The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 13

THE SUN SECTION SUPREME COURT BLOCKS HANSON BID FOR MDIF FUNDS 10B TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1987 Qualified or not, here he comes: Williams is in charge MIKE Williams knows what you know and what I know. Nor does it take a genius to figure out how Williams decided on this leap Into action. "I'm not a patient person," he said. "I'm an impatient person, but I suppressed that impatience to the point of exhaustion." Williams, remember, Is a fan. He watched his favorite team stumble and fall.

He watched yet another September collapse, a six-win, 21-loss disaster at season's end, and the losing gnawed at him like a bad conscience. He said he tried to take the advice of his critics who called him meddlesome, telling himself to seek out See LITTWIN, 3B, Col. 1 them in your scrapbook. You think the Orioles are in trouble, don't you? So does Williams. You think something has got to be done about it.

So does Williams. You have no answers. Well, Mr. Williams does. "Me," he said.

"I'm here." Perhaps you don't know Edward Bennett Williams personally, although you must know of him. He is one of the most intelligent, most able, most dynamic, most charming people you will ever meet. He doesn't ordinarily suffer dilettantes gladly but he makes a major exception for himself. Although he believes himself a baseball expert, Williams is no more qualified than any other educated fan who happens to own a team. All right, he fired Peters.

It was probably time for a housecleaning. But if Williams were so involved, why isn't there a replacement ready? Why are the Orioles entering the crucial off-season period with only Williams in command? The Orioles need a baseball person, or two or three, in a hurry. Although It doesn't require any special genius to run a baseball organization, it is unlikely that Einstein would know which 19-year-old, Class AA shortstop is going to be a major-league center fielder in three years. Or how much impact Eddie Murray's lack of off-season conditioning will make. A general manager is supposed to know such things.

LITTWIN "Me," he said, the finger in "I'm here." Put the words in italics, for Put them in headlines. Put Peters 'relieved to be relieved' of his GM job er and, if it can win him any games, dress up in that silly bird outfit. He is the Orioles. Yesterday, Williams fired Hank Peters, the Orioles' general manager of long standing, and Tom Giordano, Peters' Sancho Panza, as well as his farm director and scouting director. And now Williams, who had the grace to call neither of his former employees a cement-head, must go about the business of hiring replacements.

But please don't look at the Orioles as some rudderless ship adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Mr. Williams is aboard. "We've got a head," Williams said, and paused for effect. He Jabbed a finger at his own personal person before proceeding.

Hank Peters ponders question at if, 1 imm 1 (. If i vl s-o St- Timing By Tim Kurkjian Hank Peters, the Orioles' ex-general manager, Just had hung up the phone when a visitor came to his office door offering condolences about his firing. Peters smiled. "The person on the phone," he said, "congratulated me." His 1 2-season term as Orioles general manager the longest continuous term of any active general manager ended yesterday morning, when Orioles owner Edward Bennett Williams walked Into his office and told him he had been relieved of duty. And Peters said that, to a degree, he "was relieved to be relieved." His battles with Williams, who admits to immense impatience, are over.

So are Williams' dally phone calls seeking answers when there often were none. Yesterday, after Williams said he intended to take a more active role In the Orioles, Peters said, "1 don't think 1 could continue under that arrangement. "I'm no figurehead. When they restricted the manner in which things were run the last two years as opposed to many years before. It's tough.

But he Williams can do what he wants. I know I didn't get smart overnight, and I didn't get dumb overnight, either." Peters is 63, and the Orioles owe him approximately $450,000 for the next two years. He can leave here knowing "we won a couple pennants and a World Series when I was here. We won about 90 games a year. I'm very proud of the Job we've done here.

Very proud." He didn't smile this time. "I can't say I'm happy, and I don't think congratulations are In order," Peters said. "When something like this happens, it still stings. But I'm not as sad as people might think. Sometimes, from something negative comes something positive.

That's how I have to view this. My peers understand the situation here very well. That gives me some comfort." See PETERS, 2B, Col. 5 Rest easy, folks. Not unlike General Haig before him, Edward Bennett Williams is in charge.

