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McRae Reshaped Style for DH's

By RICK GOSSELIN, UPI Sports Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The baseball establishment has grown to resent Hal McRae of the Kansas City Royals.

The sport's higher-ups winced when McRae charged racism in 1976 when he lost out on the American League batting championship by .001 to his teammate George Brett after a controversial inside-the-park home run by Brett on the final day of the season.

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And all of baseball shivered when McRae almost halved New York second baseman Willie Randolph with a flying body block on national television while trying to break up a double play during the 1977 American League Championship Series between the Royals and Yankees.

Too outspoken, they said of McRae. Too aggressive, they echoed a year later. The establishment even adopted its pound of cure, dubbed the 'McRae Rule,' following the incident with Randolph that forbade runners from chasing infielders all over the diamond while attempting to break up double plays.

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Take that, Hal McRae.

McRae took it ... and all else with which baseball cared to handcuff him. And he remained the same Hal McRae who first broke in with the Cincinnati Reds in 1970. With the exception, of course, of that omnipresent smile of his.

McRae, you see, has a secret: he has beaten the game. He took a baseball tool of the owners, shaped it to his liking, and dared the American League to meet his standards. McRae revolutionized a segment of the national pastime without baseball ever realizing it.

McRae has redefined the role of the designated hitter.

'The DH was designed for a clunker: a guy with a name who could stay around a little longer and hit a few more home runs,' said McRae. 'It was designed for an old man with power: someone who'd hit the ball and then go to first base.

'It's turned out to be a little different than that; it's turned out to be more. The DH is now a guy who won't clog up the bases; someone who'll break up the double play, go from first to third on a single, take an extra base on hits and even steal a base or two.

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'I think I've given it (the role of the DH) a new dimension. When it first came in, they were using all kinds of old guys as designated hitters. But look around and see how many old guys there are now.'

McRae came to the Royals in 1973, the year of the designated hitter's inception. At 26, McRae was the babe of an American League designated-hitter crew that featured the venerable likes of Frank Robinson, Orlando Cepeda, Tommy Davis, Frank Howard and Tony Oliva.

Since then, men like Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, Rico Carty, Willie Horton, Billy Williams, Boog Powell and Alex Johnson have also played out the string of brilliant careers as designated hitters. The one year McRae was not Kansas City's full-time designated hitter, in fact, was in 1975 when Killebrew came to the Royals for his final season.

As those veterans gradually retired, they were replaced by younger more aggressive players -- players out of the McRae mold.

In recent days, players still in their 20's like Roy Smalley, Joe Charboneau, Steve Kemp, Lance Parrish, Mitchell Page, Willie Upshaw, Rick Peters and Danny Ainge all filled the role of designated hitter for their respective clubs. Not a one is likely to ever make the Hall of Fame as a home run hitter.

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Nor is McRae. But he has excelled in just about every other phase of hitting to establish a .295 career average during his eight seasons as an American Leaguer.

McRae has posted three .300 seasons and has been inside of .297 on two other occasions. He finished runner-up to Brett for the American League batting crown in 1976 and had an even better season the following year when he collected his career highs of 104 runs, 191 hits, 54 doubles, 11 triples, 21 home runs and 92 RBI as the Royals posted the best record in baseball (102-60).

McRae has won the league's 'Designated Hitter of the Year' award twice in its eight-year history (1976 and 1980). He claimed the honor last season when he batted .297 with 14 homers and 83 RBI in 124 games as his Royals won their first ever American League championship.

'I think I've been the best at my job since they put in the designated hitter,' said McRae. 'Jim Rice had a great year or two and so did Don Baylor. But I've done more things offensively than most DH's. I've been consistent -- and consistencyis what this ball club has needed more than the long ball. Not too many right-handed hitters have my average in this league (.295) over the last eight years.

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'And what more can I do that I didn't do last year? We won the pennant; we went to the World Series. I drove in 83 runs in only 120 ball games, I hit .297, I was voted the 'Designated Hitter of the Year.' I guess that means I was the best at my particular job.'

McRae's dreams of becoming an everyday player began to diminish in 1968 when he broke his right leg in four places while playing winter ball in Puerto Rico. He was a second baseman at the time but, after spending virtually all of 1969 with a metal rod in his leg, he returned to the game as an outfielder.

McRae platooned with Bernie Carbo in the Cincinnati outfield for two years but was reduced to pinch-hitting status in 1972 when Pete Rose moved from right to left field for the Reds to make room for promising youngsters Bobby Tolan and Cesar Geronimo. Then came McRae's trade to the Royals that following winter.

'I was always considered an offensive player,' said McRae. 'So the designated hitter was custom-made for me. I could always hit but I was in the National League. I didn't have a position. I was just a pinch hitter over there. Sparky (then Cincinnati manager Anderson) told me he had better people for the positions. I wanted to play; I didn't want to sit around and make the minimum (salary) all my life. The DH gave me a chance to bat four times a night instead of just one.

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'You get paid by how well you hit. That's what the fans come to see. You can shake a tree and a thousand guys who can field will fall out. But it's harder to find guys from the lumber yard. (New York outfielder Dave) Winfield doesn't make $1 million because he's a good defensive outfielder.'

McRae signed a five-year contract with the Royals following the 1976 season and was then given a one-year extension as a reward for his brilliant 1977 showing. But the six-year life of that pact draws to a conclusion at the end of the 1982 season.

And, unlike their recent dealings with younger stars Brett, Frank White and Dennis Leonard, the Royals aren't interested in negotiating another extension with McRae. So, at 34 years of age (35 when his contract expires), McRae knows he needs a productive season in 1981.

'If I want to play past next year I do,' said McRae. 'A good year this season means I can continue playing into 1983. Every good year you have carries you another two. If you have a good year and then a bad year, somebody will always take a chance on you that you have something left.

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'I think I've got a shot at 2,000 hits if I play another two or three years. But it all depends on what I do this season and the next. I might want to play but how well I play is more important to me. I don't want to embarrass myself.

'I've been good to the game. I made some people happy. I made some fans happy. I've gotten bumps, bruises, broken bones, torn rotator cuffs... I've done some things that made the fans feel they got their money's worth.'

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