NOTEBOOK

Call it battle of the bands. “Or battle of the sound engineers,” Brave General Manager John Schuerholz said, smiling.

After listening to sedate music while they took batting practice at the SkyDome--a direct contrast to the lively music played for the Blue Jays’ hitters--Atlanta retaliated Saturday. While Toronto took batting practice, hitters could hear “Be My Love,” by the late opera singer Mario Lanza, followed by “The Itsy-bitsy Spider” and “O Sole Mio,” also sung by Lanza.

No one was saying who was responsible for the musical selections, but Schuerholz enjoyed the down-beat beat. “Well, remember the music they played for us up there,” he said.

Otis Nixon, who missed last year’s World Series while in treatment for a drug problem, credited teammates Lonnie Smith and Deion Sanders for helping him during his crisis and remaining supportive in his effort to stay drug-free.

“I was asked to go through a 30-day program, and I went through a 90-day program and that was a tough decision. Some guys, like Deion and Lonnie, really helped me with that,” Nixon said. “If I have anything to talk about now, I know I can talk about it with those guys.”

Asked to comment on Smith’s assertion Thursday that he was judged more critically than other players because he is black, Nixon said he hadn’t heard Smith’s statement but added that black athletes were treated more fairly in Canada than in the United States. Nixon played for the Montreal Expos from 1988-90.

“I played up there for two, almost three years, and I was treated as well or better there than in the States,” Nixon said. “I actually stayed up there because of the way I was treated, and I wasn’t the caliber of ballplayer then that people consider me now. I tried to speak the (French) language and made the effort up there, so maybe that’s why I was treated a little bit better. I’ve yet to hear anybody say, ‘I don’t like Montreal,’ or, ‘I don’t like Toronto,’ except for the taxes.”

Having heard the Braves claim they were inspired by a Toronto newspaper’s publication of a parade for the Blue Jays had they ended the World Series Thursday in Toronto, Blue Jay officials were being careful about future parade plans before the game ended.

“The club never released that information, the police did. We didn’t want any announcement at all,” said Howard Starkman, the club’s public relations director. “The police were concerned with traffic and released the information so people would know the route and avoid those streets.”

The release also specified three different scenarios: a parade Friday if the Blue Jays had won Thursday, a parade on Monday if they won in six games and a parade Tuesday if they were to win in seven.

“If we don’t win, there won’t be a parade at all,” Starkman said before the game.

The Braves’ good-luck charm didn’t bring them a victory, but it did raise money for charity. They began rubbing the cast on catcher Greg Olson’s leg for good luck, and they let their fans share that ritual.

The cast was removed last week and on Saturday, it was placed in a booth in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Anyone willing to pay $1--which will go to charity--was allowed to rub the plaster for luck.

Toronto catcher Pat Borders’ second-inning single extended his postseason hitting streak to 14 games, tying the third-longest streak in postseason play. Hank Bauer set the record of 17 with the New York Yankees in the World Series of 1956-58. . . . Atlanta’s Bobby Cox became the seventh manager to lose two World Series in a row. The most recent was Tom Lasorda, whose Dodgers lost in 1977-78.