
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120043
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH                                LENGTH: Medium

ARE PIRATES BEING PRICED OUT OF STARS?

The Pittsburgh Pirates, in danger of not re-signing three-time All-Star Bobby Bonilla, are resigned to losing some of their marquee players in the next two years.

"We can't afford to keep 'em all," Pirates President Carl Bargar said Monday.

Bonilla can become a free agent after this season. The Pirates also could lose National League MVP Barry Bonds and Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek after 1992.

Bonilla rejected the Pirates' four-year, $15.5 million offer and is asking for nearly $20 million. He has threatened to play elsewhere if the Pirates do not sign him to a long-term deal before his arbitration hearing Thursday.

Bonilla has averaged 27 homers and 100 RBI the past three seasons.

Talks also have stalled on a one-year contract that would avoid arbitration. Bonilla wants $3,475,000, a million dollars more than the Pirates' offer.

The Pirates' long-term offer includes a $750,000 signing bonus and would make Bonilla the highest-paid player in the team's history.

Bonilla, Bonds and Drabek have filed in arbitration for $7 million in raises - or $500,000 more than the Pirates' total payroll five years ago.

Roger Clemens of Boston became baseball's highest-paid player Friday with a four-year, $21.5 million extension that Barger called "irresponsible."

"It's another classic example of how ownership is tearing the heart out of baseball for no good reason," he said. "It was a double-barrel shock . . . the timing - the Friday before arbitration - was incredible, and [the contract] beyond my wildest imagination. I don't know whether to be angry or depressed."

Barger has become an outspoken voice for the medium-market cities that don't command the cable-TV windfalls enjoyed by franchises in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

"Baseball, as an industry, must reassess where it is and the increasing disparity between the `haves' and the `have nots,' and what we're doing to baseball," he said.

"Where does it all end? I wish I knew."

by CNB