HOUSTON -- Before Houston Astros owner John McMullen fired his general manager, he had him explain what an 'RBI' was.
From other sources in the time since the millionaire shipbuilder acquired the baseball team in July 1979, he learned the 'Sporting News' published baseball information, J.R. Richard was a good pitcher and Nolan Ryan could not start every third game.
As yet unexplained, however, despite a day of interviews he arranged Tuesday, was McMullen's firing of Tal Smith, a career baseball executive who put together a National League West Division champion.
Smith said he believed he was victim of the championship season which bathed him and Manager Bill Virdon in praise but which eluded McMullen, the team's owner for only 15 months.
'The season seemed to cause a greater breach,' Smith said. 'It was ironic. It was self-destructive. The more acclaim the team enjoyed, the worse it got.'
Bitterness tinged Smith's comments for the first time since his Monday firing as he talked from his office in an area of the Astrodome separated from the office where McMullen welcomed reporters individually.
The only specific reason McMullen gave UPI for the firing was Smith's high salary, but Smith said he did not believe his boss knew his salary until after he had hired his replacement.
Smith said McMullen told him when he fired him Monday that he had looked at his contract for the first time 'a few days ago.' McMullen hired ex-New York Yankees President Al Rosen Oct. 14.
'All these things he's bringing up are artificial. Our differences over the designated hitter is artificial. The money is artificial,' Smith said.
Several limited partners contacted by UPI claimed they owned majority interest in the team and they would investigate trying to overturn the firing and ousting McMullen. One of those, David Lefevre, a New York lawyer, said the general partner knew so little of the game that he did not want to re-sign All-Star pitcher J.R. Richard in 1979.
Smith confirmed that Tuesday, saying 'He (McMullen) said we didn't need Richard, who he kept calling, 'Robertson,' because all we needed to do was get Nolan Ryan.'
Asked whether he ever recommended letting Richard go, McMullen said, 'That's the first I've ever heard of such a ridiculous statement.'
Smith's low salary structure for the Astros in 1979 was broken by McMullen's naivete, Lefevre said.
'Tal had set up tremendous salaries. He had built this team when owners didn't want to put forth any money and he ... structured salaries in a very professional manner,' he said.
McMullen personally signed free agent Ryan to a $1-million-a-year, three-year contract before the 1980 season.
'John went out totally on his own to sign Ryan. Nolan is a nice guy, but he's 11-10. There are a lot of 11-10 pitchers you could get for $120,000 a year,' Lefevre said.
Other examples of McMullen's unfamiliarity with the game surfaced Tuesday.
Smith said: 'He asked me recently to explain to him what an RBI was.'
Houston Chronicle columnist John Wilson reported a conversation, which followed an Astros loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the final regular-season series of the season, in which McMullen complained that Ryan should have pitched instead of Ken Forsch. A pitcher normally pitches once every fourth or fifth day, but Ryan would have only had a two-day rest if he had pitched.
'You could pick at random anyone walking down the streets of Houston and the chances are you would pick somebody distinctly superior at running the Houston franchise,' Wilson wrote.
The Houston Post's Kenny Hand said he was told McMullen, while a passenger on a flight during this past season, picked up a 'Sporting News' for the first time and said: 'Geez, this has got some good baseball stuff in here.'
