BASEBALL / AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS : Oakland’s Lansford, Who Started With Angels, Announces Retirement

Third baseman Carney Lansford, who came back from reconstructive surgery on his left knee to hit .262 and drive in 75 runs this season, announced his retirement after the Oakland Athletics’ 9-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday.

Lansford, who played his first three seasons with the Angels, was in five AL playoffs--one with the Angels in 1979 and four with Oakland--and played in the 1988, ’89 and ’90 World Series. He retires with a .290 batting average over 15 seasons.

“I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish,” he said. “I never went out to get 3,000 hits (he has 2,074) and make the Hall of Fame. That was never my goal like it was for some guys, like the George Bretts and Robin Younts. . . . I have no regrets.”

Lansford wasn’t in Oakland’s starting lineup Wednesday, but he came in as a late-inning replacement for Jerry Browne. He would have been in the lineup today had the A’s extended the series.

Lansford, who paid tribute to former teammates Don Baylor, Joe Rudi, Darrell Evans and Jim Rice, said he had intended to retire after last season but wanted one last chance at a World Series. “The bottom line is I couldn’t have asked for anything else in my career,” he said.

*

Oakland left fielder Rickey Henderson, booed lustily by Toronto fans Wednesday, was praised by the Blue Jays for making the effort to visit their clubhouse to congratulate them.

Henderson, a .365 postseason hitter, had a nightmarish game Wednesday in the 9-2 loss that sent the A’s home. He struck out twice in going 0 for 4, misplayed Devon White’s first-inning pop fly into a two-base error and thwarted an Oakland double-steal attempt in the fifth inning when he stepped out of the batter’s box as Willie Wilson was taking off for third base and Lance Blankenship for second.

Each time Henderson took the field, the fans jeered, a barrage he took with a slight shrug toward his tormentors.

Henderson shooed away reporters who approached him in the A’s clubhouse. “It’s over with. Go over to the other side,” he said, pointing to the Blue Jays’ side of the stadium.

But Toronto left fielder Candy Maldonado wanted to add a last word. “He showed me a lot of class by doing that. He’s a great player and a great professional,” Maldonado said. “Between the lines, you compete hard, but he knows afterward you can show respect for someone, and I admire him for that.

“He’s one of the greatest players who ever played this game, and the fans shouldn’t judge him on one game of this series. They’ve got to remember he was the key guy in beating us in ’89. The way he played today shows you we are human, that we are not machines that you can program to do this and that.”

*

Blue Jay center fielder Devon White escaped injury Tuesday afternoon when a Mercedes-Benz being test-driven for him by a saleswoman skidded on a Toronto street, hit a light pole and rolled into a ditch.

White was sitting in the back seat of the car and his wife, Colleen, was in the front seat with Sandra Borden-Kofjman when the accident occurred. Borden-Kofjman apparently lost control of the car and it skidded about 400 feet before ending up in the ditch. All three occupants were wearing seat belts and no one was hurt. The car, which struck the pole rear-end first, was said to be worth $130,000-$150,000.

“I didn’t have time to think about getting scared,” said White, who credited the car’s seat belts for ensuring that he and his wife were unshaken. “I’m all right. I’m in the lineup.”

White was involved in an accident once before: when he was playing in the Angels’ minor league system, he took a team bus for a joy ride and wrecked it.

*

Right-hander Jack Morris will start Game 1 of the World Series. Morris threw in the Toronto bullpen after the game. . . . Willie Wilson’s third-inning steal was Oakland’s 14th in the series, an AL playoff record. The previous record of 13 was set by the A’s in 1989. . . . Mike Bordick, who led the A’s during the regular season with a .300 batting average, hit .053 (one for 19) against Toronto. . . . Dennis Eckersley tied Tug McGraw’s record by making 15 playoff appearances. . . . The 15 errors in the series was one short of the record for both teams set in 1986 by the Angels and Boston Red Sox. Eight by the Blue Jays ties the one-team record of Milwaukee (1982) and the Angels (‘86). . . . Toronto set a playoff record by hitting 10 homers in the series.