1989 HQ Game 1 ALCS Toronto Blue Jays @ Oakland Athletics As Rickey Henderson (edited)

[Music] hi everybody bob costas along with tony kubak both of these teams in a sense at least it's the public perception have scores to settle so my question to you is is that really true in the clubhouses or is it more media hype are the toronto blue jays haunted by their failures of 85 and 87. bob i think and we were there last friday night up in the sky dome in toronto they played four very poor innings against the baltimore orioles baltimore could not finish them off and when they won that ballgame an extra inning fastball high and outside for ball one to mosby who's hitting 221 but played a big role over the weekend when they clinched against baltimore and he lines one to center dave henderson started in drifts back and hindu puts it away during batting practice on the off day yesterday bob the oakland athletics hit right about this time and they felt on a sunny day which it is for perhaps a couple of innings it might be a little tough to pick up the ball sun field right field that would be consequence field but a twilight start isn't nearly the fact that it would be at mid-season there have been all-star games played on the west coast with the early starting time because of national tv and the hitters have had trouble won't come in to play nearly as much in october mookie wilson takes outside the plate umpire is one of the game's best senior member of the crew dave phillips he'd work the plate again if the series goes to full seven got the corner one and one dan morrison at first dale ford at second darryl cousins at third steve palermo right field line rick reed left field line fouled off one and two bob you want to know what a factor the sun might be early in right field jose canseco with no sunglasses but he has been shading his eyes looking through the webbing of his glove he's not appearing he can see the ball off the bat even tips above the seats could be a lot of trouble and down goes mookie wilson the fart ball you know a lot has been made about how tender or tired the arm of dave stewart is well the man's had 110 regular starts the last three seasons and don drizell said this among other pitchers a third of the time you're not going to have your good stuff if he's got 10 good fast balls in him that may be all he needs because he's no longer just a power pitcher the slumping freddie mcgriff he won the home run title with 36 won more than the indians joe carter doesn't catch up with the high inside heat mcgriff has not hit a home run though since september the fourth this is the fourth game now consecutively that cedaw gaston has flip-flopped mcgriff and ball in the lineup it's popped down the left field side and it drops untouched in the bullpen area one thing about stewart and he's not bashful about saying it up front he wants to get ahead of you he wants to throw a first pitch strike it's futile to go up there taking against him you've got to be wailing away and try and get him early in the count as steinbach sign and misses high and away the fourth wall is his equalizer his best fastball is in the vicinity of 92 but some scouts say he's lost about five miles per hour off it in the last couple of weeks with some shoulder tenderness he gets two strikeouts to open the first 50 000 roaring in the coliseum here heroes get their licks when we come back [Music] happy endings are easy but in the real world they take solid planning so for investment advice peace of mind even buying or selling a home come to the companies of the prudential and build your future on the rock [Music] exotic alloys complex designs today's automobile engines are marbles of power and efficiency but at a price they generate more of the damaging filth called sludge yesterday's motor oils aren't the answer today what's required is a motor oil specifically formulated to virtually eliminate sludge havilin's superior grade it's a feeling of power of substance and style you know that you're on your way the great american road belongs [Music] american road he lost battles on baseball great american pastime on women the great american pastimes friday's a whole new ball game with hardball hard to believe that in all those days of the oakland dynasty under charlie finley with reggie and the others five straight division titles three straight world championships they didn't even average a million fans during that period of time they drew just over 800 000 in one of those world championship years these days they're approaching three million dave steve getting ready ricky henderson carney landscape second in the batting race to kirby bucket fonseco and wright parker the d8s and cleanup man dave henderson who's played on four straight division winners since 86 mark maguire at first steinbach to catch phillips at second and gallego rather than walt weiss weiss is okay coming back off the injured knee but he simply hasn't played as well as gallego the guy larussa calls the unsung hero of the team and tony said i'm going to go with the guys who contributed the most in terms of getting us here plus gaegor at 340 off the blue jays this year dave steve his last outing against the tigers and ron shuler the advanced scout for oakland followed this team for weeks he threw 75 breaking balls of his 120 pitches that does not mean that you will see that today ricky