"From this day on," he said yesterday. Being a famed and much-coveted attorney is not sufficient, apparently, to occupy Williams. Neither is merely owning the Orioles. He must plead his own case. Make his own decisions.

Hire and whom he pleases, when he pleases, how he pleases. Help me greet with your wannest welcome now, come on, put those hands together the Big Enchilada. Numero Uno, the One and Only. You know him, you love him. Well, you know him anyway.

For the time being, at least, Williams will be owner, general manag- JOHN EISENBERG Alexander: This arm, not heart, for hire MINNEAPOLIS This is the irony: The most romantic story of this year's baseball playoffs Is Doyle Alexander, the Detroit Tigers' aging, remarkable stretch-run pitcher. But Alexander does not have a romantic bone In his body. He Is cold, emotionless, as merciless as a debt collector. His loyalties are as thin as a dollar bill, and transferred as easily. The man is a baseball mercenary.

He Is blind to romance. He hires out his arm dispassionately. He travels. He pitches. Someone pays him.

He is 37, been In baseball since 1968, worn the uniforms of nine teams In the big leagues and eight in the minors. Orioles, Blue Jays. Day-tona Beach, Albuquerque. He has been traded seven times, released once, and has the sour, shrugging countenance of a man who has been told too often that he no longer Is useful. He Is consistently surly with reporters, historically Impudent with management; he asked Toronto to trade him In 1985 because, In part, of Canadian tax laws.

General managers often dislike him, he them. He couldn't care less what anyone thinks as long as he is paid. "Baseball Is a business to me," he says. As the Tigers swilled champagne In their clubhouse Sunday after winning the American League East, Alexander watched from a distance. He did not slap backs.

He did not drink champagne. He sat In a corner and sipped a can of cheap beer, surrounded by pale-sklnned September rookies who looked uncomfortable, because they did not belong. Alexander sat with them, but he was not of the same fraternity. He belonged. Even though he withdrew from the thunderous cocktail party, and even though he had been a Tiger only 53 days, he belonged belonged In the middle of the revelry, if he had desired, leading the giggling.

Because there would have been no champagne without him. Without him, the Tigers would be on vacation today, gone fishing with sad scowls, preparing to watch the Toronto Blue Jays in the playoffs. Instead, they will play the Minnesota Twins In the American League Championship Series, beginning tomorrow night in the Metratome. Alexander will start Game 1, and if form holds, the Tigers will win. See EISENBERG, 3B.

Col. 1 SPORTS INSIDE Blast: Eleven players report as training camp opens. 8B Television: Gayle Gardner is leaving ESPN to join NBC as a sports anchor and reporter. 8B Briefly: Oklahoma is still No. 1 in the AP Top 20 poll.

9B Index Baseball 2-5B Racing 8B Preps 6B Briefly 9B NFL 7B Record 9B news conference at Memorial Stadium THE SUNBARBARA HADDOCK following his firing as Orioles general manager. It's Cardinals' speed, savvy vs. Giants' power, youth Melvin named acting Reactions of players, For, with a glmpy Jack Clark and a questionable Willie McGee, St. Louis appears vulnerable to a Giants team that Is healthy and well-rested after clinching its division more than a week ago. "The last time we saw them July 24-26 In a four-game series, they knocked the hell out of us In San Francisco," said St.

Louis manager Whitey Herzog, who has been forced to limit his playoff roster to eight pitchers because of Injuries to Clark, McGee and Jim Llndeman. "And we haven't even seen them since they got Rick Reuschel and Don Robinson. They've got very good pitching." Reuschel, acquired from Pittsburgh Aug. 21 for two pitchers, has See NATIONAL, 5B, Col. 1 How Cardinals, Giants match up 5B Cardinals, Giants stats, rosters 5B Driessen isn't bitter toward Giants5B NL facts, figures Tonight: San Francisco (Reuschel 13-9) at St.

