FINLEY'S DAYS AS ANGEL UP?

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

The clock is ticking on the Angels, who have until Tuesday to re-sign pitcher Chuck Finley or lose negotiating rights until May 1, but the team has yet to have a face-to-face meeting with him or representative Tim Shannon.

Shannon has had a couple of phone conversations with Angels general manager Bill Stoneman, but no offer has been made.

Stoneman has made it clear the Angels won't compete with other teams vying for Finley's services. Finley, 37, could command as much as $9 million per season for three seasons.

``If another club comes along and makes an offer to him that blows him away, and we can't match it, we won't,'' Stoneman said recently. ``We won't go beyond our means to retain him.''

As many as seven teams are said to be interested in Finley - the Angels not among them. While vacationing in Hawaii earlier this week, Finley told a friend that he expects to end up with either the Yankees or Indians.

The Yankees are the front-runners, in large part because of manager Joe Torre, who became acquainted with Finley when Torre worked as a television broadcaster on Angels games in the early '90s.

- Joe Haakenson

Hall together now: Carlton Fisk is the leading holdover on this year's ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame, while Steve Sax, Bob Welch, Jack Morris and Rich Gossage are among 14 players appearing for the first time.

Fisk fell 43 votes short of election last time, his first on the ballot. He received 330 of 497 votes, 66.4 percent. To gain election, a player must be selected on 75 percent of the ballots cast by 10-year members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Ballots for this year were sent to writers this week, and election results will be announced Jan. 11. The induction will take place July 23 at the Hall in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Other players on the ballot for the first time are Hubie Brooks, Bill Gullickson, Dave Henderson, Charlie Hough, Kent Hrbek, Bruce Hurst, Jeff Reardon, Lonnie Smith, Rick Sutcliffe and Willie Wilson.

Sixteen players on the ballot are holdovers. With Fisk are Bert Blyleven, Bob Boone, Gary Carter, Dave Concepcion, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Keith Hernandez, Tommy John, Jim Kaat, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Tony Perez, Jim Rice, Bruce Sutter and Luis Tiant.

Tigers fill staff: Bill Madlock, a former Dodgers third baseman who finished his major-league career playing for Detroit, was hired by new manager Phil Garner as the Tigers' hitting coach.

Madlock, a four-time NL batting champion, was a teammate of Garner for 6-1/2 years in Pittsburgh.

Garner also announced the addition of Bob Melvin as bench coach, Doug Mansolino as third-base coach and Ronnie Nedset as working coach. Lance Parrish will become the bullpen coach after serving as Detroit's third-base coach last season.

Juan Samuel will return as first-base coach and Dan Warthen comes back as pitching coach.

Madlock spent two years as a hitting coach in the minor leagues, most recently with Triple-A Buffalo of the Cleveland organization.