Giants’ Baker Is Manager of Year

Dusty Baker is the National League manager of the year for a record third time after leading the San Francisco Giants to the best record in the major leagues.

Baker, it was announced Thursday, received 30 of 32 first-place votes, one second and one third for 154 points in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America.

Tony La Russa of the St. Louis Cardinals was second with 59 points, getting one first, 16 seconds and six thirds.

Bobby Cox of the Atlanta Braves was third with 41 points, followed by Bobby Valentine of the New York Mets with 16.

Baker also won the award in 1993 and 1997. In the American League, La Russa is the only three-time recipient, winning with the Chicago White Sox in 1983, and with the Oakland Athletics in 1988 and 1992.

The Giants were 97-65, finishing 11 games ahead of the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West, the largest margin among the division winners.

They lost to the Mets in the first round of the playoffs.

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Unwilling to meet Manny Ramirez’s demand for $200 million over 10 years, the Cleveland Indians offered the free-agent outfielder a seven-year contract worth more than $119 million.

The Indians faxed Ramirez’s agent, Jeff Moorad, a counterproposal averaging about $17 million, according to a baseball management source speaking on the condition he not be identified.

The source said the Indians’ counteroffer was for seven years and that the per-year value was “slightly more” than the $17 million-per-season average the Toronto Blue Jays will pay first baseman Carlos Delgado beginning next season.

An Indian spokesman confirmed the counterproposal was sent to Moorad but refused to discuss its contents.

Last Friday, Moorad sent a complex proposal to Indian owner Larry Dolan that would be the richest in sports history and make Ramirez baseball’s first $20-million-per-year player.

Moorad rejected a $75-million, five-year offer from the Indians in July. He has maintained throughout the negotiations that Ramirez, 28, wants to stay in Cleveland and he would seek a “career contract” for his client.

The Indians are the only team that can discuss salary with Ramirez through today.

Starting Saturday, Ramirez is free to negotiate with any team.

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San Diego Padre reliever Randy Myers and Tampa Bay Devil Ray infielder Ozzie Guillen filed for free agency, leaving the total at 129 with one day remaining.

Pitcher Ricky Bones agreed to an $850,000, one-year contract to remain with the Florida Marlins.

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Darryl Strawberry was jailed for at least another week by a judge in Tampa, Fla., who warned him to resume his treatment for colon cancer “or you are history.”

Judge Florence Foster also told the former New York Yankee slugger that he would get no more chances to end his repeated drug use, and his next violation would land him in prison. “If you can’t make it on the outside,” she said, “I’ll find a place where you can get treatment on the inside.”

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Hisanori Takahashi of the Japan Series champion Yomiuri Giants and three relievers combined to give up only one hit and strike out 10 as Japan’s all-stars defeated their major league counterparts, 1-0, at Nagoya, Japan. . . . Pitcher Harry Taylor, who broke into the major leagues as a 28-year-old teammate of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, died Sunday in Terre Haute, Ind., after an extended illness. He was 81.