Craig, Giants Get a Message From Cubs, Too

The man who manages the San Francisco Giants, a man with the manner, mannerisms, drawl and jowls of Lyndon Baines Johnson, was killing time Thursday in the east wing of Wrigley Field, waiting for the rain to drain, talking about all the back-patters who paid their respects after his ballclub won its division.

“Sandy Alderson sent a telegram, congratulating us,” Roger Craig said, referring to the general manager of the Giants’ rivals for local attention, the Oakland Athletics. “And so did some of the politicians and city officials and, you know, a lot of our regular fans.”

Craig swiveled in his chair.

“Know who else sent a telegram?” he asked.

“Who?” an inquiring mind wanted to know.

“The Grateful Dead.”

Talk about a laughing matter. Hearing slow-talkin’, slow-walkin’ Roger Craig even mention the Grateful Dead by name, well, maybe you had to be there, but this is something tantamount to listening to LBJ discussing LSD, or to George Jones singing something by Boy George. The Dead is hardly the head Giant’s musical group of choice. Craig wouldn’t know Jerry Garcia from Damaso Garcia. This is a guy who thinks a compact disc is some sort of back injury.

“I never heard of them,” Craig said. “Who are they? Do you know?”

The hours before Game 2 of the National League playoff series against the Cubs were restful ones for Craig, whose Giants already were one game to the good. What he was hoping for--but not counting on--from the evening ahead was a clear sky, dry grass and a quiet night, one that would permit him to lean back and relax while starting pitcher Rick Reuschel spun nine pretty innings of shutout baseball, making the manager’s job easy.

Wishful thinking. As the evening turned out, Reuschel needed to last only 8 1/3 innings longer for Craig’s wish to have come true.

Some managers remove pitchers from games because they cannot get the ball over the plate. Craig had to pull Reuschel because he could not stop getting the ball over the plate. A virtual Chicago conga line of batsmen circled the bases. Single, triple, cha-cha, double, single, cha-cha. Reuschel looked like a maypole out there. A mulberry bush.

“What about Reuschel tonight?” someone asked Craig after the game, seeking a general comment.

“Not too much about Reuschel tonight,” Craig replied, pretty much covering it all.

Craig summoned somebody from the bullpen to replace roly-poly Ricky before the manager got halfway to the hill. He had seen enough. His starting pitcher made it through seven batters. Five got hits, a sixth lined out, the seventh smashed a 400-foot foul ball into the street before striking out. This was no time for a conference on the mound. This was time for the hook, the gong.

Yet, Craig’s troubles were hardly over. Before his next pitcher could get anybody out, the Cub pitcher, a rusty-turnstile swinger who made 67 outs in 70 at-bats during the season, singled home two more runs, and a dozen guys took turns taking rips. Good thing Vin Scully hadn’t gambled his hoarse voice on a quick game, or his laryngitis would have turned into strep throat.

Craig and the Giants still had eight long innings to go before Game 2 could go into the books as a 9-5 Cub success. Even the ballpark organist went home when the Giants could not--curfew came, forbidding the Wrigley Field keyboard player from disturbing any more neighbors. He got in his last licks before the Giants did.

The San Franciscans tried to flex some of the same muscle they showed in Game 1, but in the end they continued to show one potentially serious weakness as this series became tied at one victory apiece--six other Giants are obligated to bat before Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell and Matt Williams can get back up.

Oh, well.

Maybe Don Zimmer can intentionally walk all three, every other inning or so.

At least we’ve got ourselves a series now. Time to sit back. Enjoy. Be grateful the Cubs aren’t dead.

“I said in the beginning this was going to be a heck of a series, and now it looks like it’s going to be,” said Zimmer, manager of the Cubs. “I just hope that the Cubbies win.”

Zim was more anxious beforehand than his adversary and old crony, Craig, since the thought of leaving Wrigley Field with an 0-2 record and going to Candlestick Park for the next three, was not something likely to make the Cub skipper sleep more peacefully at night. In his mind, he could see the same thing Craig could, namely, Rick Reuschel setting the Cubs down in order, one by one. No way he foresaw Reuschel getting knocked around.

“We got more hits off Reuschel in one inning than we usually get in nine,” Zimmer said.

Chimed in Cub first baseman Mark Grace: “Rick Reuschel’s a guy who, if you are not focused on everything you do, he will get you out every single time. He’s too smart, Rick Reuschel. He’ll outguess you every time.”

Alas, being smart isn’t always enough. Reuschel got pounded hard and early, same as he did in his last start, same as he did in the All-Star game at Anaheim Stadium, so Roger Craig is definitely concerned. Craig admits as much. He thinks Reuschel’s arm might be tired. He isn’t sure what to do about his pitcher. About all Roger can do is sit back, put his feet up, put on his headphones and get mellow.