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By PAUL SOKOLOSKI; Times Leader Sports Writer
Thursday, January 26, 1995 Page: 2B
SCRANTON — Secure in his job as Philadelphia’s director of player
development, Del Unser has no ambition to resume his 15-year Major League
playing career.
“I prefer golf,” a smiling 50-year-old Unser said during the annual
Phillies Caravan stop in Scranton Tuesday.
Still, that won’t stop him from talking to some old teammates who may want
to come back to the baseball field.
Ex-Major League players, career minor leaguers, current college prospects
and some talent from tryout camps will find their way to the Major Leagues if
current striking baseball players don’t end their strike against Major League
owners.
“We will have a team if it has to go that way,” Phillies general manager
Lee Thomas said.
So will the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, Philadelphia’s Class AAA
affiliate who team officials say will feel little, if any, effect from a big
league player replacement scenario.
Top prospects such as Mike Lieberthal, Gene Schall, Tom Marsh, Mike
Williams, Paul Fletcher, Tyler Green and Robert Gaddy — all who spent most of
the 1994 season in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — are currently listed on
Philadelphia’s 40-man roster. The Phillies are currently planning for them to
begin this year in Class AAA, Unser said, provided the labor issue isn’t
settled. Whether they’ll be allowed to do so by the Major League Players
Union, Unser said, remains to be seen.
At this point, any of the Red Barons or other Phillies minor league players
are welcome to step across picket lines and into Veterans Stadium.
“Not one will be forced to go play as a replacement player,” Unser said.
But when he looks across the 40-man roster, Thomas isn’t counting on any
Red Barons stars to break ranks.
“At this time, I don’t see anybody agreeing to do that on the roster,”
Thomas said. “I don’t know if there will be any who come, if there will be
one, two, three or what.”
If players do leave the Red Barons to become Phillies, Unser said, their
spots at Class AAA will be filled by players from the lower levels of the
team’s minor league system.
“The depth of our organization is going to show,” Unser said. “It’s not
going to mess us up. We’ve been preparing for this a little bit. We are so
excited about our first four levels of play in the organization.”
But that enthusiasm could be tempered a bit if some of those players are
promoted another level before they’ve had time to develop.
“It runs up everybody’s scale,” Unser argued. “The other organizations are
going to be doing the same thing.”
At any rate, all minor league players who show up at spring training when
workouts begin Feb. 17 won’t be considered major league replacements — even
though they’re sure to be used in spring training games — until the regular
season begins in April.
“They’re just spring training games,” Unser said. “Played by whomever.”