henderson they like to straighten him up early with fastballs inside get him out of his crouch but if you miss with it he'll launch it inside for a ball he holds the all-time record with 40 game opening home runs mookie does have sunglasses on in right field about another half inning there will be a glare in his eyes you can expect the oakland athletics to try and run on these outfielders arms mosby's got a good arm and center bell is subject to misplays in left and wilson should be a weakness in right [Applause] steve behind on the count 3-0 [Music] strike one says dave phillips it'll be interesting to see during this series that may vary from umpire to umpire how they call the strike zone of ricky henderson will it be when he's in his crouch as it should be or when he stands up and hacks away at the high pitches and get out of it when it's on the way there is a what difference does for henderson as he's in the crouch if he feels like hacking at a fastball up he can hit it and it's a good pitch for him to hit if he wants to take it it's a ball so in both instances with that kind of umpire he's got the edge steve has battled back to a full count and here it comes breaking ball misses inside the major league stolen base leader is aboard he swiped 77 this year the ninth time he's stolen better than 50 that's an american league record cobb did it eight times the major league mark is held by lou brock with 12 seasons of 50 or more the first base coach was canadian dave mcgay who is part of this blue jay operation knows dave steve he's the man who will whisper in the man on first base ear about the moves as a reminder how quick is he to home plate in first base what about the catcher's release dave mccabe steve is quick to first base very talented athlete you can't have a very high leg kick coming home and be slow not going on the first pitch taken for a strike by lansford when you consider lansford's 336 three points back the puckett's league leading mark of 339 it's all the more remarkable because after the acquisition of henderson lansford was placed in the second slot he's got to take a lot of pitches to give ricky his opportunities to run it hasn't bothered him since that time he's in about a 350 clip and basically a lot of pitchers get their attention diverted by ricky henderson the they talk about conseco but the most distracting force in the american leg is the man right high in your picture ricky henderson he was easily the league leader texas is see celeste be next with 45 he's going pitch inside wits throw he's in there perhaps the most misleading statistic on the stat sheet is when they steal off a catcher he could blame an outstanding jump by henderson the second step he is at complete full speed tom trebelharn the manager of the brewers has got to appreciate this because ricky henderson gives him a lot of credit or at least some of it for helping with his base stealing and he is 21 of 26 stealing third base a ball and a strike to lansford squares around and then takes a strike one reason why lansford is thrived in the second slot he's an excellent two-strike hitter seldom strikes out and as we said you've got to take a lot of pitches with henderson on base in front of you also he's very adept at going to the opposite field if ricky reaches base and steals with nobody out your objective is to push the ball to the right side but he's such a good hitter in that direction he often gets base hits to right rather than just giving himself up by punching it toward the second baseman well the middle infielders are giving henderson a lot of room lyriano's way over playing toward right field that's obviously the place canseco will try to make the out if he does you don't ever try to make it out but he will make it in that direction advance ricky henderson to third base so it's up to tony fernandez and if he jockeys them too close the whole left side's open for henderson too wheels around and looks him back mookie wilson in right field is very close to the line for a right-handed hitter i believe dave steve who just called nelson liriano into the mound would like to have liriano cheat a little more toward ricky henderson and not force fernandez to jockey around leave the left side open and i'm sure nelson who's a younger player said look he's trying to hit the ball through the right side get him to third so steve moved him and seiko on deck did he go around they check it first and he's gone the call by dan morrison working his first playoff series he and rick reed are the rookie um all the others have post-season experience a very hard slider from dave steve and connie lansford waited waited waited to try and give ricky henderson a chance to steal got himself in a hole and steve punched him out jose canseco's return from the disabled list first game after the all-star break was at toronto he went two for three with a homer three rbis and a stolen base again steve looks but doesn't throw if you prorate conseco's 17 homers and 57 rbis in just over 200 at-bats to his three-year average of 613 at-bats prior to this year you get 46 homers and 154 rbis here's the throw whoa almost second base up our dale ford stayed back on the outfield grass fairly long he many times you want a middle infielder if he can to tip you off if you're an umpire you do them a favor he starts charging in and on occasion he gets a better