THE WORLD SERIES : OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS : Vincent Meets First Real Test : Commissioner: He knew he would be open for criticism, no matter what ruling he made on the World Series.

There was a no-win aspect to Fay Vincent’s decision.

It was there regardless of what the commissioner of baseball elected to do with the 1989 World Series.

Move it out of the earthquake-devasted Bay Area? Cancel it out of respect for the victims and the community? Resume it at what seems to be an appropriate time?

Vincent was vulnerable to public and media criticism and knew it.

“Dean Acheson’s great aphorism always comes to mind in a situation like this,” Vincent said Thursday as he relaxed in his suite at a Union Square hotel.

“When in doubt, do the right thing,” Vincent said, quoting the former secretary of state and obviously believing that he has done just that.

Game 3 of the Series, originally scheduled for last Tuesday night at Candlestick Park and postponed because of the earthquake that rocked Northern California just before game time, remains tentatively rescheduled for next Tuesday.

Vincent reached that decision Wednesday after a series of meetings with stadium, team and city officials.

On Thursday, he received assurance from Candlestick authorities that the minor repairs and cleanup will be done by Monday.

The game will be on for certain if word comes by then that the city can supply the necessary power, water and police force.

In the meantime, Vincent isn’t second-guessing his decision.

He cited a catalogue of historical precedent for resuming the Series and believes that the timing shows a sensitivity to the community’s obvious priorities.

To cancel it, he believes, would have been premature and called for the assumption that the community wanted it canceled, an assumption, Vincent said, that he was not prepared to make.

“I think I saw from the beginning that the best course for me was to take it day by day,” he said.

“I’m comfortable with what I’m doing because I know it’s the proper course. I have to be certain we’re not playing at an imprudent time. I don’t believe we will be, but that will be determined over the weekend.

“We’re getting advice, monitoring the situation on a daily basis.”

To cancel it, Vincent believes, would have also “flied in the face” of history--baseball’s and the world’s.

He cited the fact that the Series, once started, has never been canceled and that in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt called in Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, then the commissioner, and instructed him to play the season in spite of Pearl Harbor and World War II.

“In the President’s view, America needed baseball,” Vincent said. “There was a major problem in the world, but baseball should be played, he felt. That was a very important judgment.

“The British didn’t close their movie theaters during the Blitz, and the reason was a clever one. They felt people needed to do things other than confront their problems.

“I think the human response to carry on is a very powerful one. One doesn’t lightly give up on a program like this (the World Series). I think the nobler parts of history and the nobler activities involved those who carried on despite adversity, in a tasteful and appropriate manner.

“My own view is that if we can be sure that what we’re doing is appropriate from a community and environmental point of view, then the baseball decision will be very straightforward.”

Cynics would suggest--and have already done so--that history and healing aside, the decision to resume the Series was motivated by money and ABC.

Vincent, however, said that the network was not represented in the meeting at which the decision was reached, and that Curt Gowdy Jr., the ABC producer, told him the network would support any decision.

“Money, of course, was some factor, but there were others much more important,” Vincent said. “There is a basic tendency for all institutions to carry on--as the British say, ‘Muddle through.’ And I think for historical and baseball-oriented reasons it was very important to finish the World Series.

“Also, it so happens, there is a lot of money at stake.

“But, as you know, we’ve already played two games. It’s not as if a significant portion of the World Series hasn’t already been played.”

For a baseball fan named Francis T. Vincent Jr., the last two months have not been easy.

The death of Bart Giamatti represented the loss of his best friend and confidant, and eventually thrust the deputy commissioner into Giamatti’s job as commissioner.

Knowing now that he must still deal with what is expected to be difficult and, perhaps, bitter collective bargaining negotiations, Vincent has seen the parochial joy of this Bay Area Series shaken by a murderous roll of nature, forcing his first major decision amid a tragic atmosphere.

“I don’t think I’d be human if I didn’t think about what’s happened to me recently,” he said. “I still find it astonishing I’m the commissioner.”

A graduate of the Yale law school, Vincent worked with the Securities and Exchange Commissioner and later became president of Columbia Pictures.

His current astonishment stems from two factors, he said.

“The more generic is that none of us ever expects to do this kind of thing, to be in a position you had no reason to anticipate. Did Mickey Mantle grow up expecting to play center field for the New York Yankees?

“The other, of course, is that Bart’s death was such a shocking, unlikely and unexpected event. We were so close and having so much fun that I miss him tremendously.

“But I’m here and I think to myself, ‘I’m sure Bart would be supportive.’ I feel comfortable with the fact I’m here. It feels perfectly all right to me.”

One reason for that, Vincent said, is that a career in leadership and decision-making roles has prepared him for the current task.

“I’m comfortable on the hot seat because I’ve been there before,” he said. “I don’t mind acting. I don’t mind making decisions. I think I’m very fortunate to be in a position I enjoy.

“I don’t mind the responsibility. It’s like Truman said about getting out of the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat.

“I mean, nobody should take this job without realizing you’re going to have to deal with difficulties and you’re going to take some very good criticism and shots for doing it.

“Yet there’s a lot to be said for the attempt. I used to tell Bart during the (Pete) Rose circumstance that in a way we had a major problem but that another way to look at it was that it was terrific to be here and terrific to be dealing with it.

“I think Bart and I really enjoyed the challenge, and I don’t find this anything other than a difficult challenge.”

There was a time when Vincent went through his own healing process--and baseball helped.

He slipped off an icy balcony in college and was bed-ridden for a year, paralyzed for a time, forced through a difficult rehabilitation process.

He now walks with a cane and remembers how the nightly baseball broadcasts helped him endure that year of inactivity. Maybe the Bay Area can find some of that same medicine in the World Series.

The man who made the decision to resume it here sat in his hotel suite Thursday and talked about possibilities.

“It’s a great country,” Vincent said. “When you think about guys like Bart and myself starting out as financial aid students and ending up doing what we were doing, it’s not bad. We were very blessed.

“It’s a heck of a good environment that let’s us get this far.”