BASEBALL PLAYOFF REPORT : NATIONAL LEAGUE : Taking Risks Pays Off for Braves, Pirates

If it is true that champions must be willing to take risks, then both the Atlanta Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates qualify.

Both teams were built by club officials who were not afraid to take chances with trades and draft picks:

--The Braves drafted Ron Gant in the fourth round of the 1983 draft, even though he wasn’t listed as a draftable player by the Major League Scouting Bureau.

--The Braves drafted David Justice in the fourth round in 1985 after spotting him playing basketball.

--The Braves drafted Steve Avery in the first round in 1988, even though their other leading candidate, Mark Lewis, hit four home runs in two days before the draft.

--The Pirates traded for Jay Bell in 1987, when he had a .223 career average and double-figure errors at every level.

--The Pirates were willing to give up a No. 1 draft choice, pitcher Kurt Miller, and top pitcher Hector Fajardo for Steve Buechele.

“You have to trust your instincts, and you have to be aggressive,” said Larry Doughty, Pirate general manager.

Doughty followed his own advice when he acquired Bell from the Cleveland Indians in 1987 for Felix Fermin.

Today, the deal seems like a steal because Bell hit a career-high 16 home runs with 67 runs batted in this season, then batted .476 in the first five games of the playoffs.

But back in ‘87, it seemed that only Doughty and scout Ken Parker in Pensacola, Fla., believed.

Doughty, a former scouting director, had liked Bell as a high school player several years earlier. “First time I saw him, he hit a 420-foot home run onto the roof of a school during batting practice,” Doughty said.

Parker, who had been working with Bell and other local players during the winter, thought he was a much better fielder than advertised.

“Kenny would keep saying, ‘The kid is coming on, he’s coming on,’ ” Doughty said. “I remembered that when I had seen him, he had sweet hands. So we decided to go for him.”

Paul Snyder, a Brave assistant vice president who helped build their team as a scouting director, remembers the same feeling when scouting Gant in Victoria, Tex.

“His ability was very crude, he had not been refined, he wasn’t on anybody’s list,” Snyder said. “But he was one of those high school kids where there was a high ceiling. We could see something in him.”

It was the same thing they saw in Justice, who was spotted by scout Harold Cronin, who was also an opposing basketball coach in a Cincinnati city league.

“He didn’t play baseball until he was 18, but we knew all about him,” Snyder said. “When a kid has that much ability, you notice. Then he started playing baseball. First game we saw him, he went nine for 11.”

Such decisions are not always made easily. Seven Braves’ officials huddled on the eve of the 1988 draft after seeing heroics by high school stars Lewis and Avery on consecutive days.

While Lewis had hit four home runs in two days in Hamilton, Ohio, Avery had pitched a great game in cold weather, then made two outstanding throws from the outfield the next day in the Michigan state tournament. “It was a real battle over whom we wanted,” Snyder said. “Avery won by one vote.”

This playoff series has helped Snyder appreciate the rewards of such decisions. He said he gets emotional just watching his young stars. “It makes you cry, I can flat tell you that,” Snyder said. “It brings tears to your eyes.”

There have been 137 postseason series in major league baseball, but this is the first one to have three final scores of 1-0. . . . Alejandro Pena’s save was his third of the series. That tied an National League playoff record shared by Pittsburgh’s Dave Giusti (1971), San Francisco’s Steve Bedrosian (1989) and Cincinnati’s Randy Myers (1990). . . . Pena was acquired from the New York Mets on Aug. 29, and proceeded to save 11 games in as many opportunities. . . . Ron Gant of the Braves also set a record with six stolen bases, topping the record held by two Dodgers, Davey Lopes (1981) and Steve Sax (1988). . . . Sixty of Avery’s first 88 pitches were strikes. . . . Two games ago, Barry Bonds of the Pirates joked that he might be hitting .200--”but it’s a hard .200.” One game ago, Bonds joked again that he was down to .150--”but it’s a hard .150.” Bonds, now three for 23 in the series, is hitting .130. He was in no mood after Wednesday’s game for jokes. . . . Gant on losing pitcher Doug Drabek: “I’ll tell you what, he’s got more courage than any pitcher I’ve ever seen. He’s out there on a bad leg and he still had great stuff. He’s definitely one of the best pitchers in baseball.”