THE WORLD SERIES: ATHLETICS vs DODGERS : Finley Out of Game, but He’s Not Out of Touch With A’s

Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz and insurance magnate Charles Oscar Finley will be flying to Los Angeles from Chicago Saturday to attend the first 2 games of the World Series between the Dodgers and Oakland Athletics at Dodger Stadium.

They will be guests of Oakland Manager Tony La Russa.

Marovitz presided when La Russa, a graduate of the law school at Florida State University, was sworn in as a member of the Illinois bar.

Finley, then owner of the A’s and the man who personally built that organization’s dynasty of the early 1970s, signed La Russa to a contract as a high school graduate in Tampa, Fla., in 1962.

The trip to California is an expression of gratitude by La Russa, and represents Finley’s first visit to Dodger Stadium since Oct. 13, 1974, when his A’s lost the second game of a World Series they eventually won, 4 games to 1.

Will he return in the famous green blazer with the A’s logo on the pocket?

“I still have it, but I don’t think I’ll wear it,” Finley, a “youthful” 70, said by phone from his office at the Charles O. Finley Insurance Company in Chicago Thursday.

“I think all the focus should be on the current A’s and not the old owner of the former A’s,” he added.

How much does he know about the current A’s?

“I saw them a few times in Chicago and a few times on national TV and I very definitely watched every pitch in their 4-game (playoff) sweep of the Boston Red Sox. I’m very familiar and very impressed.

“My team won 5 consecutive division championships and 3 straight world championships, but this team may be just as good and could very easily turn out to be better.

“Time will tell. We beat the Dodgers in 5 games in ’74 and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tony’s team swept the Dodgers this year, that’s how great I think they are.

“Now after you write that, I imagine I’ll be booed out of the stadium.”

The colorful Finley never worried about the boos and the bombast, but he was reluctant Thursday to review the war stories.

More than once, in the period that he owned the A’s, he said that then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn moved out of the “village idiot” neighborhood to become a “national idiot.”

Thursday, he said: “I’m looking forward to this trip and I don’t want to say anything that will take away from the World Series.

“I don’t want to talk about Bowie Kuhn or the fighting A’s. The past is gone.”

Does this mean he has mellowed?

“I don’t think Charlie Finley has changed at all,” he said. “All I ever did was fight for what I thought was right and I still do. Mellow makes it sound like I was a tyrant.

“All I did was win 5 straight division titles. What more can anyone do? The Dodgers have never done it. No one has done it since the Yankees way back yonder. What did Charlie Finley do wrong?”

Feeling he was unable to compete financially once baseball adopted free agency--”I don’t blame the players for trying to get as much as they can, it’s the stupidity of the owners,” he said Thursday--Finley began to dismantle his once brilliant team in the late ‘70s, operated a skeleton organization over the last few years and then, after the 1980 season, sold the team to the family that owns the Levi Strauss Company for a reported $12.7 million.

“I spent 20 enjoyable years in baseball and I think it’s natural to miss it in a way,” Finley said. “I never dreamed I’d accomplish what I did when I first went into it, so I couldn’t help but be pleased when I left.

“The only disappointments I ever had came from my experiences with that kook Kuhn.”

Finley touched the scar and backed away. He had nothing but praise for the rebuilding job done by A’s Vice President Sandy Alderson and others in the organization. The A’s drew a club-record 2.3 million this year. They never drew more than 1.07 million under Finley despite the artistic success, and he was criticized for an absence of marketing and promotion.

“Anyone can say what they want,” he said. “I believe then and I believe now that winning is No. 1. The A’s have done a hell of a job promoting, but so did we if you base it on 5 straight championships. What more did the fans want? I mean, I did bring in a mule as a mascot.”

Finley even brought the mule into the press dining room during the 1973 World Series and it wasn’t long before most of the guests lost their appetite and left. The clean-up crew performed a sweep of another kind.

A year later, Finley went to the World Series “never wanting to beat a team as badly as I wanted to beat the Dodgers. It was the first all-California series, a friendly grudge and nothing personal. I knew Walter O’Malley quite well, and he had been very instrumental in my purchasing the Kansas City A’s at the time. He was always extremely nice to me, as Peter has been.”

It was in Game 2 of that series, Finley said, that he experienced one of his most vivid and embarrassing memories. In the ninth inning, with the A’s having scored twice to cut a Dodger lead to 3-2, Herb Washington, the world-class sprinter Finley had signed as a pinch-running specialist, was sent in to run for Joe Rudi only to be picked off by Dodger relief pitcher Mike Marshall, helping to kill the rally.

“Marshall had thrown over to first a couple times, and I remember telling the person I was with that Marshall was playing possum, that he wasn’t throwing full speed to first and don’t be surprised if he picks him off,” Finley said.

“Damned if it didn’t happen, and if I’d had a lever that would have dropped me out of the stadium, I’d have pulled it. I felt as if the whole world was looking at me and laughing.”

Finley can watch the 1988 Series without some of that same emotional attachment.

“The Dodgers have great spirit and a great organization and I have loved Tommy (Lasorda) for many years, but even a very good ballclub doesn’t compare with the A’s,” Finley said.

“This club isn’t established yet, like Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers and Catfish Hunter and Ken Holtzman and Sal Bando, but just with those two guys in the middle of the lineup (Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire) it’s like having a keg of dynamite that’s liable to explode at any time. I really believe the A’s may turn out better than some of my teams. They just have to go out and do it. They have a plus in the stability of the manager and coaching staff.”

Finley also signed A’s pitching coach Dave Duncan and first base coach Rene Lachemann when they graduated from high school as promising catchers. La Russa, a middle infielder, signed on the night he graduated and played for 16 years, but he batted only 176 times in the major leagues.

“I played until I was 34 and should have quit when I was 24,” La Russa said. “Some guys, when they look back, become a better player every year. Not me. I get worse.”

Finley, who was owner, scout and bookkeeper, said he met the La Russa family at their Tampa home, then approved a $90,000 signing bonus.

“We had Campy Campaneris at shortstop and Dick Green at second,” he said. “Tony never really had a chance, but he always impressed me as a class guy who worked hard at understanding the game and he’s upheld that image as long as he’s been in baseball.”

Finley opened the door and now will be there again as La Russa attempts to step over the biggest threshold yet.

“Charlie and the judge are special people,” La Russa said Thursday. “I told them in mid-season that if we reached the World Series, they’d be my guests. I couldn’t be happier that it’s worked out.”