It Turned Out All Right, Saberhagen Says : As Far as Thrills Go, Game 7 Is a Close Second for Kansas City’s MVP

Kansas City infielder Greg Pryor threw his arms around the champagne-drenched Bret Saberhagen and said: “You’re so young, so young. But you did it.”

Pryor walked away and was replaced by Charlie Leibrandt.

“Cy Young,” he said, embracing Saberhagen. “This is Cy Young right here.”

Maybe not. Maybe Ron Guidry will win the Cy Young Award in the American League.

Does it matter? Can anything extinguish the glow Saberhagen was experiencing Sunday night.

“I don’t think so,” Saberhagen said. “I feel like I’ve had a picture-perfect year. I feel like everything I’ve done has turned out right. I feel like I have the world at my feet.

“I feel like I’m walking on sunshine. Isn’t that how the song goes?”

It is, and Saberhagen was. Walking on sunshine just a day after the birth of his first child, Drew William, left him saying he was on Cloud Nine.

“The baby’s birth was my biggest thrill,” he said. “But this is a very close second.”

This was a five-hit, 11-0 victory over St. Louis in the climactic seventh game of the I-70 World Series. This was the trophy that goes to the Most Valuable Player, Saberhagen winning it on the basis of his two complete-game victories over the Cardinals, the first when the Royals were down 0-2, the second after they had clawed back from a 1-3 deficit to force Game 7.

This was the embraces of the clubhouse and the camaraderie of a team that wouldn’t quit.

“I don’t know how I could have won the MVP trophy when it belongs to the entire team, to all 25 guys,” he said.

A cliche, maybe, but what would you want him to say at the end of that picture-perfect year?

Bret Saberhagen is 21. It was only three years ago that he capped his senior year at Reseda’s Cleveland High by throwing a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium, giving Cleveland the city championship over Palisades and earning Saberhagen an award of another kind.

He was then the City Player of the Year. Now it’s the world. Now, after just two years in the majors, he legitimately has the world at his feet:

--The fifth-youngest pitcher to win 20 games in a regular season. He was 20-6.

--Second in the league in wins and percentage (.769), and third in ERA (2.87).

--A winner of 10 of his last 11 regular-season decisions and 18-3 after May 7.

--Two starts in the playoffs and two in the Series, all of which the Royals won.

--The Sporting News’ American League Pitcher of the Year and the Series’ MVP.

Then, of course, there’s Drew William.

“This is going to be the best off-season of my life,” Saberhagen said. “I have some contract negotiations to think about, but right now all I want to do is get the baby home so I can start playing with him. Having him born amid all this has helped me keep my priorities in order.”

There has never seemed to be a question of priorities with Saberhagen. He is cool, poised, experienced beyond his years.

While the Cardinals were coming apart Sunday night, Saberhagen, the youngest pitcher ever to start Game 7, maintained the form he displayed in his six-hitter of Game 3.

He walked none. He struck out two. He yielded no extra-base hits and allowed only one Cardinal to reach second.

“I thought I had better stuff in my other game,” he said, “but with the big lead I could challenge hitters. I could stay ahead. I didn’t have to think about getting cute and risking a walk.”

Was he nervous?

“Very,” he said. “But guys like (George) Brett and (Willie) Wilson and Mike Jones all came by to give me little pep talks before the game and that really helped.”

The 11 runs didn’t hurt. The margin of victory was the Royals’ largest of a season in which they were last in the league in runs scored and next-to-last in team batting average.

Willie Wilson, whose Series average of .367 represented redemption for his 12 strikeouts and .154 average in the 1980 World Series, stood apart from the clubhouse champagne play and said:

“We’re not a great offensive team, we’re a good offensive team. We’re not a great team, we’re a good team.

“We played a lot of 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 games, heart-attack games. You learn how to perform, to cope. You develop a feeling you can win them, you can beat the odds.”

The Royals beat the odds when they came back from a 7 1/2-game July deficit against the Angels. They beat them again when they came back from the 1-3 deficits against the Blue Jays and Cardinals.

Said Dan Quisenberry: “Maybe we can only find the cracks when we have our backs against the wall. Or maybe I should say it’s because the wall is made of rubber and we keep bouncing back.”

The Kansas City Royals’ comeback victory over the St. Louis Cardinals gave the American League three consecutive World Series championships for the seventh time and first since 1972-74.

The latest AL streak began in 1983, when the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies in five games, breaking a four-year National League dominance. The Detroit Tigers beat the San Diego Padres in five games last season.

In 1974, the Oakland A’s won their third consecutive championship, the first time either league won at least three straight titles since Los Angeles, St. Louis and Los Angeles again won in 1963 through 1965.

The longest world championship winning streak is held by the American League from 1947 through 1953. The New York Yankees started the streak, followed by Cleveland’s title in 1948 and then came four more championships by the Yankees.

The National League has managed three straight titles four times.