THE WORLD SERIES : OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS : Rickey Henderson Goes for the Gold, and the Green

Rickey Henderson didn’t win the most valuable player trophy, which tells you all you need to know about how thoroughly the Oakland Athletics handled the San Francisco Giants in this World Series.

Henderson batted .474 during the four-game sweep of the Giants.

He stole three bases and scored four runs.

He had 17 total bases.

He became the first American League player since Baltimore’s Don Buford in 1969 to lead off a World Series game with a home run when he stung San Francisco’s Don Robinson in Game 4 Saturday night.

And after that, he chipped in with a run-scoring single and a triple that rounded out Oakland’s 9-6 championship-clinching victory at Candlestick Park.

And the A’s had someone better ?

Starting pitcher Dave Stewart was the one named the MVP, an election that might have been weighed with more than a few sympathy votes. Stewart wins 20 games every year, never wins the Cy Young Award, and he goes 2-0 in the American League championship series and 2-0 in the the World Series. Why not let him have the prize for once?

Henderson claimed he didn’t mind, which has to be an upset in itself. Henderson the Humble he is not, but Stewart, after all, is a buddy, an Oakland street kid like himself, and . . .

“He pitched two great ballgames,” Henderson said. “He deserves the MVP as much as anybody. But the way we played, you really just couldn’t pick out one guy who put the team on his shoulder.

“We’re a complete team and this team just played awesome.”

This is not to suggest, however, that Rickey is unaware of his value in the Oakland effort.

“Last year, I saw the things this team could do and I saw what they were missing, which was keeping them from being a complete team,” Henderson said. “They needed a leadoff hitter. And it so happened that they got one when they made that trade this summer.”

That trade, which reversed the 1984 deal that sent Henderson from Oakland to the New York Yankees, brought Rickey back to the Bay Area in exchange for a part-time outfielder (Luis Polonia) and two middle relief pitchers (Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk).

“I think I proved everybody wrong,” Henderson said. “Those people who were saying, ‘Rickey’s done, Rickey’s not getting things done anymore.’

“They made a mistake. I think they know they made a mistake. Deep down, I think George (Steinbrenner, Yankee owner) wishes he had a chance to say no to that trade again.”

Since returning to Oakland, the Rickey Show has certainly been something to behold.

In 85 regular-season games with the A’s, Henderson batted .294, scored 72 runs and stole 52 bases.

In Oakland’s five-game playoff victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, Henderson batted .400 with two home runs, five RBIs, eight runs and a record eight stolen bases--earning him the MVP award in that series.

And he helped do what the A’s failed to do in 1988--bring a World Series title to Oakland.

“I think he’s the single most devastating weapon in baseball,” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa said. “Put him in your lineup and he’s worth two or three runs. Then surround him with Canseco and McGwire and he’s going to get them runs, too.

“He’s got to be the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball.”

Yet, Henderson’s postseason performance served to rekindle an old criticism from his years in the Bronx, which glowed particularly bright during the final days before the trade:

Rickey is a great player . . . when he wants to be.

“People say what they want to,” Henderson said with a shrug. “Sometimes, I go out there and I don’t have the luck, and because I don’t steal 120 bases, people say I’m not trying.

“But I know every day I go out and give 100%. Sometimes I have great days, sometimes I have bad days. . . .

“A baseball season is 162 games. You’re going to have your up times and your down times. This year, I had my bad time at the start.”

And the best, to the Yankees’ chagrin, he saved until the end.

Henderson likes to call himself “a money player” and the A’s are about to test that notion in the truest sense of the term. Henderson becomes a free agent today and is not one given to sentiment or proximity to home or what’s-happened-to-me-lately.

“It doesn’t matter where I play,” Henderson said flatly. “You got to go where people want you. I hope Oakland is that team. But if not, I’ll have to move on.”

Aware of the significance of the winter ahead, ABC’s television crew thought it would make a cute shot to get Henderson and the A’s general manager, Sandy Alderson, together on the platform next to the championship trophy.

Alderson, flushed with the fruits of victory, agreed to play along and as soon as he climbed up to join Henderson, he threw an arm around his leadoff man and grinned.

“We can work this out right now,” he said.

Rickey smiled, too, and eventually had to admit that “Oakland has the best shot. I’ve got to listen to what they’ve got to say. . . . When I was traded here, it gave me new life. It gave me a chance to redeem myself.”

Both Henderson and Alderson know the price of such redemption. Does $3 million a year sound out of line?

Henderson only wants what’s coming to him. If not the MVP trophy, then bring on the cash. Green and gold aren’t his new colors for nothing.