Valentine Denies He Had Role In Shakeup

Nobody ever accused Bobby Valentine of being stupid.

Egotistic, driven, detail-obsessive and conniving, perhaps. A fine tactician, certainly. But not stupid.

So when Joe McIlvaine was fired Wednesday as general manager of the New York Mets - despite the fact the team he built had the fourth-best record in the National League - few were buying it when Valentine pleaded ignorance and played dumb.

He had too much to gain in the apparent palace coup.

“I don’t think this was about me in any shape or form,” Valentine told reporters in his own impromptu news conference before the announcement was made. “In this situation, I think that my hands are going to be dirtied or bloodied or whatever word they use. And I think, in time, they’ll be cleansed when people really understand this situation. I’m not worried about it.”

Valentine, 47, has few worries at all now.

The Mets dumped McIlvaine two weeks before the non-waiver trading deadline and replaced him with assistant GM Steve Phillips. It is a move that leaves Valentine with as much power and influence as any manager in the major leagues and much more than most. The first benefit will be a three-year contract extension binding Valentine to the Mets through the 2000 season.

Hammaker has the Irabu experience

Atlee Hammaker and his mother, Saeko, have a special interest in Hideki Irabu because Hammaker, the former major league pitcher, and Irabu, the new major league pitcher who starts for the New York Yankees tonight in Milwaukee, have something in common: their heritage.

Each has a Japanese mother and an American father. The difference is their backgrounds: Hammaker grew up primarily in the United States, living with his father and his mother; Irabu grew up in Japan, living with his mother and his stepfather.

Hammaker, 39, spoke freely about his father, a retired Army colonel, but Irabu, 28, hasn’t talked about his father.

Ichiro Irabu, Hideki’s stepfather, disclosed last week that the pitcher’s biological father is an American, but he did not identify him. His father might have been a serviceman stationed in Japan, just as Charles Hammaker was when he met Saeko in 1954.

“I was working in an American cultural center that summer, going to junior college in Kyoto,” Saeko Hammaker said by telephone from Jacksonville, Fla., where she and Charles live. “I met him at a dinner party that the captain and his wife gave at the camp.”

Atlee is the middle of the Hammakers’ three children.

“I have an older brother and a younger sister,” he said by telephone from Knoxville, Tenn., where he lives with his wife, Jenny, and their five children, ages 1 to 11. “I’m probably more Japanese than either of them.”

Hammaker, who at 6 feet, 2 inches is 2 inches shorter than Irabu, is the product of a 5-4 mother and a 6-4 father. A left-hander, he began his major league career in 1981 with the Royals and ended it in 1995 with the White Sox. Pitching most of the years in between for the Giants, he compiled a 59-67 record with a 3.66 earned-run average during an injury-plagued career.

Williams cheers Giants

In his last seven seasons with the San Francisco Giants, Matt Williams suffered through five years with losing records and a season in which the team won 103 games but missed the playoffs. Now in his first season away, the Giants have been in first place for the past 10 weeks.

“I’m happy for Dusty and Rod and Barry and all the guys I played with,” Williams said, mentioning the manager and a couple of former teammates. “It was tough on all of us the last couple of years, so it’s nice to see them do well.”

But doesn’t he miss being there, being able to enjoy the winning and possibly the division championship? “No. We’re in first place and playing well,” he said of his new team, the Cleveland Indians.

When the trade was made last November, Williams was as stunned as Giants fans. “Unfortunately, sometimes you don’t have any say in the matter,” he said. “It took some time to get over wondering why, things like that. But it’s baseball. You don’t know what’s going to happen the next day. I’m good with that.”

Nieves vs. Gwynn

Tony Gwynn, it is no secret, is the best hitter in baseball. But Gwynn, who is flirting with .400 this season, is hitting well below Melvin Nieves when they each hit the ball.

Nieves, a young outfielder with the Detroit Tigers, has struck out 113 times, the most in the majors and 100 more times than Gwynn. San Diego’s perennial batting champion has been the toughest to strike out, only once every 28 at-bats (Nieves is striking out once every 2.35 at-bats).

But when they make contact, Gwynn is hitting .412, Nieves .454.

Overall, Gwynn is hitting .395, Nieves .260.

Short hops

A high five to relief pitcher Lee Smith, baseball’s all-time saves leader (478), who ended his Hall of Fame career this week. Smith, 39, had hoped one last season with the Montreal Expos would enable him to reach 500 career saves. When that goal became unlikely because of the emergence of Expos closer Ugueth Urbina, Smith opted for a dignified retirement.

To the showers with the one American League All-Star who departed Cleveland without leaving the customary tip for home clubhouse manager Ted Walsh and his staff. Hard to believe, but it was Albert Belle.