BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : America’s Team vs. Canada’s : AL Game 6: Toronto gets past Oakland, 9-2, to become the first Canadian team to advance to the World Series.

Blue Jay third baseman Kelly Gruber didn’t know whether to laugh at his good fortune Wednesday or cry over seven years of bad luck and bad playoff memories, so he did a little of both.

Smiling as he wiped his eyes, Gruber watched his teammates douse each other with champagne and exchange damp, joyful hugs to celebrate the 9-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics that ended the American League playoff series in six games.

Distancing himself from the revelry while he sorted out his emotions, Gruber called the moisture in his eyes “tears of excitement,” springing from regret over past failures and glee about the Blue Jays’ first World Series appearance.

“I’ve been here awhile and it’s been a long time coming. I can’t tell you how great this feeling is,” said Gruber, who hit .091 in the playoffs but won Game 2 with a two-run home run off Mike Moore. “Right now, I’m just thinking about the great teams that we had, the great players I played with who didn’t get this far. To be there now, this is such a gigantic step.

“Ever since I was an alternate in 1985, I knew I was with the right club. There were so many opportunities for us to do this--in ‘85, ’89 and last year--but it just didn’t happen right. We feel we deserve this one.”

They also deserve, they insist, to never again hear about the team’s seven-game playoff loss in 1985, the late division-race fade in 1987, the five-game defeat to Oakland in 1989 and last season’s five-game loss to the Minnesota Twins.

“Maybe I can read the papers again now,” said Manager Cito Gaston, who said he stopped reading the criticism that followed his every move. “This has been a hard road, but we finally made it. This year has not been easy, either, but these guys made it easier for me. It’s satisfying more than I can ever express.”

His players expressed if for him.

“Everybody said we will choke in the end. The monkey, we take it (off) our backs,” said second baseman Roberto Alomar, whose defense and .423 batting average won him the series most valuable player award. “I wasn’t here, but people always say we choke and choke and choke. Everywhere we go, that’s all they talk about. That’s over now.”

Said 41-year-old Dave Winfield, who will play in his first World Series since the one-for-22 performance in 1981 that led New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner to call him “Mr. May”:

“Something like this is great at any stage of your career, but I can really appreciate this. I put in so many long, hard years to get to this. Normally at this time of year, I’d be home watching these guys. To be here now and see all the hard work and contributions from everyone, you recognize that you don’t get this lucky that often.”

They weren’t just lucky, they were good--good enough to become the first AL East team to win the pennant in six seasons and the first Canadian team to play in the World Series. They won because of the depth of their pitching staff, whose 3.44 earned-run average in the series was well below Oakland’s 4.50; because of a balanced offense that had nine players drive in at least one run and because of a SkyDome crowd that on Wednesday numbered 51,335 but made the noise of many times that throng.

“I’m happy for everyone here, but I’m happiest for the fans,” said pitcher Dave Stieb, who was a member of the 1985 Blue Jay team that squandered a 3-1 lead to Kansas City, but who was left off the postseason roster this time because of elbow and back injuries.

“We should have won it for them in ‘85, and last year we probably should have won it for them,” he added, “but at least we did it this time.”

They earned it Wednesday by shelling Moore for six runs in 2 2/3 innings, including a two-run home run in the first inning off the previously muted (four for 21) bat of Joe Carter. Candy Maldonado added a three-run homer in the third to back the pitching of Juan Guzman, who held the A’s hitless until the fifth inning and scoreless until the sixth.

“I called my family in the Dominican Republic and told them, ‘Pray for me. We need to win this game,’ ” said Guzman, who struck out eight over seven innings and showed no adverse affects in pitching on three days’ rest. “I didn’t want to go to a seventh game because you never know what could happen. I wanted to win this one.”

Gaston said his pregame speech to Guzman consisted of saying, “He’s the boss in both English and Spanish, so he would understand.” And Guzman was the boss Wednesday, cutting the A’s hopes before they could take root.

“We were never in the game today,” said Dave Stewart, whose Game 5 victory Monday at Oakland prolonged the series. “I’d probably much rather lose, 9-2, instead of 1-0. If it’s 1-0, unless the other guy was superb, it means you probably missed some opportunities. That wasn’t the case today.

“What was important today was to just try to keep the game close. If we had done that, anything could have happened. Definitely, (Carter’s) home run was a big blow.”

For Carter, the home run was merely the fulfillment of a promise he made to teammate Derek Bell before the game. He told Bell he’d carry the team on his back, and he did that by slamming a 2-and-2 fastball from Moore 405 feet to center field.

The homer scored Devon White, who reached second base when Rickey Henderson dropped his leadoff fly ball to left field.

Carter heralded a 13-hit strafing of five Oakland pitchers. Oakland Manager Tony La Russa elected to walk Winfield in the third inning with a runner on second base and one out to create a matchup of the right-handed Moore against the left-handed Olerud, a strategy that backfired when Olerud doubled to right. Maldonado then smashed a 1-and-1 pitch 424 feet to right-center, giving Guzman a 6-0 lead.

“I couldn’t sleep last night, and all I could think about was doing something for this team because they’ve carried me all series,” said Carter, who admitted having copied his “I’ll carry you” pledge from a similar vow made by Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett before Game 6 of last year’s World Series. “I never gave up hope or confidence in myself, and I came to the ballpark today determined to do something.”

What Carter and the Blue Jays did, besides ending their own history of futility, was to stop a long and successful run by the A’s. With more than a dozen potential free agents on their roster, they are almost certain to be vastly different next season, losing perhaps as many as a half dozen of the core players who helped them win AL West titles in four of the last five seasons.

“With the Jose (Canseco) trade happening before the end of the year, we knew the changes were starting,” said Stewart, who is 35 but hopes to remain in Oakland and pitch for two more seasons. “Maybe there won’t be that many changes. We can only cross our fingers that there won’t be because this is a great group of guys.”

McGwire, who hit .150 and enjoyed only one big moment--a two-run home run in the series opener--acknowledged the likelihood that the A’s won’t be the same next season. He is among the potential free agents.

“This could be the last time a lot of us will be together, and to go out as a team like this, I have no complaints whatsoever,” he said. “This is the most satisfying year I’ve ever had professionally. It was a great series.”

“All of us tip our hats to Toronto. They played excellent baseball and they beat us to the punch today. They’re going to the World Series and the best of luck to them.”