angle maybe you get the call now you can see ford has moved about three strides closer steve's best pitch to a right-handed hitter is that wicked frisbee slider you'll start it at your hip so you give up on it and then it seems to come around the corner with tremendous lateral movement many times for steve it depends which angle he releases a little bit more three-quarters more of a downward action a little bit quicker drops down a little bit it'll be more sweeping as you said here it is on 1-0 in the air to center field mosby with henderson retreating to tag there'll be no play at third ricky's in there but with two out you just saw what sometimes can happen and it's because of ricky henderson steve knew the location he saw the pitch selection from ernie whitford one of the slider but because steve has been so much more concerned with ricky henderson he hung the slider and got away with it that's what ricky does to you now parker his first left-handed hitter he'll throw a few more curves to lefties and then he'll come more over the top rather than the three-quarter motion he'd favor obviously to a right-handed hitter there's a strike at age 38 parker not yet ready to surrender to time after a woeful start he was under 200 in the first month he rebounds to hit 264 and drive in 97. [Music] bouncer steve spears it good play and he's out of the inning he walked henderson to start ricky stole second but he gets no farther than third scoreless after one four with 38 saves a total of 106 points rolex was proud to have brought the relief break every week on the game of the week each saturday here on nbc mark davis the great left-hander of the san diego padres was of course the winner in the national league on we go now to the second inning dave stewart worked a perfect first fanning both mookie wilson and fred mcgriff on fourth balls and you saw two different kinds of fork balls he has refined that pitch along with dave duncan the pitching coach the point where he can throw it at several different even make it go away from a right-handed hitter usually goes down and away with the left-hand hitter spread the fingers differently to apply different pressure and he makes it do tricks and that's why a little off this fastball isn't going to hurt him he's now got different pitches at different speeds george bell drove in 104 this year third time in the last four years he's topped a hundred with robin out and ruben sierra not playing for contenders milwaukee dropped out the last six weeks or so he fouls it back and with his own teammate fred mcgriff and cal ripken having slumping septembers with conseco missing half the year with an injury lansford not having the power numbers hark or a dh there's a natural prejudice against a guy who doesn't play the field and play all around bell might very well emerge as the mvp in tight to it if dave stewart is having some arm weariness that last fastball the one that george bell was laid on inside with no indication battle over the last month and a half has moved up on the plate going into more of a crouch let's head right in the strike zone three and one for what it's worth the pitch just prior to that one the fastball in tight was clocked at 90. so all the talk about the shoulder tenderness may prove to be accurate as we move along in innings but here he's throwing pretty well hammered to center field and it may drop in there it does bell has the game's first hit so at least in that series of pitches the pitching philosophy to battle and that's only one at bat was to try and pound him in that of course will change as george changes and tries to figure out the opposition pitching up steps tony fernandez a 299 career hitter entering this season hit in the face by a cecilio guante pitch in early april after he'd hit a grand slam earlier in the game he missed a month and may have been tentative after that that may have contributed to his uncharacteristically low average an unlikely fifth place hitter tony did have a career career-high 11 home runs but ernie witt a little slump kelly gruber against left-handers was hurt and then wasn't hitting so fernandez got hot about 290 for the month of september and they've put him back there to protect bal now it's been mcgriff for a lot of september lansford on the infield grass strike call fernandez is hit as high as 322 a couple of years ago but while his batting average has soured his glove work remains very sweet he set a major league record with only six errors this year eddie brinkman had kicked only seven for the 1972 tigers only a half dozen errors for fernandez who's likely to win his fourth consecutive gold glove but a very frustrating year for tony aside from the fielding walked off the field or up the runway and kansas city left the game in the seventh inning after three strikeouts in there missed to turn it back in detroit completely just forgot to go to the on deck circle gruber hit ceto gaston was less than thrilled about those episodes just off the outside corner gaston doesn't let his emotions show at least not to the press very much but he couldn't contain himself after fernandez forgot to hit as you say and in effect took himself out of a game he was livid sparky anderson perhaps late in the season had the best description or comparison of cassidy said he's like walter alston very quiet because walter at those great years of