Teams Won’t Be Switching Their Leagues

Remember all the talk last winter about teams switching leagues.

Well, forget about it.

When baseball owners meet this week in Philadelphia, the realignment committee - in no surprise - will not have any recommendations to make. The Houston Astros, who had said they were open to the possibility of switching to the American League, have examined all the ramifications and decided that they’d rather stay put in the National League.

The Kansas City Royals are still seeking a spot in the N.L. The only switchable N.L. team would be the Arizona Diamondbacks, who start play next season. Under their deal with baseball owners, the Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays can be forced to switch leagues after the 1999 season.

But N.L. owners are unlikely to want to give up the Diamondbacks, who figure to be a steady sellout next season and for years to come.

Kansas City, you may remember, helped create chaos at the January owners meetings by refusing to switch from the A.L. Central to the A.L. West next year.

As a result, Tampa Bay will play in the A.L. West next season (well, the Devil Rays are on the West Coast - of Florida) while Kansas City stays put in the Central and Detroit remains in the East.

Chasing sluggers

Mark McGwire, with 23 homers going into Saturday’s game, is chasing Roger Maris’ record. And Steinbrenner, angry that Cecil Fielder had just five homers, is coveting the Oakland slugger.

While Steinbrenner may want to part with Mariano Duncan and perhaps Charlie Hayes to cut his payroll and luxury tax bill, he may be willing to take on McGwire’s $5.7 million for the final month or two of the season.

Oakland probably would be unwilling to part with McGwire now, figuring he’s the team’s biggest draw. But if it’s clear by the Aug. 31 deadline for postseason rosters that McGwire isn’t going to be close to Maris in the final month of the season, the Athletics might be willing to part with him.

Homers down

Home runs were down 8.6 percent through the first two months of the season.

There were 1,420 homers hit through May 31. Last year, there were 1,654 home runs in the first two months of the season.

Oh, brothers!

The Guerrero brothers were in the spotlight last week. One for corking his bat, the other for uncorking a throw.

Wilton and Vladimir Guerrero, two early candidates for the N.L. rookie of the year award, each had memorable moments on the field.

Wilton, the Los Angeles Dodgers starting second baseman, was given an eight-game suspension Monday after he got caught using a corked bat in a game at St. Louis.

He said it was the first time he had ever used a corked bat, and apologized for doing so.

On the other hand, Vladimir, an outfielder with Montreal, got a much different response for his actions during a game in New York.

In the eighth inning of a 1-1 game against the Mets, Guerrero, standing on the warning track, threw a one-hopper to the plate to cut down Todd Hundley.

“It’s probably the best throw I’ve ever seen,” said Montreal’s F.P. Santangelo. “When he got the ball, I said if he hits (second baseman) Mike Lansing with the cutoff, Hundley’s out at the plate. Once he threw it over Mike’s head, I said ‘Oh no.’ But it was a perfect throw, one hop to the plate and got Hundley by three steps.”

Strange stats

Perhaps the most overpowering statistics of any player in the recent draft belonged to pitcher Ryan Anderson, picked in the first round Tuesday by the Seattle Mariners.

At 6-foot-10, the left-handed Anderson has been compared to a young Randy Johnson. At one point in his high school season in Michigan, Anderson had struck out 105 in only 37 innings, meaning every out except six had come by strikeout.

One catch, though. Anderson played in a 3-and-2 league - as in three balls for a walk and two strikes for an out. That oddity might have been part of the reason Anderson, once projected as a possible overall No. 1 choice by Detroit, fell to No. 19 by the Mariners.