NOTEBOOK : Sanders Remains on Braves’ Roster

Despite controversy over Deion Sanders’ decision to play both for the Falcons and the Braves last Sunday, the outfielder will be on the Braves’ World Series roster, according to Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox.

Cox on Friday ended speculation that the Braves might remove Sanders from their postseason roster to express their displeasure over Sanders’ decision to leave the team, travel to Miami to play against the Dolphins, and return to Pittsburgh for Game 5 against the Pirates.

Cox also said the Braves didn’t wait for Sanders to tell them which sport he would play Sunday. A repeat of his two-sport day is impossible, because the Falcons will play at San Francisco and Game 2 of the World Series will be played in Atlanta.

“Deion is definitely on our roster. There was never any doubt he wouldn’t be,” Cox said. “I don’t know about (Sanders making) a football call.”

Said General Manager John Schuerholz: “We just assume he’ll be here. That’s the same assumption we made before.”

CBS broadcaster Tim McCarver, who complained to National League officials after Sanders doused him with water three times during Atlanta’s pennant-clinching celebration, said Friday he wouldn’t comment further on his protest. McCarver had criticized Sanders for leaving the Braves to play football and believed Sanders was responding to that criticism.

NL President Bill White reviewed tapes of the incident and said that no action will be taken until after the Series.

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The only roster change the Braves are considering involves left-hander Kent Mercker, who suffered a rib injury during the celebration that followed the Braves’ pennant-clinching victory. However, Cox said Mercker appeared to have no problems while throwing in the bullpen Friday was likely to remain on the roster. If Mercker can’t pitch, Alejandro Pena would replace him.

Blue Jay Manager Cito Gaston said his team has no injuries, but he is considering a roster change to add infielder Rance Mulliniks, who spent 11 years with the Blue Jays but had back problems for most of this season. Gaston said he wouldn’t open a spot by reducing his pitchingstaff from 10 to nine, but he wouldn’t specify his other options. The teams have until today’s opener to submit their rosters.

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Blue Jay General Manager Pat Gillick still harbors some resentment toward the Braves for their dealings with Cox, who was managing the Blue Jays during the 1985 American League playoffs when Atlanta approached him about becoming general manager of the Braves.

Gillick said he wouldn’t have prevented Cox from leaving but said that instead of talking to Cox during the playoffs, the Braves should have shown “some sort of professional courtesy” and waited until Toronto’s series against the Kansas City Royals concluded. The Blue Jays led that series, 3-1, but lost the last three games.

“At that point, we were in the midst of a seven-game playoff for the league championship and we thought the Braves would have had enough feeling for us to wait until the thing was over with,” Gillick said. “We had never been there (in the playoffs) before and you’d think they would wait before they’d talk to the guy about another job. If he wants to go, he wants to go. We never stopped anybody.”

Asked if the Braves’ action had undermined the Blue Jays’ effort against the Royals, Gillick said: “I would think so. It didn’t help us.”

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In deciding today whether to go with a three-man rotation--as he did during the playoffs--or expand the rotation to four, Gaston said he would huddle with the scouts who watched the NL playoffs for the Blue Jays. However, he reiterated that he probably will go with four by adding left-hander Jimmy Key. Todd Stottlemyre is also a possibility, which would give the Blue Jays an all right-handed rotation.

“I’m still leaning toward four. That’s what I think we should do, but this organization, we’re all here together,” Gaston said. “If the scouts say ‘We should throw in a left-hander,’ we’ll do it. But if they say to go with three, we might do that. I do probably have the final say. I’m going to take the rap, wrong or right.”

Another decision he faces is how to get by without a designated hitter in the games played at Atlanta. Gaston probably will move Joe Carter from right field to first base in place of John Olerud and play 41-year-old Dave Winfield in right field, where Winfield filled in for Carter when Carter was injured early in the season.

Another choice would have Carter play left field, Winfield in right and Olerud remaining at first. “It certainly is something to really think about,” Gaston said. “I’m pretty sure Winfield will be in the lineup. . . . What I really have in mind is maybe, against left-handers, sitting John and playing Candy (Maldonado, the left fielder) and against right-handers, the other way around.”