the dodgers he said every player knows they better not cross them behind closed doors bell with a modest lead at first a 2-1 pitch he's running and this is going to drop in a hit-and-run base hit bell wheels around second he's going to make it runners at the corners with nobody out high deal hitters pitch and runners pitch two balls one strikes and if cedar gaston has done one thing perhaps a little differently than the first manager this year jimmy williams maybe he's run a little bit more hitting a little bit more with certain guys he's a hitter's manager by that i mean it's that's players hit 3-0 3-1 even if you're a weaker hitter ernie witt with an rbi chance the last remaining original blue jay taken in the expansion draft prior to their maiden season of 1977 through the fastball by him tony fernandez on a couple of fall steps at gallego at short way out of position covering second base tony will do that a lot mr doesn't have quite the speed before the knee surgery two off seasons ago they play for the double play they'll concede the game's first run on the ground ball one and one whit is 37 years old which would be remarkable for a starting catcher until the last few years when carlton fisk and bob boone have tested the outer limits in terms of age for a catcher jim sunberg just retired this year played till nearly 40. this is a 1-1 pitch the runner going they don't throw through the count goes to one and two and fernandez gets the stolen baits and terry steinbach is a pretty good throwing catcher ron karkovic the white sox joel skinner of cleveland have stronger throwing arms but when you combine the strength of his arm the accuracy that he's had most of this year and the release he gets the ball down in the hurry and that'll show you what kind of jump fernandez had off stewart who's just absolutely no chance kelly gruber's on deck he lays off they check at third but daryl cousin says no tony larussa he'll be 45 tomorrow manager of the year with the 83 white sox when they won 99 and lost in the playoffs to the orioles and again got the honor last year when the a's won a franchise record 104. they led the majors with 99 wins this year despite all the injuries 2-2 pitch grounded sharply in foul in post-season play it's the age-old thing in baseball you play away from home as the blue jays are you want to at least split should they do that because they'd like to have this game it would take a lot of the pressure off game two starter todd stottlemyer pitching first time in postseason play at very young age blue jays trying to jump on dave stewart early here full count to ernie witt you know it's interesting stewart should be the starting pitcher in game one because of his postseason experience but even he admitted that the best starting pitcher for this team this year was mike moore in almost every department except wins moore has better numbers more goes tomorrow against stoddlemeyer here's the payoff [Music] but tony larussa said no emotions involved at all i didn't do it because i was sentimental in the because stewart has won over 60 games in three years and he said he's the big money pitcher around you the big game pitcher has been for several years and he does have the postseason experience another 3-2 pitch spanked to center field it's going to get a run home henderson makes the catch bell tags fernandez will hold at second it's one nothing toronto you just had a chance to see the difference of the throwing hours among these outfielders henderson not a great throwing arm but you saw how long a thrill that was to freeze fernandez conseco has a great throwing arm sometimes erratic there's dave henderson in center field earlier on this year when he was forced to play a lot and his legs got very sore with all the other players injuries even his throwing went downhill a little bit couldn't push off couldn't get going but how he's completely healthy he has a flare in post-season play he loves the spotlight with the 86 red sox the 87 giants at the end although he was ineligible for the playoffs and the a is the last two years so four straight division winners and a ball to kelly gruber he and george bell were second on the team with 18 homers half of mcgriff's team and league leading total [Music] lee mazzilli the dh next 2-0 a run home here top half of the second [Music] stewart as you say has the postseason experience a minor contributor in 1981 with the world champion dodgers last year a no decision in game one at fenway park in the playoffs then the winner in the clincher over bruce hurst in game four here as they swept you ever notice how different batting stances among different organizations that people copy each other when george bell went into that crouch and started hitting very well you saw kelly goobron was playing follow the leader if george can do it why didn't i do it so he moved up on the plate a little bit got in a deeper crouch jorge dominican republic he is a smart hitter so he's a lot of bad pitches but a very smart hitter 3-0 pitch walks him on four pitches uncharacteristically not just because of the walk but because stewart has been behind on every hitter in this inning crouch it's called a ball with bell able to return to the outfield mozilli becomes the d.h and the switch hitter fouls it off they've taken to referring to the two who came over from the mets as mizuki mozilli and