Notebook : Eckersley Made Flippant Remark

Dennis Eckersley wasn’t letting Canada know who’s No. 1 when he pointed that finger in the air following Oakland’s 4-3 pennant-clinching victory over Toronto Sunday afternoon.

Wrong finger.

With one flick of his right hand, Eckersley engendered more furor in the SkyDome than any caustic Bob Costas quip or Rickey Henderson hot-dog move.

“I won’t forget what he did and I won’t forget what he told me on the mound,” said Cito Gaston, Toronto’s gentlemanly field manager. “What he said he could only say out there. Let him talk to me like that out on the street.

“He had to say it there, where he had protection.”

What Eckersley said, according to Gaston, was the verbal version of his one-finger salute.

Eckersley was still seething from Gaston’s request that the A’s relief pitcher be checked for a foreign object before he threw a pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“I felt provoked,” Eckersley said, “so I said something I wish I didn’t say. . . . I’m sorry I said it, but I was pumped to the gills.”

Gaston and Blue Jay catcher Ernie Whitt both claimed they saw Eckersley take something from his glove--Gaston said it was an emery board, Whitt wasn’t sure--drop it on the ground and then slip it into his pants.

“As soon as he saw Cito talking to the umpire, he definitely took something out of his glove and dropped it in his pants,” Whitt said.

Eckersley: “I didn’t do anything.”

Oakland Manager Tony LaRussa also reacted angrily to the Blue Jays’ inquisition, accusing Gaston with “gamesmanship,” a desperate attempt to unnerve Eckersley.

“That’s beneath the respect I have for Cito Gaston and the respect the Blue Jays have earned the last few years,” LaRussa said. “That’s BS. That’s like playing golf and you go to the tee and someone says, ‘Hey, see that water on the right.’

“I read in the papers where (Toronto’s Tony) Fernandez said they were going to step out against Eck. They were trying to disrupt him. Fortunately, Eck didn’t let it bother him.”

LaRussa then played a little defense attorney for his pitcher.

“There were 100 TV cameras out there,” LaRussa said. “He doesn’t use anything. It’s a shame if even two people in the country see that remark somewhere and think all his accomplishments are tainted.

“He deserves everything he’s done.”

Sandy Alderson, the A’s general manager, wondered about the timing of Gaston’s protest.

“It’s a little unfortunate they would raise all of this now, considering we played 13 times during the regular season and they said nothing,” Alderson said.

Gaston claimed that “sometimes it takes a long time to figure out what a guy is doing.” Whitt said he doesn’t know if Eckersley “scuffs the ball or not, but there’s always been a thought about it--and not only by our club.”

For the second time in as many Octobers, Dave Stewart was the pitcher of record on the day the A’s clinched the pennant.

Stewart may not own a Cy Young Award, but he’s making up for it with a collection of league championship rings.

“There’s a lot of Cy Young winners who sit home and watch the World Series,” said Stewart, who also appeared in the 1981 World Series with the Dodgers. “I’m not a great fan of the Cy Young balloting. After the last couple of years (Stewart finished runner-up in 1987 and 1988 and will probably do so again in 1989), it’s not one of my big things.

” . . . I may go through my whole career without winning a Cy Young, so I’m looking for something I can do that no one else can do.”

A’s third baseman Carney Lansford, who missed the last two playoff games with a pulled left hamstring muscle, said he expects to be ready for Game 1 of the World Series Saturday.

Toronto first baseman Fred McGriff led the league with 36 home runs but did not hit a homer in his last 104 at bats, a span of 29 games. He did not have an extra base hit after Sept. 13, had only 15 hits in his last 99 at bats and was three for 21 in the playoffs.

George Bell homered in his final at bat of the playoff but was four for 20 overall with two runs batted in after collecting 104 during the season. Bell showed some uncustomary humility as he said:

“Everyone pitched me outside in September, but the A’s made a lot of good pitches in on me. I didn’t expect it and didn’t adjust. We had a lot of chances but blew those chances, and I didn’t help.”

While Rickey Henderson set a playoff record with eight steals, the two clubs combined to set another with 24. The previous record was 15 by the Dodgers and New York Mets last year.

The A’s total of 13 also broke the championship series record of 11, set by the Cincinnati Reds in 1975.

Including their 3-0 record in the playoff, the A’s have a 51-18 record in day games this year and 99-40 over the last two years.

A game starting before 6 p.m is considered a day game, and all World Series games will start before 6 if it’s a Bay Area Series.