Louis (Cox 11-9), 8:30 p.m. Tomorrow: San Francl9Co (Dra-vecky 10-12) at St. Louis (Tudor 10-2), 3:07 p.m. Friday: St. Louis (Magrane 9-7) at San Francisco (Hammaker 10-10), 8:25 p.m.

Saturday: St. Louis (Mathews 11-11) at San Francisco (Krukow 5-6 or LaCoss 13-10), 8:25 p.m. Sunday: St. Louis (Cox) at San Francisco (Reuschel), 4:35 p.m. Oct.

13: San Francisco (Dravecky) at St. Louis (Tudor), 8:25 p.m. Oct. 14: San Francisco (Hammaker) at St. Louis (Magrane), 8:25 p.m.

Radio: WFBR (1300) and WTOP (1510) Radio announcera: Dick Stockton and Johnny Bench TV: NBC (Channels 2, 4) TV announcera: Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola -if necessary minor-league director other clubs 2B 2B ASSOCIATED PRESS RICK REUSCHEL Coming off 3 bad games veloplng tie-breaking procedures for a 1 5-game season, a move designed to underscore their intentions to count in the standings the games with replacement players. Overall, NFL stadiums that normally fill to 95 percent of capacity were just 26 percent filled Sunday, Including gatherings of Just over 4.000 in Detroit and Philadelphia. Those two and four other teams Seattle, Minnesota, New England and New Orleans had their all-See NFL, 713, Col. 1 Raiders lose in Supreme Court 7B ASSOCIATED PRESS DANNY COX He'll start for Cardinals By Kent Baker Sun Staff Correspondent ST. LOUIS The classic matchups of speed versus power and experience versus exuberance unfold tonight, when St.

Louis plays San Francisco in the opening game of an Intriguing National League Championship Series. The best-of-seven playoff pits the speedy, seasoned Cardinals, winners of their third East Division title In six years, against the slugging, upstart Giants, who tamed the West for the first time since 1971. And Busch Stadium will be swathed In a sea of red when Cardinals starter Danny Cox throws the first pitch for a capacity crowd and millions watching on national television shortly after 8:30 p.m. But whether the zealousness of their fans the Cardinals drew 3,072,122, the seventh-highest total in major-league history will be enough is certainly open to debate. Brian Holloway of the Los Angeles Raiders, a member of the NFL Players Association, was asked before the meeting whether the union might back away from its free-agency demands in an effort to rekindle talks with management.

"That's what we're here to debate," Holloway said. "I think there's pressure on both sides now to negotiate," Holloway said. "There's certainly a consensus among the players on the executive committee to get back and bargain. We think after this weekend's games, the momentum is in our favor. "You saw the American public Striking players say poor attendance strengthens their position say that it's not the owners or the people dressed up in team Jerseys they come to see.

It's the NFL talent and abilities and personalities that make things work." Mike Davis of the Raiders, also an executive committee member, said the players "want to save the season. We didn't come out here to Chicago Just to stand still. We want to move. It's obvious fan participation wasn't there Sunday, The owners are astute businessmen. They know it took 67 years for fan support to build.

They don't want to see it go away in two weeks." While the union met in Chicago, five members of the NFL Manage From Wire Reports Striking National Football League players, with reports of additional defections imminent, met into the morning in Chicago to determine ways to get management back to the bargaining table, including dropping the sticky issue of free agency from their agenda. While the union was buoyed by minuscule attendance at the first strike games on Sunday, reports continued that there would be additional defections of veteran players this week to add to the nearly 100 who crossed picket lines in the first two weeks of the strike. i ment Council Executive Committee met for 4Vi hours In New York yesterday. Chairman Hugh Culverhouse, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said management would be "waiting for tonight's events" at Chicago. "We are willing to go back to the table when free agency Is no longer an Issue." The owners did decide to move up by two days the deadline for striking players to report and still be eligible for this weekend's games.

Now, any player who reports by tomorrow can play and be paid. The owners also Instructed their competiiion comiifittee to begin de-'.