Phone the Oakland Athletics switchboard and the first thing a caller hears is a replay of one of Mark McGwire's 26 home runs. Moments later, the man who's chasing Roger Maris' season record of 61 in 1961 blasts another.

But when you pick up newspapers in Baltimore or Cleveland or New York, there is every reason to believe the Oakland slugger will be traded to a wealthy contender before the June 31 deadline. The A's, you see, are fearful McGwire will walk as a free agent during the winter, and they'll end up with nothing.

``Most clubs are talking about it in theory,'' A's President Sandy Alderson says. ``They're discussing it only on radio talk shows. There hasn't been a lot of serious discussion about McGwire as far as we're concerned.''