BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Sanders Especially Troubling, but an Exceptional Athlete

John Schuerholz was talking about Deion Sanders the person. Bobby Cox was talking about Deion Sanders the athlete. Schuerholz suggested Tuesday night he has lost a measure of respect for Sanders. Cox seemed to say he has nothing but respect.

“He’s just a special athlete, he really is,” Cox said.

The special athlete known as Neon Deion lit up Game 3 of the World Series, but it was not enough to win a special kind of game for the Braves.

They lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2. They lost in the ninth inning again with Jeff Reardon again delivering the pitch that Candy Maldonado converted into the winning run.

It was a no-win proposition for Reardon. One out. Bases loaded. The outfield in. The Braves didn’t need a closer as much as they needed Houdini. They needed to get Sanders up again, as he would have been in the 10th, with his special kind of magic.

Say what you will about his ego and motivations--and Schuerholz seemed to--Sanders has shown he can handle two sports better than most athletes handle one.

Under the toughest kind of pressure, in the spotlight of the World Series, making his second consecutive start but only his third in the last 42 games, Sanders disregarded that lack of playing time, the tendinitis in his left foot (stemming from his first game with the Atlanta Falcons this year) and the weight of that jewelry store around his neck to:

Double, single twice, steal a base and score one of the two Atlanta runs. He is batting .571 in the Series, based on four for seven.

“He’s amazing,” Cox said. “He’s good enough to be an All-Star-quality player. He’s capable of hitting home runs and capable of stealing 60 to 80 bases. He just needs to play more and needs to make a decision soon.”

Cox meant a decision between baseball and football, but maybe the Braves also have to make one.

Because of the ongoing uncertainty of his availability, the Braves have privately said they did not intend to protect him in the Nov. 17 expansion draft, in which he could be picked by the Colorado Rockies or Florida Marlins.

It is uncertain if the Braves are rethinking that decision, but he may be giving them reason to, though Schuerholz wasn’t exactly emulating his manager’s effusiveness.

Schuerholz took a verbal shot before Game 3. It came in response to a Newsday story in which Sanders waived his policy of not talking to newspaper reporters to say he would never forgive Schuerholz for damaging his credibility.

Schuerholz did it, Sanders said, by telling reporters more than once in the last two weeks that Sanders had an agreement with the Braves to appear for them exclusively in the postseason.

Schuerholz has implied that Sanders broke the agreement when he left the Braves in Pittsburgh to play for the Atlanta Falcons in Miami on the Sunday before Game 5 of the National League playoffs, then rejoined the Braves at about the time Game 5 was starting.

Sanders, in a Newsday story, said he never committed to playing for the Braves exclusively, that his agreement was that he would play for them full time in the postseason, which technically he has. He added that he wasn’t scheduled to start Game 5 and missed only batting practice. He also said that Schuerholz has deliberately tried to make him look bad.

Said Schuerholz Tuesday night: “There are some people I respect and I would be hurt by their criticism, but he’s not one.”

He reiterated that the team’s concentration in the World Series is bigger than any one player, and added: “If a player tells me he’s going to be with us full time, I take that to mean he’s going to do everything he has to do to be a full-time player--from reporting to the park when the rest of the team does, to batting practice, to being available for meetings and anything else required of him.”

Reaction?

Sanders reinstated his policy of not talking to reporters Tuesday night when, in addition to the three hits, he was almost the third out on what was almost a triple play.

Fourth inning. None out. Sanders on second with Terry Pendleton on first. David Justice hit a screamer to center, where Devon White made an incredible catch as he leaped into the fence.

Pendleton, reading extra bases, raced around second and passed Sanders, who was retreating to tag up. Pendleton is out automatically. The Blue Jays made an unnecessary play at first to double off Pendleton, unaware that he had passed Sanders, who saw the ball go to first and broke for third base, creating a rundown.

He ultimately stumbled back to second, barely avoiding Kelly Gruber’s tag, though Gruber believed otherwise.

The replay was inconclusive.

Referring to White’s catch, Cox said: “It was the play of the night. It saved their bacon. If he doesn’t make the catch, we probably win. Deion was breaking back to tag, and Terry was going all the way. If I’m on first I would have done the same thing. You can’t fault him for that. It was the case of a great play forcing us into a mistake.”

The Braves are now down, 2-1, in the Series, and Sanders, with the hot bat and fleet feet (against a team that has thrown out only three of 28 base stealers in the postseason) probably has made his manager keep him in the lineup; forced him, perhaps, to juggle Lonnie Smith and Ron Gant as designated hitters, rather than Gant and Sanders as the left fielders.

As the Braves have already proved, you make special provisions for a special athlete.