JUPITER, Fla. -- As a prelude to pitching on foreign soil Sunday in a potentially hostile environment, Scott Erickson found himself in another strange setting yesterday.
First base.
For a career American League pitcher with only four career at-bats, it can't get much more bizarre. Exposed on the base paths against a National League opponent after receiving a leadoff walk, Erickson eventually scored a third-inning run.
However, the experience went downhill from there. Resulting fatigue contributed to Erickson's abortive 3 1/3-inning appearance in a 12-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, leaving manager Ray Miller to complain about the game being telecast back home.
"That's why I hate these spring TV games," he said, ever mindful of negative impressions left by games that don't count.
For the Orioles' sake, Erickson's next start -- a televised Sunday exhibition in Havana against a Cuban all-star team -- should have a better outcome.
Viva, la DH!
Erickson won't hit on Sunday, so he won't have to negotiate bases. He will be asked, however, to shoulder the expectations of a major-league team competing against players who have never lost to American collegians.
Millions will be watching on ESPN. Political overtones will run wild as American professionals compete against Cubans for the first time in 40 years. Fidel Castro will be on hand.
The Orioles will borrow the America's Team label from the Atlanta Braves. Erickson, not Tom Glavine, will be America's Pitcher.
"To me," said Erickson, "the environment will be different, but it's not going to be a more important start as opposed to this start."
Some might hope it will be.
Erickson began with two scoreless innings yesterday, including a classic first-inning confrontation with Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire. Erickson got ahead of the game's Bunyan figure with two strikes, fell even, and watched as the first baseman fouled off two pitches. The battle ended when Erickson froze McGwire with a sinker that caught the inside sliver of the plate.
His outing turned after he received a leadoff walk in the third inning. When he faced the Cardinals in the bottom of the inning, his breaking pitches were dull and caught too much of the plate.
"It looked like he flattened out after running the bases," Miller speculated. "It was just one of those spring training games."
Scheduled to work five innings, Erickson became the first Orioles starter removed before making his quota this spring. He allowed nine runs and eight hits, most of them during a messy five-run fourth inning. "The first two innings were good, then I got a little out of whack with running the bases," Erickson said, adding he "totally lost it."
A renowned slider-fastball pitcher, Erickson has worked on a curveball and a split-fingered pitch this spring. He refused to use experimentation as an excuse for yesterday's line. "I wasn't playing with anything. I was out there pitching, trying to win the game," he said.
Of Sunday, Erickson says he will only try to get in his six innings of work against a team that, according to Miller, will treat the event as "the seventh game of the World Series."
Prodded about the pressure, Erickson shrugged dismissively and preferred to talk about his pitch count.
"I'd like to get to 100," he said.
Like the Cardinals, the Cubans will swing wooden bats. Unlike yesterday, Erickson and his bullpen will hurl baseballs conforming to International Baseball Federation guidelines.
The balls are considered "softer" with seams supposedly less raised than their major-league counterparts. It is undecided whether the umpiring crew will be split or an entirely Cuban contingent. Capitalist concerns such as a per diem may keep three American League arbiters at home.
Miller already has described his team's predicament as "a no-win situation." If the Orioles lose before an international television audience and hundreds of journalists from throughout the hemisphere, they will be noted as the $81 million payroll that couldn't topple a roster paid by the peso.
If the Orioles win, their spring training schedule still will have been disrupted and Miller's rotation altered.
Erickson will be starting in place of Juan Guzman, a Miami resident who asked out of the trip because of how it might be construed by his neighbors and employees.
To accommodate the flop, Erickson will start the Orioles' third regular-season game instead of their second as originally planned. Erickson will make Sunday's appearance on five days' rest rather than his standard four.
"I'm just looking at it as another chance to get ready for the season," Erickson said. "My focus is on the season more than next Sunday."
Erickson insists he hasn't immersed himself in the political overtones of this weekend's exhibition.
Indeed, Miller cited Erickson and ace Mike Mussina's single-mindedness as making them perfect candidates to handle a competition colored by ideology, history and symbolism. When Miller told Erickson last week that he would start the game in Guzman's place, Erickson replied, "Great, a chance to jam some international bats."
Pub Date: 3/23/99