mookie seasoned veterans each made a contribution wilson moore on the field with his clubhouse presence as much as anything else he's a wise old head and he also throws in a few key hits and a lot of key walks to start rallies or keep him going he's one of the few blue jays who will take a walk mookie well he's added a positive positive attitude tremendous speed as you all know which has really spiced up the offense a little bit you can even see post-season play pastor turn freddie mcgriff having an animated conversation with mookie on the bench blue jays lead it here one nothing and looking for more in the second [Music] a ball and two strikes [Music] missiles should see a lot of action because it'll be four right-handed starters zilli better from the left side than the right kurt young is the a's fifth starter a lefty not scheduled to start a game in the series two and two we told you about stewart in the playoffs last year in the world series he started game one when he left the a's led four to three his effort was washed away on the scoreboard and in the memory bank by kurt gibson's heroics in the ninth so he got a no decision then he lost game four to tim belcher his 2-2 pitch coming to mozilla got him looking cleared strikeout for stewart and it was right on the black and right at the knees it appeared to be a hard fork ball or he turned it over and got a sinker but it's right there on the edge and a nice caress job by terry steinbrock to frame the outside corner terry steinbach helped mariano steps in what stewart was trying to do bob is prevent a beginning obviously you get a couple men out with nobody out and get the sac fly and the throw by henderson was so strong it froze fernandez at second base so he couldn't go to third and scoring a sac fly and he just wanted to prevent a three-four run inning he's on the verge of it one-and-one to the blue jay second baseman with 99 wins this year oakland played 611 baseball but toronto's percentage after gaston took over was exactly that 6 11 77 and 49 they were 12 and 24 when the axe fell on jimmy williams they were as far back as 10 behind in early june before rallying to overtake baltimore two and one you know gaston has managed 126 major league games for this one and over that same span that's the best managerial record in the major leagues so the blue jays are not a fluke they uh struggled early but you don't know which team you're going to get i mean they can be very erratic base running can drive a manager up the wall as can they're overthrowing a cutoff mid sometimes they're not very smart team gaston was the hitting coach for six years before becoming the manager so he saw them blow the 3-1 lead against kansas city in the 85 playoffs saw them lose their last seven in a row to give up the division in 87. full count now to lyriano they have pushed stewart very hard this city you can see and be interesting to see what total will take later on with the beginning build up after three years and it's a very strong oakland bullpen since entering the oakland rotation in 86 stuart has taken the ball every time he's never missed a start the runners go on the 3-2 pitch and it's lined through the hole they'll have at least one more and then conseco kicks it in right which isn't going to cost them fernandez scores gruber stops at third two-nothing toronto you know you hear so much about the bashers on this oakland ball club and the power of mcgriff and bell on the other side but the supporting cast for the blue jays might be a little stronger look at fernandez with his rbis lee and lyriano have driven in a little over 80 runs between them and this guy's got a lot of big hits broken up a couple of no-hitters late mccaskills and nolan ryan and that'll get tony larusse out three singles a walk and a sacrifice fly one more step the world series he isn't bitter about what happened last october against the dodgers he says we know we had the better team but they played better and i can live with him all kinds of messages going on in lansford to gallego gallego and all the way out the left field to henderson change their pitching pattern to play mosby a little differently than they did his first time up when he lined to center field most teams have been throwing him a lot of hard stuff show him fastballs inside and then last week they've gone away with him to make him hit the left field about straight away now in the outfield lansford in close at third stewart's 1-0 pitch a call strike it looked like stewart would minimize the damage [Music] they had runners at second and third with nobody out and looked like he would escape with only one run but then lyriano whistled one through the right side the runner goes steinbach throws to the shortstop that's what it was that's the play they were talking about right there they thought they'd trap the runner gruber off third base it's an old play that works in high school at times doesn't work too much in a major league level i still think you're better off throwing through and shortstop and second baseman coordinate it two good throws one to second and one back to home can get the fastest runner it's executed properly tony try to trick play the jays are a base away from busting it open now on the fists into shallow left center two hendersons and it's dave the center fielder [Applause] [Music] serrano scores two leaves two and we're