Gillick's accusations hit home

By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff, 9/20/2003

CLEVELAND -- Days away from clinching a playoff spot, the Red Sox are facing accusations that they are cheaters from the team they may beat out as the American League wild-card entry. Sox CEO Larry Lucchino calls it a "tempest in a teapot," but this could get ugly before it's over.

It turns out that Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella wasn't the only one upset by the presence of a TV set in the Red Sox bullpen. Piniella's former boss in Seattle, Mariners general manager Pat Gillick, lodged a similar complaint with Major League Baseball after the Mariners were swept in a four-game series in Fenway Park Aug. 22-25.

Gillick won't come right out and accuse the Sox of cheating. But the inference was clear in comments he made to Seattle reporters Thursday in Texas, after Piniella's complaint became common knowledge, and he wasn't backing down from those comments yesterday.

"I'd suggest that you look at the discrepancy in their on-base percentage and batting average at home and on the road and draw your own conclusions," Gillick said in a comment that was reported in Friday's editions of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"That's an accurate quote," Gillick said by phone yesterday from Oakland, where the Mariners, trying to stave off elimination, were playing the A's in the first of a three-game set.

The Sox were hitting a league-leading .317 at home entering last night, with a league-leading .393 on-base percentage. On the road, those numbers were .264 and .329, respectively.

Was Gillick implying that the Sox were cheating?

"No," he said. "I just said look at the situation and draw your own conclusions. You can draw whatever conclusions you want. They may be different than the ones [the Seattle reporters] drew."

Did he think the Red Sox were using the TV to cheat, by stealing signs or studying swing patterns?

"I can't say," he said. "That's up to the commissioner's office to decide."

The Red Sox claim they installed the TV in order to give their relievers a better view of the action. Did Gillick buy that explanation?

"I would buy it," he said. "Certainly. But that opens up a whole other can of worms in addition to that."

Was he saying a TV in the bullpen could be used to cheat?

"Absolutely," he said.

Did he know of any instances in which a team had done so?

"I can't really comment on that," Gillick said. "That's for the commissioner's office to look into."

Lucchino, reached in his Fenway Park office yesterday, was not amused.

"I've got no comment on that," Lucchino said. "It's a tempest in a teapot. I'm not going to comment on Pat Gillick's, um, um, innuendo."

Even if that innuendo implied that the Sox were cheating?

"I'm not going to comment on it," Lucchino said. "I'm not going to dignify it with my response."

Gillick said he had called Sandy Alderson, baseball's executive vice president of operations, after the Mariners' visit to Boston and reported the presence of the TV. "I basically left it in the hands of the commissioner's office," he said.

"I don't see any reason for electronic equipment in the bullpen whatsoever," said Gillick, a former minor league pitcher who also complained about the presence of a TV in the Texas Rangers' bullpen this week, which also was shut off. "Our bullpen, both in Texas and Boston, was just as far away as the Rangers' and Red Sox' bullpens, but we didn't have any problems without a television in there. Maybe they need it."

Was Gillick surprised that MLB had failed to take action earlier against the Sox?

"No," he said.

Gillick said he talked to Alderson again Thursday.

"The TV has been removed from the [Red Sox'] bullpen," Alderson said yesterday, "based primarily on the perception that if there is a TV in one bullpen, then there should be one in both. Until such time as a second television is installed, we've asked the Red Sox to take it out."

Alderson would not say whether Gillick had asked him to investigate whether the Sox were cheating, saying any discussion between the two was confidential. "Any investigation we might pursue will similarly remain confidential, until such time that we may report any results.

"We've asked the Red Sox to have it taken out . . . one should not assume any other culpability on the part of the Red Sox."

Are the Red Sox under investigation?

"You can say we're reviewing the situation," Alderson said. "I wouldn't go so far as saying a full investigation is under way."

Lucchino insisted Sox intentions were innocent. Before the TV was installed, he said, the Sox had gotten permission to do so. He said he spoke yesterday with Bob Watson, MLB's director of field operations, whom he said acknowledged that permission was granted (Watson did not return phone calls yesterday seeking comment).

"I called Sandy to make sure it conformed with the rules," Lucchino said. "I'm appalled at the view those guys [relievers] get. They've got some of the worst seats in the house, and we expect them to be able to follow the game. We put in the TV so they could follow the game as attentively as anyone else."

Gillick apparently believes the Sox relievers were paying attention, all right. And they were using that information to the team's advantage.

"We have other things to focus on," Lucchino said. "The last thing I need to do is to create a diversion between us and them."