Irabu-Gate Pits Pads Vs. Yanks

The honorable Hideki Irabu is 6-foot-5. The honorable Hideki Irabu throws a baseball so hard he just about makes Randy Johnson look like Phil Niekro.

And, oh, yes, the honorable Hideki Irabu wants to throw those baseballs in the United States of America.

Big problem there. But then, what else is new?

Irabu is an international baseball incident waiting to happen.

The details of Irabu-gate work this way:

Irabu, a two-time strikeout champion who is known as the Nolan Ryan of Japan, is under contract to the Chiba Lotte Marines. And he wants out.

He wants to be a New York Yankee. And the Yankees want him to be a Yankee. Sounds simple so far, eh?

Trouble is, the Yankees have no more right to spirit Irabu away than they do Greg Maddux or Mike Mussina - people who also are under contract to other teams. Not that that’s stopped them.

In that charming George Steinbrenner way of his, the Yankees’ emperor is demanding that baseball award him Irabu. Why? Just because.

In the meantime, those crafty Chiba Lotte Marines pursued other options, and recently completed a working agreement with the San Diego Padres - an agreement that was under construction long before Irabu-gate.

This agreement, said Padres general manager Kevin Towers, encompasses “more than just Irabu.” Much more. The Marines use the Padres’ spring-training complex. The teams have a coaches’ exchange. They are planning exhibition games. And they developed all of this with the approval of the commissioner’s office.

The Padres got rights to Irabu. The Marines got two Padres prospects. The Padres were happy. The Marines were happy. And George Steinbrenner? Not too happy.

So the Yankees are causing trouble. Irabu is refusing to join the Padres.

So baseball has formed a committee that will figure out new rules for how U.S. teams obtain rights to Japanese players.

Eventually, the Padres almost certainly will retain their rights to Irabu. But if Irabu still prefers the scenery in the Bronx to San Diego - now, there’s a first - what happens?

The Padres easily could wind up trading his rights to the Yankees - for some great young player. Such as, say, Ruben Rivera or fellow hotshot outfield prospect Ricky Ledee.

Execs, umps to meet

It was only four months ago that the last of Roberto Alomar’s hastily aimed saliva was hitting the cheek and shoulder of American League umpire John Hirschbeck, setting off a chain of events that would end with a federal judge ordering the umps not to strike baseball’s postseason games.

Part of that peace settlement included a promise from baseball execs to hold a summit meeting with players and umpires on Nov. 14, at which time the umpires’ concerns about safety and authority would be addressed and a written “code of conduct” for players established.

Somebody lose their calendar?

That mid-November summit meeting, ostensibly postponed because of the labor talks, finally is set for Tuesday in Palm Beach, Fla.

But don’t expect any results.

“It is certainly likely to take more than one meeting,” acting commissioner Bud Selig said Friday.

Big Unit is back

Seattle trainer Rick Griffin recently visited Mariners ace Randy Johnson in Arizona, watching him throw hard off flat ground with no lingering effects of last year’s debilitating back problems.

“And when he told me he wants to pitch like the Randy of old,” Griffin said, “you could see the fierceness in his eyes when he said it.”