Randy Myers

BOSTON -- He began last night batting .350 -- sixth in the American League -- but he's not going to make the All-Star team.He began last night batting .422 with runners in scoring position -- best in the league -- and he barely stands a chance.The B. J. Surhoffs of the world never get elected, never get selected, never get noticed at all, even when they're helping their teams win.Heck, after two rounds of fan balloting, Surhoff ranked 14th among AL outfielders -- behind even Darryl Strawberry, who is 0-for-14 on the season.

Peter Angelos and Brady Anderson have enjoyed each other's dinner company for weeks, but now they finally can break out the champagne.L Waiter, please bring the check, and hand it to Mr. Anderson.It's time he picked up the tab.Angelos did the honors at Little Italy's Boccaccio, the Harbor Court Hotel and everywhere else these two dined in Baltimore during Anderson's contract negotiations, according to Outside Pitch magazine."I'm older," Angelos would say. "I have to pay."Well, the owner is still older, and he's still wealthier, but for $31 million, the least he can get is a free meal.

CLEVELAND -- The tried-and-true formula holds. Given a healthy starting rotation able to carry a game into late innings, the Orioles have shown since the All-Star break that their bullpen was more a victim of stress than incompetence in the first half.Sure, there have been casualties. Left-hander Norm Charlton was released last month in Detroit, only to be picked up by the Atlanta Braves. Hobbled starters Jimmy Key and Doug Drabek have been disabled but have received ample cover from a group strengthened since the exile of temporary fifth starter Pete Smith.

It was supposed to be baseball's big coming-out party, the moment when all the gloom, doom and despair that has surrounded the national pastime was to melt away, and the game was to start on its long journey back.Instead, last night's All-Star telecast on ABC came off like a convention for Roto-geeks, with numbers and strategy tossed about freely, but with little passion or amusement."We're having fun. That's what All-Star games are all about," said Frank Thomas, the Chicago White Sox first baseman, after hitting a two-run homer in the fourth.

"Terrific weather outside," someone said to Roger McDowell as sleet pounded against the warehouse window yesterday afternoon."Terrific weather if you're a penguin," said McDowell, the Orioles' newest relief pitcher.And the Orioles were that much more interesting again.Better, too? Well, the club certainly hopes that McDowell and new closer Randy Myers -- both of whom were introduced to local reporters yesterday -- will improve the bullpen. With 1,225 major-league appearances between them, they already have made it more accomplished and professional.

The Orioles will be in the market for a second baseman, a heavy-hitting outfielder and a closer this off-season, and they may need a couple of starting pitchers. But new manager Davey Johnson said yesterday he likes the core of players he is inheriting."I believe the talent pool is as good or better than any I've had," said Johnson, who will have strong input in the makeup of the roster. "We've probably got a much more potent 3-4-5 [hitters in the lineup] than I had in Cincinnati. The pitching staff has the potential to be as good as any I've had, with Mike Mussina."

Before coming to the Orioles yesterday, Pat Gillick worked in the same league, in the same division and within a similar salary structure in his former role as general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. He has had ample opportunity to see the Orioles up close in divisional play.Now, he's the Orioles' general manager, and Gillick has definite ideas on what he thinks the team needs to contend in 1996 and beyond.Gillick says he will attempt to operate next year's team on a $40 million budget.

Free-agent pitcher David Cone met with the New York Yankees yesterday, and American League sources indicate he'll meet with the Orioles sometime in the very near future.Orioles GM Pat Gillick is honoring his early promise that he would pursue pitching: Besides Cone, he is deep into talks with left-hander Al Leiter (three-year offer) and relievers Rick Aguilera and Randy Myers (tentative multi-year offers).Aside from pitching, the Orioles yesterday declined to offer salary arbitration to Harold Baines, their designated hitter of the past three seasons.

CINCINNATI -- And on the third day, the Pirates and the Reds will rest. Which is normal. But on the fourth day, they will also rest. And that's not normal.Over 162 games, baseball is a day-to-day game, a grind, a test of a team's pitching depth. That's part of its beauty.But this year's National League Championship Series is now on hold over the weekend so that CBS can bring you the Florida State-Miami college football game Saturday and several National Football League games Sunday as well as the first two games of the American League showdown.

The most telling moment of the baseball winter meetings occurred one morning outside the coffee shop of the headquarters hotel. Whitey Herzog cursed out Dennis Gilbert, the agent for Bobby Bonilla. Baseball executives, like citizens fed up with the riffraff on their block, took back the winter meetings this year.Trades, not the peddling of free-agent flesh, dominated the meetings in Miami Beach, Fla. Teams completed 14 trades, the most at a winter meeting in eight years. An MVP (Kevin Mitchell)