European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 09, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tom Goodwin whose Royal Are in the heat of he wild card race scores past Texas Ivan Rodriguez last week. Rise he wild card race has become a salvation in the american league even if the fans Don t seem to Hay warmed up to the idea of a Concha Nippin making the postseason. Cleveland has made a mockery of the Al Central. The indians Are Well on their Way to clinching a division title earlier than any team in history. The Baltimore orioles set the record in 1969, the first year of divisional play when they clinched the Al East on sept. 13. Cleveland went into last weekend with a magic number of nine combination of Indian victories and. Kansas City losses. " Boston in the Al East and California in the Al West both entered the final month with comfortable leads.  things however Are far from settled in the wild card Battle. Kansas City went into last weekend with a. Percentage Point Lead on Seattle and Texas the Only two Al teams to have never played a postseason game. In sweeping Milwaukee which was a game Back in the wild card race the royals became thet fifth wild card  five weeks. It could be fun Here in. The last Monti iof theseas6nv" said Pitcher Mark. Gubicza the Lone remaining player from the royals 1985 world champions. It gives you Goose bumps. Thank god for the wild  royals made 10 roster moves on aug. 11, including dumping veterans Vince Coleman Chris James and Pat Borders in a youth movement. The royals won 14 of the next 21 games to move into the wild card race even if their fans Don t seem interested. Last week s three game wild card showdown Tracy Ringolsby Rocky Mountain news with Milwaukee Drew a combined 45,127 to Kauffman stadium 1,747 fewer than the Rockies single-game1 average at Coors Field. Boston manager Kevin Kennedy still harbouring hard feelings at being dumped As the manager in Texas after last season is picking Seattle to. Claim the wild card berth. _. I mean no disrespect to the Texas rangers but i think the mariners Are an excellent team Kennedy said. They have a great lineup Randy Johnson a great Bull Peri now with Norm Charlton Back and they have a manager Lou Piniella who wants to  and the mariners set a franchise record with 16 wins in August. They had never had a winning August until. Piniella took Over As manager three years ago. He has led. Them to 14-13, 9-1 and 16-13 records in the month. Butler does it when Brett Butler crossed Home plate with the winning run in the Bottom of the ninth inning of the dodgers 6-5 Victory against new York last week one of the first dodgers to Greet him with a High five was Mike Busch. The dodger stadium crowd gave a standing ovation what a difference 24 hours can make. The night before Butler and several other dodgers met privately with dodger manager Tommy Lasorda demanding that Busch one of the Spring training replacement players be released. First baseman Eric Karros and Catcher Mike Piazza also met with general manager Fred Claire to try to convince him to rescind the promotion. And Butler addressing an estimated 40 members of the Media when Busch was called up announced he s a Scab pure and simple and there will be individuals who will treat him As such.". So what happened in the interim the Public let it be known that it is sick and tired of the whining of Butler and co. Dodger stadium fans booed each mention of Butler s name. Busch 7 received standing ovations even after he struck out from Union Ushers and groundskeeper at dodger stadium As Well As fans. So Butler and the rest of the dodgers did a Quick about face. Butler met privately with Busch. Then Busch addressed the other dodger players. And then the players held a news conference to say they resented what Busch did during the Spring but respect him As a teammate find blamed the Media for creating the problems a stemming from Busch s arrival. Such men of conviction these dodgers several of whom privately apologized to writers covering the team for making them the scapegoats in the fiasco. We accept Mike Butler said we will pull for him when he goes to the plate. He s just As much a part of this team As anyone else. You have 27 different people in there and they re going to individually accept reject or whatever May be the Case with Mike. But i can Tell you collectively in the clubhouse As Well As on the Field that Mike will be just like anybody else on this  no More spark there s Little doubt that Sparky Anderson is at the end of his managerial career in Detroit. The question is who will be the general manager who hires Anderson s replacement. Current general manager Joe Klein s contract also is up at the end of the season. The. Name of san Diego general manager Randy Smith has surfaced in motown. Klein has been working at a disadvantage in his two years in Detroit. He inherited an old and overpaid bal Klub his ability to make moves was limited by the Long term contracts he inherited ,$27 million in 1995 for seven players. Klein did move three of those players Tony Phillips Mike Henneman and David Wells and got Young prospects in return. Chad Curtis came from California for Phillips. Phil Nevin top pick in the 1992 draft was acquired from Houston for Henneman. And for Wells Cincinnati gave the tigers left handed Pitcher . Nitkowski its no. 1 pick in 1994. The tigers will get another player in the Wells Deal and indications Are it could be infielder Mark Lewis a former no. 1 draft pick of Cleveland who is Only 25. Going going Don Mattingly appears to be playing his final Days in a new York Yankee uniform which leads to the question of who s going to be the Yankee first baseman next year. Russ Davis is ready for a full time shot at third. That Means Wade Boggs could move across the infield but Boggs like Mattingly will be a free agent when the season is Over. Then there is Darryl Strawberry who has never played first but says he will give it a try. But will the Yankees want to exercise Strawberry s $1.8 million option for 1996 if he does t show More Power than the one Home run he has hit since being activated speedy Molitor Toronto do Paul Molitor does t run As often As he used to but he still knows How. He s 1 1 for 1 1 in stolen bases this year giving him 35 successful thefts in a Row dating " Back to 1993. The Al record is 42 by Tim Raines. The Pittsburgh pirates marketing has turned to self deprecating humor. A recent newspaper add read our marketing department s exhaustive research has concluded that Pur Low attendance figures May be due in Large part to uncomfortable seating please remember to fold the seat Down. Thank  these Are not however fun times in Pittsburgh. The pirates average attendance is 13,478, and the current ownership claims it is going to lose $20 million this  in Pittsburgh is not dead but it is very sick pirate vice president of marketing Steve Greenberg said. It s on the critical list. This season. Is a Wash. We will poke fun at ourselves even if they Don t come to the  Bagwell Back Jeff Bagwell might not be at full Speed in his recovery from a broken left hand but the Houston astros did t waste time activating him last week. The astros were 9-21 in his absence and went from 31/ games out in the no Central on july 30 to 12vi out after last weekend. Will Bagwell be enough while the offence struggled in an 11-game losing Streak scoring 33 Page 14 beyond the game september 9-15, 1995