ANALYSIS : A Homer, a Mistake Give Reds the Title

Imprints and impressions from the 1990 World Series:

--Eric Davis, continuing to recover Sunday from a severe kidney bruise in an Oakland hospital, may have absorbed the heaviest hit of the Series, but he also delivered the biggest. His two-run homer in the first inning of Game 1 might not have deflated the Oakland Athletics to the same extent that Kirk Gibson’s dramatic homer in Game 1 of the 1988 Series did, but it probably inflated the Cincinnati Reds and quickly shattered the A’s invincibility.

There was one other pivotal moment. It came in the eighth inning of Game 2, with one out, a runner at second, Bob Welch batting and the A’s leading, 4-3. Welch was pitching efficiently but not spectacularly and scheduled to face the torrid Billy Hatcher, who had already doubled twice and singled off him, as the leadoff batter in the bottom of the eighth.

With an off day the next day and the option of using Dennis Eckersley for two innings, Manager Tony La Russa disdained a pinch-hitter and used up the second out by allowing Welch to sacrifice. The A’s stranded the runner, and Hatcher tripled off Welch to open the bottom of the inning, eventually scoring the tying run and ultimately forcing La Russa to use Eckersley in a still-tied situation in the 10th inning, when the Reds won, 5-4.

La Russa’s failure to pursue the extra run while hanging with Welch, who averaged fewer than seven innings and completed only two of 35 regular-season starts, seemed to characterize the A’s strange absence of aggressiveness and vitality. Then again, a .207 team batting average may be synonymous with lifelessness.

--Dave Stewart is right. The results of a seven-game series should not erase the accomplishments of a 162-game season, which in the A’s case represents three consecutive American League pennants and 306 regular season victories.

But by losing the 1988 Series to the undermanned Dodgers and the 1990 Series to the underdog Reds, the A’s have raised the possibility that they are dominating a league of stiffs. The less-than-terrifying Chicago White Sox were the next best AL team in 1990, and they were 8-5 against the A’s, which may have been an overlooked barometer.

By any measure, third baseman Carney Lansford said it better than Stewart.

“I felt coming into this World Series that in order to be classified as a great team, as a special team, we would have to win it,” Lansford said after Game 4. “If you lose two out of three World Series, you can’t be looked on as a great team yet.”

--The one disturbing aspect of the Reds’ triumph is that owner Marge Schott is certain to receive some credit.

If anything, the chain-smoking, penny-pinching holder of the Reds’ leash may have delayed success with budgetary interference that undermined the developmental system and front-office stability.

If anything, she has jeopardized the Reds’ chances to repeat because of the skeletal nature of the farm system stemming from the constant defection of scouts and developmental people during her eight years as owner.

Consider that she has had four general managers in the last five years and five traveling secretaries in the last six. Consider the more than 20 scouts who have quit since Schott became owner and the almost total turnover of the front office.

Consider this: There were 11 farm products on the World Series roster. Of the eight scouts who signed them, only two remain with the Reds.

How is it under Schott?

Consider only the World Series, generally a time when the involved organizations celebrate in totality.

Schott, however, told her scouts she would pay only half the fare to Oakland, and they weren’t brought to Cincinnati until the Tuesday of the first game, meaning they missed the pre-Series gala just so she could save one night of hotel bills.

In addition, she gave so few tickets to members of the organization that even general manager Bob Quinn had to go to other organizations to see if he could get more.

The bottom line goes beyond profits and losses. The mistreated farm system, at this point, has only one player, pitcher Chris Hammond, given a chance to make the 1991 team, putting pressure on the Reds to sign their key free agents--Tom Browning, Danny Jackson and Bill Doran--and deal equitably (a word often missing from Schott’s vocabulary) with their 10 players who are eligible for arbitration.

--The Reds’ triumph represented vindication for Lou Piniella, who kept saying that he didn’t come to Cincinnati to prove he could manage but to prove he could win. Piniella--in his own mind, if not George Steinbrenner’s--had proved he could manage in New York. Now he has won.

There were times in a stumbling second half that Piniella seemed ready to blow, but his contributions in three areas were pivotal, former Reds Hall of Famer Johnny Bench said.

While acknowledging that the Reds were ready for a change in the wake of the Pete Rose tenure, Bench cited: (1) Piniella’s belief from the start that the Reds could win and the players’ acceptance of that belief; (2) the restoration of communications and a hands-on style of managing and (3) the use of the entire roster, making every player feel important.

Bench insisted he was not surprised by the Series victory, having picked the Reds to win in six. The overlooked factor, he said, was the injuries to the pitching staff in the second half and the recent return to health.

“If Jack Armstrong alone had any kind of second half the Reds win (the division) by 12 to 15 games and they’re not an underdog to anyone,” Bench said.

--Jimmy Stewart, who compiled the Reds’ scouting reports on the A’s, said he told Piniella going in that the Reds could win, a belief supported, he said, by Dodger scout Mel Didier, who told Stewart that the Reds have the caliber of pitching to trouble the A’s, as the Dodgers did in ’88.

All of that is fine, but the A’s have a legitimate rebuttal regarding 1990: How would the Reds have translated Stewart’s reports if Jose Canseco hadn’t been struggling with injuries, if Dave Henderson had been completely recovered from knee surgery and if switch-hitting Walt Weiss had been able to play?

Said Stewart: “Thank goodness we didn’t see the real Canseco because he can definitely make a difference.”

--A final word from Todd Benzinger of the Reds:

“What we had this season was a great start, a great finish and a whole lot of mediocrity in between.

“If you discounted us, for some reason, that’s when we played our best. We were picked to finish fifth in the division and came out 33-12. We had a huge lead cut to 3 1/2 games, then won eight of nine. We were an underdog to Pittsburgh in the playoffs and beat them, then a bigger underdog to Oakland and beat them. We excelled when the chips were down, and look where we are.”