BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : No 30-30, but Gant Hits Mark

Ron Gant emerged from the 1991 season in the rarefied company of Willie Mays and Bobby Bonds.

For three months of the 1992 season, however, misery was his only company.

As the Atlanta Braves rolled through the heart of summer on the strength of their pitching, Gant struggled with the weight of history.

Pressing to become the first player to hit 30 or more home runs and steal 30 or more bases in three consecutive seasons, Gant batted .199 in 72 games from June 8 to Sept. 9.

He went 30 games without a homer at one point and hit only four during the 72 games. Mays and Bonds, the only other players to have produced 30-30 in two consecutive seasons, understood, as did Clarence Jones, the Atlanta batting coach.

“Most of it was mental,” Jones was saying about Gant’s slump. “He had that 30-30 on his mind, and rather than letting it happen, he kept putting added pressure on himself, trying to force it. It wasn’t until the 30-30 was out of reach that he began to relax and regain his confidence, to swing the bat the way he can.”

Having hit .309 over the final 25 regular-season games, Gant continued to find his form Wednesday, another ominous note for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Atlanta left fielder hit the first grand slam of his career, against Bob Walk in the fifth inning, and singled to ignite a five-run seventh as the Braves demolished the Pirates, 13-5, for a 2-0 lead in the National League’s best-of-seven playoffs.

The Pirates headed home when it was over Wednesday, but they soon might be headed in other directions, failing for a third consecutive year to have reached the World Series after winning the NL East, their frustration epitomized by the averages of Barry Bonds, .157, and Andy Van Slyke, .159, in playoffs.

“I feel for them,” Pirate Manager Jim Leyland said. “They’re both trying to hit five-run homers.”

Gant knows the feeling, having tried to hit them during one of the deepest slumps of a career in which he has been no stranger to adversity.

It has been chronicled how he opened the 1989 season as the Atlanta third baseman but was demoted to Class A to become an outfielder after batting .172 with 16 errors in 60 games.

“That was about as low as anyone can go,” he said in the wake of Wednesday’s high. “I guess it served to condition me to what happened this year. It was frustrating as hell, but I knew that if I could come back from Class A at a new position, I could come back from a little slump.”

Gant smiled, knowing it had not been so little, knowing Jones was right, that he put too much pressure on himself in the quest for 30-30.

“No one has ever done it, and I wanted to do it,” he said. “That was a large part of what happened, but there was more to it.

“I mean, I knew I was going to start seeing a lot more breaking pitches this year and that I was going to be pitched away, so I concentrated on hitting to the opposite field and up the middle and got away from my strength, which is pulling the ball. I came out early every day and tried to work on it, but it wasn’t until 30-30 was out of reach that I began to relax and get back to my basics.”

Having hit 32 homers in each of the previous two years and stolen a total of 67 bases, Gant said 1992 was three seasons in one: a good start, bad middle and a good finish. He finished with 17 homers, 80 runs batted in and 32 steals. He is one of only five Braves--Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy and Wally Berger were the others--to have three consecutive seasons of 30 or more steals and 80 or more RBIs.

“Once 30-30 was gone, I concentrated on getting ready for the playoffs,” Gant said. “I feel I’m swinging as well as I ever have right now, that I have my confidence back.”

Gant still bears the scars of his slump, having been dropped to sixth in the batting order, but he was in the right place at the right time Wednesday, delivering the grand slam that extended an Atlanta lead to 8-0. That took on increased importance when the Pirates cut the deficit in half two innings later.

“I was looking for a fastball and got it,” Gant said of Walk’s 2-and-0 pitch. “He shattered my bat with a 3-and-1 fastball in my previous at-bat, so I expected him to come back with the same pitch.”

Gant pumped his arm as he rounded the bases and waved to his family when he reached the plate.

“My adrenaline was flowing,” he said, adding that the emotions of a struggling season erupted in tandem with the feeling that “you can never have too big a lead against the Pirates. I mean, I may have hit a grand slam in A ball once, but this was definitely the right time to get my first here.”

Three consecutive seasons of 30-30 is gone, but if Ron Gant is truly in gear again, it’s one more reason to believe it’s the Pirates who will be history.