NOTES : Is This Repeat of ‘88? Forget It, the A’s Say

There was no talk of a dynasty. Certainly, no one mentioned anything about being invincible. And for the first time in two years, there was some doubt whether the Oakland Athletics remain the favorite to win the World Series.

The Athletics, after losing, 7-0, to the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 Tuesday night, suddenly found themselves being asked whether this was 1988 all over again.

It was then that the Athletics stormed through the playoffs and were expected to sweep the Dodgers in the World Series. It was about a week later when they found themselves going home, losing the World Series, four games to one.

“I’m not going to go home and take a hot bath and slit my wrists,” said A’s starter Dave Stewart, “and I don’t think anyone else in here is either. It’s just one game, and it was probably my worse start in about, well, a long time.

“Sure, I didn’t think it’d happen, I didn’t think I’d get beat like that. But you know, this might be good for us. This might be a blessing for us. This might be the thing we need, having been kicked in the tail like that.”

Certainly, it was a stunning occurrence, considering that the Athletics had won 10 consecutive postseason games, outscoring the Boston Red Sox in the American League playoffs, 20-4.

But on this night, the Reds had four runs by the third inning, and made a rout of the game by the fifth. It was the largest margin of victory in a shutout in Game 1 of a World Series since 1982, when the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-0.

The Athletics weren’t even a threat. Their only opportunity to make a game of it was in the fifth, when Mark McGwire came up with the bases loaded. But he ended the inning by popping out to second baseman Mariano Duncan. McGwire went hitless in three at-bats, and is batting .125 in postseason without an extra-base hit.

“I could care less about playoff numbers,” McGwire said. “That doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. Things are so blown out of proportion. It’s five games. So damn what. But you get five games, World Series, and bingo, it’s blown out of proportion.

“They got some hits off Stew, and we didn’t hit well, but I’m telling you right now, Stew will be back, just like we’ll be back.”

Stewart, who was 22-11 during the regular season and had won his last six postseason games, probably was the biggest surprise of the night. He left after four innings, having yielded four hits, four walks and four runs. And it only got uglier after he left.

“Give him a break, he’s human, you can’t be shocked because he has one bad game,” A’s shortstop Mike Gallego said. “We’re not invincible. We can be beat. It’s just one of those things.”

It was his inability to throw the fastball for strikes that doomed Stewart. When he walked the second batter of the game, Billy Hatcher, the A’s knew it could be a long night. Stewart had walked only two batters in 16 innings during the playoffs.

“That was when I got real concerned,” said Dave Duncan, A’s pitching coach. “When Dave Stewart walks people, that’s totally out of character for him. And then the fastball he threw to (Eric) Davis, my God, it’s the type of pitch he should hit for a homer.”

It was Davis’ two-run home run in the first inning that ignited the Reds’ attack, and the A’s never recovered.

“We’re too good of a team to get down,” leadoff hitter Rickey Henderson said. “I guarantee you they’re (the Reds) not over there feeling confident. We’ve got a long way to go in this one, baby. We’re just getting started.”

Sandy Alderson, the Athletics’ general manager, on Charlie Finley, the former A’s owner who was known for being tight with his money during their dynasty in the 1970s:

“I think he was a good businessman, but it depends on how you define a good businessman. If all you care about is a profit, he looks like a very good one. But we define success more broadly than winning and losing games. We’re talking about employee standards and a community relationship.”

But can you be a good businessman without caring about employee relations?

“Sure, you can justify slavery on that basis, too. I could have never worked for that man.”

Dave Parker, formerly of the A’s and Reds, is covering the Series for a local television station. Will anyone refuse a request for an interview from the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Parker?

“Not if they have any sense, they won’t,” he said. “They’ll be responding to all my questions.”

Why in the world is he doing this in the first place, considering he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee a week ago to remove bone chips?

“To tell you the truth, I’m surprised how little they’re paying me,” he said. “I’ve made major money whatever I’ve done in my career, so why should that change now? Oh well, I’ve got nothing better to do with my time.”

And who is Parker rooting for?

“I’ve got mixed feelings each way,” he said. “I feel real close to Eric Davis because he’s like a son. So is Barry Larkin. But I’m so close to Dave Stewart, Carney Lansford and Rickey Henderson, I think I’ll be happy either way.”

Cincinnati pitcher Norm Charlton criticized CBS for setting so strict a time limit on the pregame ceremonies Tuesday that only the players in the starting lineups were introduced.

Traditionally, the reserves are introduced on TV after the starters, but that apparently couldn’t be squeezed in this time.

“I’m learning how good another network was and how committed to baseball another network besides CBS has been,” Charlton said. “We’ve got a lot of friends and family who would like to see us. What would it have taken, another five minutes?”

Don Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., said he has been contacted by Roger Clemens regarding the Red Sox pitcher’s ejection from Game 4 of the American League playoffs last Wednesday.

“It would be a very strange world if he got disciplined and an umpire who drops a player on his head doesn’t,” Fehr said, referring to an incident in which National League umpire Joe West slammed Dennis Cook--then of the Phillies--to the ground while breaking up a fight. West was not disciplined by the league in that case.

Marge Schott, owner of the Reds, stood in front of the crowd at Riverfront Stadium and announced that the World Series would be dedicated to the troops in the “Far East.” The last anyone knew, the U.S. troops were in the Middle East.

Times staff writer Helene Elliott contributed to this story.