THE WORLD SERIES - OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS - Butler Finds Himself in Familiar Role - Giants: San Francisco leadoff batter has some flash and dash but is overshadowed by brilliance of Oakland counterpart, Rickey Henderson.

The other leadoff hitter in the 1989 World Series brings some of the same flash and dash as his illustrious counterpart.

He, too, can jive with the fans.

He, too, has been called arrogant. He, too, has a showman’s instinct, once thinking he wanted to be traded to the Dodgers so that he could pursue an acting career in Hollywood.

It’s just that now, when it comes to renown, when it comes to pre-Series ballyhoo, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics is the Golden Gate of leadoff hitters and Brett Butler of the San Francisco Giants is the Bay Bridge.

For Butler, there is nothing new in the role, only some familiar motivation.

Once again he is the kid growing up in nearby Fremont and being told he is too small.

Once again he is the college dreamer, drafted only because a scout for the Atlanta Braves is a close friend of his coach at Southeastern Oklahoma State.

“I had to be flamboyant as a kid to get noticed,” the 5-foot-10, 160-pound Butler said Friday.

“Now you can let Rickey have all the flamboyance and attention. He’s the elite of what we do. Give him the spotlight and I’ll be the cameraman.

“I mean, I’ve been in these shadows before. I’ve been told I couldn’t make it, that I was too small, that I couldn’t do this or that. I relish the role. It’s always been an incentive for me.”

Butler’s role is that of the Giants’ table setter for Robby Thompson, Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell and Matt Williams.

His acquisition as a free agent in the winter of 1987 provided a dimension similar to what Henderson provided the A’s when acquired in a June trade with the New York Yankees.

The Giants had used 12 leadoff hitters while winning the title in the National League East in ’87. Butler replaced the revolving door.

He batted .287, scored 109 runs and stole 43 bases in 1988. He batted .283, scored 100 runs and stole 31 bases this year.

Whereas Henderson has that rare blend of power and speed, having hammered 138 homers and stolen 871 bases, Butler has increased his on-base opportunities by becoming one of the major leagues’ foremost exponents of bunting.

In seven seasons, he has 37 home runs and 136 bunt singles, 43 of those in his two years with the Giants.

“Rickey will get 25 homers a year and I’ll get 25 bunt singles,” Butler said. “You’ve got to know your limitations. I don’t have his home run ability, but he doesn’t have my bunting ability--or at least he doesn’t like to bunt.”

And each to his own straw.

“Opposing pitchers know Brett will do anything to stir it up,” veteran Giant catcher Bob Brenly said. “We’ve seen the third baseman play in, and he still bunts it in his face.”

With all acknowledged leadoff hitters, there is a sense of confidence, a belief they can reach base by any means, the desire to torment the opposing pitcher.

If, in Butler’s case, there is also a degree of arrogance, it may have stemmed from that long joust with the windmills about his size.

“There’s nothing wrong with being confident if you can back it up,” he said. “If arrogance plays a part, then I guess I’m arrogant, but I’d prefer to call it desire. No one has more.

“Rickey likes to put on a show and that’s fine. For me, I’ve got to spark my club and get the job done.

“Showmanship to me means playing hard.”

Butler batted only .211 in the five-game playoff against the Chicago Cubs, but of the seven times he reached base on a hit or walk, he scored six times, second on the club to Clark’s eight.

Henderson, of course, had one of the greatest playoffs ever.

“Everyone on our team respects him, but you can’t respect him to the point where you’re scared of him,” Butler said. “He walked seven times in the playoffs. He uses his flamboyance as an intimidation to get in the pitcher’s head. You’ve got to let him make his outs. You’ve got to prevent the walks. Rickey used his flamboyance to rattle the Toronto pitchers.”

There is more to Henderson than the showman, of course. The greatest leadoff hitter ever? Butler cited Henderson’s power and said he always thought of Henderson as a No. 3 hitter who happens to bat leadoff--Bobby Bonds being a similar case.

Is the role changing then? Butler nodded and said:

“When people talk about me as being a consummate leadoff hitter, it’s a throwback to the days when they only used Punch and Judy hitters at the top of the lineup.”

Butler is 32. He was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Fremont as a fan of both the Giants and A’s. He remembers sitting in the right-field bleachers at the Oakland Coliseum as a member of Reggie’s Regiment, providing support to Reggie Jackson.

However, he idolized Pete Rose’s desire and Willie Mays’ defensive skills.

“I remember someone saying that Willie’s glove was a place where triples went to die and I dreamt of someone saying the same thing about me some day,” he said. “It was as if I grew up with the Giants, so that when I returned it was like coming full circle.”

First, however, Butler spent parts of three seasons in Atlanta, where he often felt more like Rhett than Brett Butler.

The organist played “Tara’s Theme” each time he came to the plate, owner Ted Turner called his wife Scarlett instead of Eveline and Butler often considered reporting to work in a white plantation hat and suit.

After the Braves gave up Butler and Brook Jacoby for pitcher Len Barker, Butler spent four seasons in Cleveland, where he was frustrated by management’s refusal to spend the money to build a winner and by recurring rumors that he was going to be traded to the Dodgers.

Free agency finally represented a way out, and Butler said he signed with the Giants in the wake of their ’87 division title because of club president Al Rosen’s conviction that he represented the missing element.

“Clubs like Cleveland and Seattle should sit back and ponder what Al Rosen and (owner) Bob Lurie and (manager) Roger Craig have done here since 1985, when they lost 100 games,” Butler said. “Every time they’ve needed a player, they’ve gone out and gotten him.

“They signed me as the leadoff hitter. They traded for Steve Bedrosian as the bullpen stopper. I’m sure that before next season they’ll have a new right fielder, if that’s what they deem they need.

“When players feel that management wants to win as much as they do, it makes for a very positive atmosphere.”

Craig calls Butler a team leader, the best leadoff man he has had, and a better defensive player than Henderson.

The San Francisco center fielder has obviously come a long way from the young Giant fan who was so hyperactive that he would feign sickness to get out of class and then run through school halls, releasing his energy.

Now Butler has it channeled in such a way that at one point in Game 5 of the playoffs he ran to his position in center field, shaking his fist to awaken fans who were displaying, in his words, an air of uncertainty, fearing the possibility of a comeback by the Cubs.

It may not have been Rickey Henderson dancing to the beat of the Oakland organist, exchanging needles with the partisan fans in the Toronto SkyDome or tiptoeing into second base with another successful steal, but it was an example of how the other leadoff man in this World Series can contribute with more than his bat.