April  7, 1992, Metro Edition

SECTION: Sports; Patrick Reusse; Pg. 1C
LENGTH:  1119  words
HEADLINE: Erickson breaks well from the starting gate
BYLINE: Patrick Reusse; Staff Writer
DATELINE: Milwaukee, Wis.

 BODY:
   The dominant force in major league baseball over the past five years, the Small Market Twins, opened another season and received precisely what they wanted: a strike-throwing, sinker-balling performance from Scott Erickson.

    Manager Tom Kelly does not enjoy having too much pressure placed on his athletes. It would be against everything the bubbly skipper holds sacred to single out a 24-year-old pitcher as the defending champs' most important ingredient.

    With that in mind, we will low-key this: If Erickson has a solid season, the Twins will be challenging to repeat in the American League West. If Erickson is as shaky as he was over the second half of last season, the Twins will be inhaling the fumes of three or four teams.

    Erickson charged through six innings Monday, and the Milwaukee Brewers had a difficult time launching baseballs more than 250 feet from home plate. Through four innings, Erickson had seven ground-ball outs and a strikeout.

    The diving fastball that was so familiar through the first three months of last season was causing the ground balls. The strikeout came when Robin Yount waved at one of those nasty, darting sliders.

    The Twins opened with a victory - 4-2 - for the first time in five years, scoring twice in the ninth against the Brewers' vaunted bullpen. The adjective is used here in the same manner as it was popularized by Roy Smith, when he referred to a one-time Twins' prospect as the vaunted Larry Casian.

"Erickson was throwing strikes, keeping the fastball down and he did OK with the changeup," Kelly said. "When they did get the ball in the air, they didn't sting it. We'll take that from him. We'll take that every time."

    The strong performance for Erickson did more than allow the Twins to open with a victory. It also allowed the P.R. machine to stay in high gear. Young Andrew MacPhail, the general manager, was lionized in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, where he was misquoted.

    How can we tell Young Andrew was misquoted? There were several statements in there from MacPhail in which he did not allude to the Twins as a small-market team, so he had to be misquoted.

    The basic theme of all media types - including this one - commenting on the Twins during visits to Fort Myers this spring was this: Young Andrew has been infallible in his manpower decisions concerning the Twins, and he has two championships of North American baseball to prove it.

    The potential to question that infallibility existed yesterday. Big Jack Morris - the man who gave MacPhail and the Twins the second of those continental championships - was making his Toronto debut in Detroit.

Morris already had five shutout innings going for him before Erickson threw his first pitch. When the day was over, Morris had beaten Detroit 4-2 with a complete game.

    Morris' excellent beginning for the Blue Jays and an Opening Day belly flop by Erickson might have caused the earliest media and fans' panic in history. "This proves the Twins, those cheap sons of bucks, should have come up with the extra $ 1.5 million for Morris," we would have shouted.

    When the Twins had Frank Viola around, you knew they had a horse. When the Twins had Morris for that brief, sweet season, you knew they had a horse.

    Kevin Tapani pitched only two innings fewer than Morris during the 1991 season. Tapani is the most-efficient of workmen - 83 mile-per-hour fastball, followed by an 88, followed by a changeup, all for strikes, all to different spots. Tapani is not the big, strong, fire-breathing guy that will cause Kelly to say what he said about Morris so many times last season: "He's the horse and we're going to ride him."

    John Smiley is not that guy, either. You can look at those 20 victories from last season and say Smiley has made the Twins the clearcut favorites in the West. What you can't forget are those two dreadful playoff efforts by Smiley for Pittsburgh, in contrast to what Morris did for the Twins last October.

    If the Twins are going to have a horse in 1992, it has to be the glowering, moody Erickson - the best starting pitcher in baseball for the first three months of last season, one of the worst for the second three months.

    "I'm not going to be answering a whole lot of questions about last year," Erickson said, the first time it was mentioned after the game.

    You can't blame him. The condition of his right elbow and the pitching style he should develop were issues that Erickson faced from the All-Star break until the end of the World Series last season.

    Erickson's concentration appears to be back. A reporter happened to ride the elevator with the pitcher yesterday - he was heading for the bus and the ride to the park - and he had that glowering, give-me-the-ball look back in his eyes.

    On the mound yesterday, Erickson went directly at the hitters. "He didn't have much of a breaking ball, but his fastball was sinking," catcher Brian Harper said. "There were a lot of easy outs."

Erickson said he could not tell how much sink there was on his fastball. "I don't see the ball after I throw it," Erickson said. "I don't know how much it is sinking or breaking. I'm looking at the strike zone. I can only tell how my pitches are working by the results."

    Erickson's results were six-plus innings, five hits, two walks and two earned runs. A well-aimed ground ball single by Greg Vaughn led to the first run. An infield single by Vaughn - followed by a walk - led to the second run and Erickson's departure in the seventh.