NATIONAL LEAGUE NOTES : Rijo Seeks World Series Pay-Back Opportunity

Jose Rijo, the probable Game 1 starter for the Cincinnati Reds if they qualify for next week’s World Series against the Oakland Athletics, will be armed with more than his fastball and slider.

He also will carry a grudge.

“I want the A’s to know that they should have given me more of a chance to be myself,” said Rijo, who spent parts of three seasons with Oakland, in 1985-87.

“The A’s are a great organization, but they kept sending me up and down and kept trying to change me,” Rijo said. “I wanted to be myself, but they wanted me to be someone else. So I wanted out.”

Rijo said he asked for a trade, which was granted on Dec. 8, 1987, when he was sent to the Reds with pitcher Tim Birtsas for outfielder Dave Parker.

In 1985, after being acquired from the New York Yankees, Rijo split time between Oakland and triple-A Tacoma. In 1986, his only full season with Oakland, he went 9-11 with a 4.65 earned-run average. In ‘87, he again split time between the major and minor leagues.

One of Rijo’s most vivid, and cruelest, memories is of the period after he struck out 30 batters in two consecutive starts against Seattle in April, 1986.

“I remember because after that second game, I was sent to the bullpen,” he said. “I could never understand what they were trying to do with me.”

Rijo had particularly harsh words for A’s pitching coach Dave Duncan, whom he said never believed in him.

“I remember Duncan once said in the newspapers that Eric Plunk was developing better than me,” Rijo said. “He should never have said something like that; that wasn’t good for me to hear.”

Rijo gave an example of how he felt he would lose games because Duncan and A’s Manager Tony La Russa had no confidence in his pitch selection.

“I remember once I gave up a double and two RBIs on a change-up called from the bench . . . and then I gave up a home run on a curveball called from the bench,” Rijo said. “I didn’t have a good changeup or curveball then, and I don’t like to throw them now. Back then, they would not let me pitch.”

Rijo, who went 14-8 with a 2.70 ERA this season, said he can’t wait to face his old friends.

“I think it will be fun to face them--although I don’t know if it will be fun for them to face me,” he said.

Andy Van Slyke offered two solutions for the problems caused in the American League championship series Wednesday when Boston’s Roger Clemens was ejected for cursing plate umpire Terry Cooney from the mound.

“For situations like that, I think baseball needs a one-inning penalty box,” the Pirate outfielder said.

But seriously. . . . “I think the umpire should have gone to the mound like he was going to check the ball, and while he was out there, he should have said, ‘Roger, I know you are frustrated, you’re losing the series, you’re struggling . . . but I don’t need to hear your big mouth,’ ” Van Slyke said. “I think that would have kept everything cool.”

Marge Schott, owner of the Reds, looked at the scoreboard Wednesday, revealing that the Oakland Athletics were in the World Series, and she immediately had a brainstorm.

“You know what I want to do,” she said, “I think it would be a fun thing for all the boys to go onto the field before the first game of the World Series with Schottzie hats. Really. It would be so cute, wearing those flappy ears and everything.”

There’s one tiny flaw with her scheme.

No one’s willing to go along with it.

“She might pay me,” Red reliever Rob Dibble said, “but she’s not going to make a fool out of me.”

Said first baseman Todd Benzinger: “That’s wishful thinking on her part. Come on, we’re not idiots.”

Red Manager Lou Piniella even scoffed at the suggestion.

“We’re not going to do it, plain an simple,” he said. “End of subject.”

Pirate second baseman Wally Backman on what would happen if an umpire kicked starting pitcher Doug Drabek out of the game: “There would be about 15 people (swearing) at him, and then they’d have to run all us out of the game.”

Times staff writer Bob Nightengale contributed to this story.