World Series Should Go On, Players Agree

An overwhelming majority of the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants want the World Series to go on despite Tuesday’s disastrous earthquake, and they want it to be played in the Bay Area, a survey by the Associated Press has found.

Twenty-one of Oakland’s 24 players were surveyed Thursday, and all agreed with Commissioner Fay Vincent’s decision to resume the World Series next Tuesday. Twenty-one of San Francisco’s 27 players were surveyed by the AP, and outfielder Pat Sheridan was the only one who would have rather called it off.

“At one time or another, these games are going to be played, and we as professionals are going to have to play the best we can,” Oakland’s Walt Weiss said.

Giants slugger Will Clark said continuation of the Series might help people’s spirits during the recovery period.

“The fans here have supported these two teams,” the Giants first baseman said. “They catch a glimmer of the World Series and then to take it away from them wouldn’t be fair.”

The A’s practiced in the Coliseum on Thursday and the Giants played an intra-squad game in Candlestick Park. (Stories in Sports Section.)

“If you listen to the news accounts, they make it sound like the bay cracked open and everything slid in,” Giants pitcher Mike LaCoss said. “Yeah, there’ve been some deaths and some losses. But you have to pick up the pieces and start over again.”

Vincent said baseball will wait until at least Tuesday because he did not want “our modest game to intrude upon the community.” Most players agreed with that.

“I think it’s all right to wait seven days,” Jeff Brantley of the Giants said. “It’s hard to seem caring if you start right away.”

Sheridan expressed the lone dissent to the decision to go on.

“What would I do if it were my decision?” he said. “I probably would have gotten on the plane last night with my wife.”

His wife, Melanie, left Wednesday and returned to their home at Farmington, Mich.

Oakland catcher Terry Steinbach expressed strong reservations.

“I think it’s 50-50 as to whether the Series should be played,” he said. “Some people think it will be a lift.”

Mark McGwire said it was difficult for him to go on.

“To be truthful, it’s not going to be exciting,” the A’s first baseman said. “We’ll play the game, but it won’t be the same. Nobody wants to play it now. I wouldn’t play if they asked me today. We’re not in the mood to play baseball.”

McGwire and others also agreed with the decision to keep the World Series in the Bay Area.

“I don’t think that was a real alternative,” the Giants’ Brett Butler said of suggestions that the series be shifted to San Diego or Los Angeles.