Rickey Henderson Sends A’s Back to Series : MVP Steals the Show, Spanks Blue Jays, 4-3

A camera lens pushed through the champagne mist in the Oakland clubhouse and a microphone was pushed in the face of Dave Stewart.

“Dave, is there anything you’d like to say to the folks back home in Oakland?”

Well, yes, Dave said as he stared wildly back at the camera, there was:

“We’re b-a-a-a-a-c-k.”

Frightening thought, isn’t it?

The Oakland Athletics, silencers of the Toronto Blue Jays by way of Sunday’s 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the American League playoffs, are the first team in more than a decade to win back-to-back pennants--and the first team ever to enter a World Series with so stacked an agenda.

They want to purge from their consciousness the Dodger disaster of 1988--and now they have Rickey Henderson to help them do it.

Dodgers, be grateful your number came up last year.

The A’s won 104 games in 1988. In 1989, they might be the most improved team in baseball. Not only did they add a 19-game winner (Mike Moore) to the rotation during the winter, but on June 20 they added Henderson, the fearless leadoff man who completed a peerless championship series.

In Sunday’s clincher at the SkyDome, Henderson personally accounted for half of Oakland’s runs. He walked and stole second base in the first inning, soon to score on a single by Jose Canseco, and tripled home Walt Weiss for the A’s second run in the third inning.

Henderson stole two bases in Game 1, stole four bases in Game 2, scored two runs in Game 3 and hit a pair of two-run home runs in Game 4. All told in this series, Henderson batted .400 with five runs batted in, six hits, seven walks, eight runs and eight stolen bases.

The runs and stolen bases are individual playoff records.

The most valuable player trophy he ran away with only begins to tell the story of the impact he has made on the A’s.

“Has anyone ever had a championship series like his?” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa asked. “I don’t think that can be topped.

“I was in awe of him all year long. He has all of these abilities--defense, baserunning, hitting--and he showed it all this series. It has to be the best playoff series that anyone’s ever played.”

Stewart, Sunday’s winning pitcher, flatly calls Henderson “the premier player in baseball right now.” And Stewart says this in a clubhouse where you can bump into last year’s model, Canseco, on your way to saying hello to baseball’s best relief pitcher (Dennis Eckersley) or a near American League batting champion (Carney Lansford) or a third-year first baseman (Mark McGwire) with 117 home runs already to his credit.

“Rickey’s always been the life of the party,” Stewart said. “He’s the man of the hour, the one you want out there this time of year.

“This is going to be my third World Series and I can say I’ve never seen anything like him.”

Neither, for that matter, has Henderson.

“I can’t say I surprised myself this series,” Henderson said. “I’m expected to make things happen, and this series, it so happened that everything fell into place.”

Sunday was simply the final piece.

As he had three times in the previous four games, Henderson began Oakland’s first inning by safely reaching base, this time by drawing a walk against Toronto starter Dave Stieb. As is his tendency, Rickey didn’t stay there long. Henderson stole second base--his eighth in as many tries against beleaguered Blue Jay catcher Ernie Whitt--and promptly scored on a one-out single by Canseco.

Henderson’s steal left Whitt an underwhelming 0-for-13 in stolen-base shootouts with Oakland runners. Canseco also tried to steal second in the first inning, which Whitt somehow foiled.

Whitt wound up his playoff a one-for-14 marksman. But now, at least, he will have something to tell the grandkids.

The A’s 1-0 lead lasted as long as it took Henderson to bat again, which meant the third inning. One out after Stieb walked Weiss, Henderson tripled into the gap in right-center field, giving Stewart a 2-0 lead he would protect until his teammates could add two more runs in the seventh.

In the eighth, the Blue Jays finally began to stir. Lloyd Moseby hit a solo home run to ruin the shutout. In the bottom of the ninth, George Bell, awakening from a three-for-19 slumber, also homered, making the score 4-2 and spelling the end for Stewart.

La Russa made the call for Eckersley, which, by now, is a venerated Oakland playoff tradition. During the past two AL championship series, the A’s have played nine games and won eight.

Eckersley recorded the final out in all eight victories.

But before he could get this one, Toronto Manager Cito Gaston made a request: Clear customs first. Claiming that Eckersley was packing a foreign object--an emery board was the charge--Gaston asked home plate umpire Rick Reed to check Eckersley before he threw a pitch.

“I told (Reed) to keep an eye on him,” Gaston said. “While I talked, I watched the guy go from his neck to his pocket, then down to the ground, pick it up and drop it in his pants.

“Reed didn’t see it. Either that, or he didn’t care.”

The only commotion Gaston caused was in the Oakland dugout. La Russa immediately joined Gaston and Eckersley on the field to lodge a counterattack with Reed.

“Gamesmanship,” La Russa said afterward. “Somebody tried to plant a seed and disrupt Eckersley. I read in the paper today where (the Blue Jays) were going to step out of the box on him. Now, they were going to try this trick.

“We had a great crew of umpires here--they’ve worked with Eck all year long--and there was never one (suspicious) ball turned in. I thought it was out-and-out gamesmanship and I didn’t appreciate it.”

Given the OK to pitch, Eckersley went to work on sanding down the last Toronto threat of 1989.

It would take a while.

The first batter he faced, Tony Fernandez, blooped a single in front of center fielder Dave Henderson. Fernandez then stole second base and went to third on a ground out by Whitt.

Kelly Gruber followed with a sacrifice fly to center and the lead had melted to 4-3.

Junior Felix, with two out, came to the plate, representing the tying run. Five pitches later, he was still there, facing a full count and one more delivery by Eckersley.

This one, Felix swung at.

This one, Felix missed.

Oakland was back in the World Series, bound for an opening date next Saturday night with either neighbor-by-the bay San Francisco or the Chicago Cubs.

The A’s have been given another chance to get it right and, as insurance, they’re bringing along Rickey Henderson.

McGwire, for one, likes that chance.

“We’re a better team because of Rickey Henderson,” McGwire said. “He really sewed it up. Last year, we went through eight or nine different leadoff hitters and we didn’t have that real stolen-base threat.

“Rickey’s been the difference. I think he showed that by winning the MVP and playing his rear end off.”

So what do get the baseball team that had everything except the Dodgers’ number in 1988?

You didn’t have to be at Whitt’s end to know the answer to that one.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES OAKLAND vs. TORONTO RESULTS Game 1: Oakland 7, Toronto 3 Game 2: Oakland 6, Toronto 3 Game 3: Toronto 7, Oakland 3 Game 4: Oakland 6, Toronto 5 Game 5: Oakland 4, Toronto 3 Oakland wins series, 4-1 * CONCERTED EFFORT

Rickey Henderson gave a virtuoso performance for Oakland. Ross Newhan’s story, Page 14.