Carter said he wouldn’t mind moving to first, although he only played four games there this season. “If I had to play first, I’d feel comfortable,” he said. “The main thing is to act like you belong there. Then, soon enough, you feel like you belong there.”

Cox said for his DH in Toronto, “I’m leaning 100% toward Lonnie Smith. The guy can hit right-handers or left-handers.” Statistics don’t bear that out: Smith batted .226 against right-handers and .277 against left-handers.

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Carter and center fielder Devon White sported new haircuts during the Blue Jays’ workout Friday. Each had a Blue Jay emblem shaved into the side of his head, Carter on the right side and White on the left.

“We just wanted to get all you guys to look at us and put the camera on us,” Carter told a group of reporters. “This is a team thing and whatever it takes to win the World Series, we’re going to go out and do it.”

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The Braves saw enough of Jack Morris during last year’s World Series, when Morris--then with the Minnesota Twins--started the first, fourth and seventh games and shut them out for 10 innings in the Series finale.

Morris will start today’s opener, facing Tom Glavine this time instead of repeating last year’s matchup with John Smoltz.

“It’s kind of strange,” Brave second baseman Mark Lemke said of facing Morris in the World Series in two consecutive years, “but Jack’s a winner and Jack’s a tough competitor, so it doesn’t surprise me he’s on the AL championship team.”

Said Smoltz: “I’m sure Tom Glavine will do a superb job and he’ll be able to do what I couldn’t do last year, that is, beat Jack Morris.”

Morris was 2-0 with one no decision against the Braves in the Series. He gave up 18 hits and three runs in 23 innings for an earned-run average of 1.17 and was voted the most valuable player of the Series. Morris, who also pitched for the 1984 World Series champion Tigers, is the only Toronto pitcher with World Series experience.

Morris, 37, said his memories of the seventh game last year “are always there. It’s like yesterday. Just the celebration of the team and the city. Winning it and having my two sons there and having them see it, those were the best things.”

Although Morris is with a different team, the Braves are much the same as they were a year ago. The major exception is center fielder Otis Nixon, who last year was serving a drug-related suspension during the World Series.

“We’ve got to try and keep him off the bases, but other than that, it’s the same lineup,” Morris said. “The bottom line is I’ve got to be aggressive and throw strikes.”

Brave first baseman Brian Hunter said he regards this as a chance for redemption. “We came up a run short last year,” he said. “I thought we were the better team, but Morris just pitched a great game.”

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No matter the outcome of this series, Gillick intends to retire after the 1994 season. “Unless I go before that or something happens before that,” he said, smiling. “I just see guys who hand around too long and I don’t want to hang around too long. Players and management are the same. You let players get too old or management get too old, you run into problems.”

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Francisco Cabrera, whose hit Wednesday put the Braves into the Series, was given a certificate of honor from Georgia’s Secretary of State and heard Governor Zell Miller declare Thursday, “I’m not only proclaiming this Francisco Cabrera Day in Georgia, I’m proclaiming this Francisco Cabrera year.”

Cabrera hopes that his hit will improve his chances of getting into the Series. “I really want to play them and show them I can play here,” he said.

The Blue Jays weren’t overly impressed by what he showed them when he played in their minor league system. Cabrera, 26, began his career with the Blue Jays and was traded to Atlanta with Tony Castillo for Jim Acker on Aug. 29, 1989.

“When Cabrera was hitting, I thought Atlanta was going to win,” Gillick said of the Braves-Pirates playoff game. “It’s sort of ironic that happened. He was a high fastball hitter and (Pirate reliever Stan Belinda) got the ball up a little bit and he drove it.”

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Former President Jimmy Carter and Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., will throw out the ceremonial first pitches for Games 1 and 2, respectively. . . . This is the sixth World Series appearance for the Boston-Milwaukee-Atlanta Braves. They are 2-3, having won in 1914 in Boston and 1957 in Milwaukee.