WORLD SERIES Notes : Coleman Is Still Limping and Probably Won’t Play Tonight

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —  Vince Coleman, the St. Louis left fielder whose left leg was caught and bruised by the Killer Tarp at Busch Stadium last Sunday, was still limping and unwilling to run on it Friday.

“If he can’t run today,” Manager Whitey Herzog said on the eve of tonight’s World Series opener, “I’d have to say he’s very doubtful for tomorrow.

“He won’t play unless he’s 100%. Of course, I might not say that if I didn’t have a Tito Landrum and Cesar Cedeno to replace him.”

Coleman, of course, stole 110 bases during the regular season, triggering an offense that accumulated 314 steals, 56 by Willie McGee, who bats second in the lineup.

Whether Coleman plays or not, Kansas City Manager Dick Howser isn’t ready to concede the running game to St. Louis. He said he was willing to match his Nos. 1 and 2 hitters, ex-Cardinal Lonnie Smith, who stole 40 bases in 120 games, and Willie Wilson, who stole 43 in 141, against any 1 and 2 anywhere.

“No one in baseball is better,” Howser said. “Both are over 80% on their steal attempts. Both are aggressive but disciplined. If Coleman and McGee are better, I want to see it for myself. I want to be convinced.”

The numbers alone seem convincing.

In addition to their stolen-base totals, McGee hit .353 and Coleman .267. Smith hit .257, Wilson .278.

How will the Royals cope with the St. Louis running game? One way is via the use of three left-handed starting pitchers: Danny Jackson tonight, Charlie Leibrandt Sunday and Bud Black in Game 4.

Howser, however, said he wants his pitchers concentrating on the hitters.

“We know they can run,” he said. “Everyone in the National League tried everything possible, and it didn’t work. We’d like to keep them off the basepaths, but that’s also impossible. They have great numbers, but one guy accounts for a third of that total. I mean, they have one guy who runs a hell of a lot, and several others who run some.

“We’ll talk about it, but not overemphasize it. We’re not going to disrupt our concentration by making a hundred throws to first base.”

He managed the Kansas City Royals for 4 1/2 seasons, winning division titles in 1976, ’77 and ’78. He finished second in 1979 and was fired. If Whitey Herzog is still bitter, he refuses to let it show.

“Too long ago. I don’t remember,” he said Friday.

Herzog’s homecoming is one of several subplots to the All-Missouri Series. There’s Lonnie Smith facing his former St. Louis teammates, and St. Louis catcher Darrell Porter returning to Kansas City.

For Herzog, Royals Stadium is only a 2 1/2-mile drive from his home in Independence, where he once dropped off a Thanksgiving turkey for Bess Truman, late wife of the late President.

“Coming back for the World Series adds to the fun,” he said, “but I probably could have gotten more rest in Toronto.”

How could Herzog have been fired after winning three division titles in four full seasons?

The reasons have never been defined, but the basic problem seemed to be internal--and philosophical. The outspoken Herzog wanted the conservative Royals to enter the new world of free agency. He wanted increased authority. He reportedly had several disagreements over personnel and strategy with owners Ewing and Muriel Kauffman.

In the end, his firing wasn’t a surprise, though it created the greatest fan reaction in the club’s history.

“Any time you manage the same team five years that’s a long time,” Herzog told the Kansas City Times Friday. “You can’t be upset about that. I knew as soon as we didn’t win the West, I was probably gone. The only thing that’s surprising is, we won a lot and drew 2 million people. You usually don’t get fired when the owners are making money. The fans usually are the ones who tell you when it’s time to go. But fans are fickle. The Royals won the next year, and I was forgotten.”

Gone, yes. Forgotten, no.

The foundation Herzog helped establish has contributed to the club’s continued success. His belief that speed and contact hitters are essential on synthetic surface has been manifested again in St. Louis, where he has the authority he didn’t have in Kansas City.

Said George Brett, whose potential reached fruition under Herzog: “It’s a bonus to get to play against a man I respect a lot. I mean that sincerely.”

Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen, who suffered a bruised right hand when hit by a Willie Upshaw grounder in Toronto Wednesday, said Friday that the soreness was gone and that he expected to start Game 3 as scheduled. Saberhagen will have a precautionary bone scan today.

Does Lonnie Smith harbor ill feelings toward the Cardinals and Vince Coleman, who replaced him in left field?

“I know that you’d like to get something nasty out of me,” the Royal left fielder said, “but Vince and I are good friends. It was just a case of too many outfielders.”