SARASOTA, Fla. -- There's a malaise afflicting baseball executives and managers these days. It's called Strike Hangover, caused by many days and weeks of scouting and negotiating with replacement players. The symptoms are depressed spirits and exceedingly slow radar guns and stopwatches.
None of that was in evidence on reporting day at the Orioles' Twin Lakes Park camp, where there are no replacement players. New manager Phil Regan strode happily from meeting to meeting in a bright polo shirt and slacks, his smile broad.
Sure, he'd prefer that Ben McDonald were here, that Armando Benitez had reported and begun his quest to pin down the role of closer. Regan wants to see Jimmy Haynes throw and find out whether the guy can make his rotation.
But is he depressed by the current state of affairs? "Not at all," Regan said. "I'm very happy."
First off, Regan says the McDonalds and Mussinas and Ripkens will get here eventually, quickly enough so that the season will begin, as scheduled, on April 3. No kidding. Between the rumblings within the union -- Lenny Dykstra, for example -- and the pressure being put on the owners by Congress, Regan says he thinks some sort of resolution will emerge. And soon.
"There are a lot of things being talked about," Regan said, "that make me think something's going to get settled. I wake up every day and turn the TV on and expect that they're going to say a deal's going to get done. I think that'll happen sometime soon."
Secondly, Regan notes, 27 sets of managers and coaches will be hitting fungos and throwing batting practice to replacement players, most of whom immediately will be jettisoned as soon as the strike ends. In terms of building and improving their respective organizations, they essentially are wasting their time.
On the other hand, Regan and his staff will be working with Orioles minor-leaguers, who began arriving early yesterday morning, 23 pitchers and catchers. Some showed up carrying gym bags and even started working out a bit, jogging around the fields and playing catch for a few minutes.
"We are working entirely with Orioles players," said general manager Roland Hemond. "All of our efforts are being put forth to help the team down the road in some way."
Instead of trying to correct the delivery of a fortysomething left-handed reliever who just quit his day job for a temporary spot in baseball, Regan can concentrate on prospects, such as 22-year-old Matt Jarvis, who won 10 games for the Frederick Keys last summer.
"I'm happy that I've got an owner who thinks like [Peter Angelos] does," Regan said, referring to Angelos' refusal to use replacement players. "I have a lot of those same thoughts, and if you talk to people around baseball -- the coaches, most of the managers -- they all have the same ideas. I don't think they're all happy with replacement players."
Not at all.
Strike Hangover.
L "I don't have to think about that," Regan said. "I'm lucky."
Others felt the same way. Coach Elrod Hendricks recalled an incident during the 1985 strike, which compares to this one as William Henry Harrison's presidency does to Franklin Roosevelt's. The players struck in August and returned almost immediately.
Jimmy Williams, who coached alongside Hendricks at the time, bounced around the locker room happily as the players came back and welcomed each.
"He goes up to this one player, whose career he had helped turn around," Hendricks remembered. "Jimmy goes, 'Hey, glad to have you back.' And this guy says, 'What difference does it make to you? You're getting paid anyway.'
"Watching Jimmy's reaction, that hurt. That really hurt. I'll always remember that."
This is what Hendricks was driving at: There could be similar tensions between the players and the managers and coaches who worked with replacement players.
Not that Hendricks has given it much thought. "I don't have to think about it," Hendricks said, grinning.
There has been relatively little discussion of the major-leaguers since the coaching staff began its meetings Monday.
The members of the Orioles' brain trust combed over the 40-man roster in the fall, and since the signing of catcher Matt Nokes and Harold Baines and the trade for second baseman Bret Barberie, nothing has really changed. There simply isn't that much to talk about until the big-leaguers get to camp.
Instead, Regan has discussed his basic beliefs with the Orioles' minor-league managers. Make sure your guys are fundamentally sound. Make sure they hit behind the runner. Make sure they throw to the right base. Make sure they run out every grounder.
"They were pretty upbeat meetings," said pitching coach Mike Flanagan.
Hemond said: "Despite the situation, we've had more laughs in the last three days than we had in the previous six months combined."
Assistant general manager Frank Robinson said: "It was nice to talk about baseball for a change, instead of that other stuff."
The strike stuff.
Even without the labor strife, Regan reasoned, the full squad wouldn't be in place until the 27th or the 28th.
"If they get here by then, we'll have four full weeks until the season starts," Regan said. "That's plenty of time to get ready."
Later than that, he conceded, and Opening Day -- which Regan says he thinks of as his first big day as Orioles manager -- would be in jeopardy.
Flanagan said the pitchers need anywhere from three weeks to a month of preparation to be ready for the season.
Regan said: "Maybe if the players aren't here by the 27th or 28th, maybe then I'll be disappointed."
But for now, Strike Hangover lives only in other camps.