back in two minutes east won nine out of the next 10 playoffs against the west the only exception was kansas city's breakthrough in 1980 but since then the west has won three of the last four and really within and out of making it four straight had henderson not hit the home run against the angels in the ninth inning at anaheim in 1986 it would have been four straight american league west appearances in the world series and the a's of course are favored in this one say did you see a while ago before we showed a shot of that blimp the airplane dragging the little trailer with the jose conseco hotline number on it a little advertising for conseco well that number and i provided purely as a public service would be one nine hundred no two three four no no jose that's ridiculous no don't well there you go what a bad idea it's brutal not you giving the number but they're making a lot of money on it but whoever advised him to do it did not do the young man's image any favors at all dave henderson breaking ball from steve for a strike i happened to call the hotline just the other day just to check it out i did it was a journalistic move on my part the o1 pitch well hit goodbye i mean this is crushed [Applause] [Applause] [Music] the fan who caught it was sitting in san jose i think what a thunderbolt yeah dave steve's own town well i'll just get ahead of him with a fastball and dave henderson didn't waste any time maguire finished pretty well dave henderson jump after the swing watch we saw it in the postseason in 86 some of that power and remember up in seattle many until daryn johnson heading instructor for the california angels this year he got a lot of strength you ought to sit on certain pitches and get a little bit harder he was a good student one and two to maguire who hit only 231 this year but did hit 33 home runs got one on sunday in the final regular season game against kansas city seven of his last 14 hits in the regular season went over the fence over the last couple of weeks he's made a little adjustment he's pulled that left foot away from old plate opened up a little bit and he says he's seen the ball better looking at the ball with just one eye too close steep breaking ball maguire didn't pick you in far enough steve when he's right he's the kind of slider oh i guess like ron gibbs prime or steve crown you know it's coming and even if you do it doesn't matter it just keeps biting it's so hard so short breaks so late it still fools you one out and a run in and here's steinbach fouling one to the seats the strikeout was steve's second crowd still buzzing about henderson's home run that thing was really launched that had to be in the vicinity of 460. first inning steve threw just over a dozen pitches and i think he only threw three fastballs wished he hadn't thrown that one to anderson 2-1 toronto that thing won at least two-thirds of the way to the back bleacher wall day baseball the ball carries in this ballpark [Music] night baseball it's really tough to hit him out here like mcguire and conseco and that 87th season when everybody's hitting home around and they kept track and seiko thought he lost maybe a dozen to 15 home runs here balls that might have been out in day baseball or most other parks and it's starting to cool down now strikeout number three for steve let's take another look at the home run by henderson watch the bat speed through the ball he hits his back so high there was no deceleration on contact [Music] hindu he loves the spotlight as we said he's a real he's a little bit of a showboat i don't think he got in there from ricky henderson he had it before he came here the valuable utility man tony phillips played every in-field spot for them this year and the corner spots in the outfield left and right off speed breaking ball drops in there phillips was the last out of the world series herscheiser got him on strikes and oakland's dream ended right there in five games would have been shocking enough for them to lose under any circumstances considering the dodgers injury rack roster but la did it four games to one and if strategy dictated over this series uh phillips could be the third catcher the einstein back in hassle [Music] the pupil of cleat boy when he was here for billy martin and jackie moore is a third base coach and worked with phillip defensively pop back lots of foul territory in this park but not enough in this case and basically the two parks in this championship series in the american league the sky dome in here are built primarily for pitchers some of the power in these two teams specifically mcgriff and conseco and maguire it doesn't matter what park it is but there is an edge with that foul territory in the picture and the dimensions symmetrical park 330 down each line 375 to the alleys 400 straight away centered two and two two out nobody on and a run home on the henderson homer making it 2-1 toronto that was dave duncan you saw a moment ago to tony larussa's left the highly esteemed pitching coach of the a's and perhaps someday soon a big league manager lots of clubs covered him in the air to left toward the gap bell can't get it it's by him to the wall phillips with at least a double as george fires it back in [Applause] there's a time to play shallower time to play deep and when you get two outs ordinarily they will move the outfielders back several steps george