NOTEBOOK : Reuschel Shuts Up as He Is Preparing to Shut Down A’s

Rick Reuschel, today’s starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants in Game 2 of the World Series, will be one day shy of his 40th birthday when he takes the mound. That will make him the oldest pitcher to start a World Series game in 60 years, and the third oldest overall.

But that doesn’t mean he’s mellowing.

Reuschel, who promised reporters “minimum cooperation” during the playoffs, apparently has changed that edict to no cooperation for the World Series as he didn’t show for his first news conference Saturday.

In his place was Giant pitching coach Norm Sherry, who was asked why.

“Rick is busy,” said Sherry, who was then asked how the introvert Reuschel handles the postseason pressure.

“The thing with Rick is, he doesn’t care who is hitting,” Sherry said. “He doesn’t care about the hitters names or where they are batting in the lineup. He pitches them all the same. That’s how he handles it.”

Sherry is referring to Reuschel’s off-speed pitches, which induce hitters into hitting grounders and looking silly. Sherry recently detected a flaw in Reuschel’s delivery that caused those pitches to hang, which happened when he was battered for five runs in one-third of an inning in Game 2 of the playoffs against the Chicago Cubs.

Sherry said he showed Reuschel the problem on a video tape.

“You know Rick,” Sherry said. “He just looked at me and kind of said, ‘OK.’ But he must have done something about it, judging by what happened in his next start.”

That was Game 5, in which Reuschel gave up one unearned run in eight innings to help the Giants to a 3-2, pennant-clinching victory.

The two oldest World Series pitchers are Jack Quinn of the Philadelphia A’s, who was 46 in the 1929 series, and Grover Alexander of the St. Louis Cardinals, who was 41 in 1928.

Today’s starter for the Oakland Athletics, Mike Moore, cannot remember what he was doing last year at this time. He only knows that, as a Seattle Mariner, he wasn’t watching the World Series.

“I was in Arizona with my family, just enjoying my off-season--and I was not watching baseball,” he said. “I play baseball for 162 games and if our season is done, I go home and do what I want to do.”

Moore signed with the A’s last winter after five seasons with the Mariners, only one of which was a winning one. This year he went 19-11 with a 2.61 ERA for the A’s, and had a postseason victory against the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of the American League series when he gave up three hits and one unearned run in seven innings.

“I don’t think there’s a clear-cut reason why I ended up doing better here,” Moore said. “There was a bunch of little factors--confidence, better run support, a winning team. But not one reason.”

The A’s are hoping that their scouting reports on the Giants are as successful as the Dodgers’ scouting reports that helped them beat the A’s last fall. But it won’t be as easy.

While the Dodger scouts followed the A’s through much of last season, Oakland scout Jeff Scott was only with the Giants the last 11 games of the season because of a scouting department shakeup.

“But I think it helps that we see them so much in spring training,” said Scott, who was joined for the last few Giants games by Ron Schueler, A’s special assistant to the president.

“Because of our spring games, basically our guys know who bats how, and who can throw, and that kind of thing,” Scott said. “It’s a lot different than last year, when you had two teams which had spring training in different states and had never seen each other.”

The Jose Hotline has to heard to be believed, but if you don’t have a few dollars to throw away, highlights from Saturday’s message are provided here as a public service.

First on the phone is Esther Canseco, Jose’s wife. Esther begins by reminding listeners of her appearance Saturday morning on a local television talk show--”If you saw it, you probably got a kick out of it”--and then reveals that her husband gears up for a World Series opener by sticking Fido in the refrigerator.

“He stuck my dog in the freezer last night,” Esther says, giggling. “No, not the freezer, the refrigerator. In the refrigerator.

“Then I caught him messing up my freezer and I asked him what he was doing. He said he was setting it up to stick my dog in the freezer. . . . He stuck my dog in the freezer for 30 seconds.”

At this point, Jose grabs the phone and says, “Don’t listen to her. Women love to exaggerate. One thing I know--you can’t get ‘em off the phone and you can’t get ‘em out of the mall.”

Enlightened Jose then discusses, in great detail, the intrasquad workout the A’s had Friday and how the A’s were “rusty” against the Dodgers last year and how “this year, we’re going to go all the way. An indication is how we did against the Giants in spring training. We beat them eight out of nine times--and Rickey Henderson wasn’t around at the time and I had my (wrist) injury at the time.

“We played them without several everyday players and with some reserves and did quite well. Hopefully, we can continue that.”

Jose then offers his World Series prediction--”I’m looking forward to the A’s winning in six games. . . . I’m looking forward to going to the White House, doing this, doing that and having a g-r-e-a-t time.”

Jose concludes his daily chat with some words of advice for all the Little Leaguers out there.

“Stay in school,” Jose said. “Say no to drugs. Stay in shape. And listen to your parents--if they make sense. Don’t listen to them if they’re crazy.”

Oh, and one more thing.

“Call tomorrow.”

How can anyone resist?

Giant starter Scott Garrelts sounded shell-shocked after allowing five runs (four earned) in four innings Saturday. He begins his first World Series with a 9.00 ERA after finishing his first National League Championship Series with a 5.40 ERA.

“I can’t understand it, I really wasn’t nervous,” Garrelts said. “OK, I got nervous after Henderson (Rickey) hit that 2-and-2 pitch in the second, after that I calmed down.”

Henderson’s RBI single in the second, for the record, occured on a 3-and-2 pitch. But you can’t blame Garrelts for not remembering much on a night when he allowed nearly as many homers (two) as the Giant pitching staff allowed in the entire five-game NL playoff (three).

“This night is gone, it’s over with, I’ve got to forget about it,” said Garrelts. “I got them to put the ball in play, but those balls found the holes. Then my main thing was keeping us out of three-run innings, but I couldn’t do that either.”

Giant Manager Roger Craig defended Garrelts, saying: “I thought he had his good stuff tonight. He just made some mistakes.”

The Athletics’ Jose Canseco, by going zero for three with a walk, is hitless in his last 21 World Series at-bats. His last and only World Series hit was the first-inning grand slam last October in Game 1 against the Dodgers.

Not only is this mark just bad, it’s approaching a record. The World Series record for consecutive at-bats without a hit is 31, by Detroit’s Marv Owen in 1934-35.

“I started with a grand slam and finished with nothing,” Canseco said of last year’s Series. “Maybe this time I’ll start with nothing and finish with a grand slam.”

The Giants’ Matt Williams, after going zero for four with two strikeouts against Dave Stewart Saturday, was asked whether the A’s superior pitching staff has intimidated the Giants.

“I never said they had a superior pitching staff,” Williams said. “I have yet to hear any of our coaches or players say the A’s have a better pitching staff.”

Somebody reminded Williams that Giant Manager Craig had been quoted as saying the A’s had a better pitching staff.

“Oh,” he said. “Well, I guess Roger knows what he’s talking about.”

Times staff writers Mike Penner and Ross Newhan contributed to this story.