakland athletics Earth quake interrupted sweep of the san Francisco giants got a 16.4 rating and a 30 share. The 1970 world series be tween the Baltimore orioles and the Cincinnati reds the last played entirely in the Day time got a 19.4 rating and is the Only other to have ratings below this year. Baseball officials said that be cause of the presence of Toron to the Overall North american ratings were the highest in five years. If you put in Canada we had a million and a half More House holds this year than lbs has Ever had said Philadelphia Phillies owner Bill Giles a member of baseball s television committee. It seems to me you should Factor those in. Lbs just likes to cry a Little David Alworth the executive director of broadcasting for the commissioner s office did not return a Telephone Call seeking comment. Jay Rosenstein the vice presi Dent of programming for lbs sports said the . Ratings were about where the network expected them to be in an age of across the Board decreases. Unfortunately we Don t get any credit for Toronto or the Canadian Homes Rosenstein said. The rating is the percentage of television households in the nation and each Point rep resents 931,000 Homes. The share is the percentage of televisions on at the time. We were tracking 10, 12 per cent Down the whole series he said. With last year we re com paring it to what Many believe to be the Best world series of re cent history which also had very intense competitive games. It was not Likely to be repeated this season no matter what teams were playing the braves coming off their last to first the twins coming off their last to first. There was a sparkle com ing off last year that was this year s series produced the lowest rated game 1 in world series history and the fourth fifth and sixth games were the lowest rated games 4,5 and 6 in prime time. Last year s seven game series Between Atlanta and Minnesota got a 24.0 rating and a 39 share the Best since 1987. The ratings this year were Down 16 percent and Down 10 percent from the 22.5 rating through six games last year. Saturday night s final game had a 22.7 rating and a 41 share Down 11 percent from the 25.4 rating for game 6 last year. That last 1 hour 22 minutes which includes Atlanta s comeback and Dave Winfield s game winning double got a 27.1rating. We re very Happy with our saturday night numbers on both game 1 and game 6," Rosen Stein said. I was fascinated on the huge numbers of people watching game 6 in the 11 30-12 52 time period which shows the intensity of the