val phillips does not have good power from that direction apparently the defensive alignment or john mclaren for the dugout did not move him and the ball beat him deeply [Music] so upsteps gallego last year weiss was the rookie of the year third straight time and as player won the award fonseco maguire then weiss but knee surgery sidelined walt for two and a half months and even when he came back he was shaky especially on balls where lateral movement was required gallego played a sparkling short in his place and draws the start in game one of the playoffs a base hit could tie it and he takes down and away most pitchers will agree the two most important important parts of the ball game you first go out there get your feet on the ground in a hurry for any number one don't give up runs early and then once your team scores there's walter north carolina you may play tomorrow off stonemeyer once your team scores that's when you want to shut the team down and get your team back in as quickly as you can so you can tack some more runs out of steve on the verge of a tie right in this situation with a base set [Music] you know playing against steve you might think if you had scouting reports in depth you might think you might be a breaking ball hitter too that one's in there one and two steve won 17 this year for the third time in his career he's twice been a 16-game winner as well but 17 is his high-water mark he had the lowest era in the american league for the decade his rookie year was 79 his era in the 80s was 3.32 the league's lowest check swing and the count levels at two and two with the dh of course eras in the american league no matter how good the pitcher generally higher than in the national smaller ballparks too center field mosby has it lined up the a's settle for one and we're back after these messages from your local station the a's jump back into it austin eventually took the reigns in toronto everybody knows he was not the first choice of pat gillick the general manager of the blue jays they wanted lou panella george steinbrenner wouldn't let him out of a contract there was talk about bob baylor their aaa manager at syracuse but in truth their first choice might have been that man dave duncan but the a's will not allow their coaches to talk about managerial opportunities during the season just as they wouldn't let seattle approach jim lefevre during the season in 88 but did let him go in the winter and he became the mariner manager maybe beyond that primarily dave duncan would not have gone because tony brought him back after they were fired from the white sox and he's one of the high paid pitching coaches and deserves to be here's ricky taking a strike from steve for a lot of pitchers you saw a great angle on that hard breaking ball that's almost a hanging curveball or slider hitters jump on it but steve's is so hard both left and right and hitters give up on it you just don't see the spin the rotation is so tight you can't pick it up and then he'll throw that hard sinker that snakes in on a right-handed hitter on top of it this one's hit back through the box when it takes a friendly bounce to fernandez but with a great off-balance throw retires him think of who is running also anytime a ball is away from a right-handed hitter he usually gets a better jump and tony fernandez has the grass slowed it up artificial surface perhaps wouldn't but look at the balls away he did get the deflection took some speed off the mount but fernandez still ran eight or ten strides and gets ricky henderson oh is he graceful there's a tendency to say he throws off balance but you can see the center of gravity was right in control a drive to right mookie wilson toward the line into foul ground making the catch to retire connie lansford that's an interesting spot there when we move on to the sky dome down low for a ball ernie had a sac fly his first time up in that 1985 lcs cedaw gaston was a coach under bobby cox here's a blast to deep right conseco turning to the track to the wall gone ernie witt makes it 3-1 toronto and is cedaw gaston happy to see his bat with four right-handed starters he needs this spot to come alive and it takes a lot of pressure off freddie mcgrath there is a blue jay section it sounds like behind that dugout they are in a distinct minority sounded more like a golf gallery as he made the grand tour they're cheering back home in toronto though the jades jump in front 3-1 they won the first two games in 85 and led 3-1 after four bobby cox went with just three pitchers in that series steve started the first fourth and seventh and key and alexander each got two starts gruber fouls it off bobby cox did an excellent job managing the blue jays that year but gaston was quoted this week as saying i wish we had gone with four starters they could have used jim clancy at least once now both these managers have said that they plan to go with four so the game one starters are likely to pitch only twice gruber pops one to the left side lansford backing up gallego also there and it's the shortstop gallego you know before though the situation might have been you didn't have that top-notch fourth or maybe even fifth starter that you like because cerruti was the most consistent starter for the blue jays the first several months he's now in the bullpen for toronto gaston so they have two left-handers down there wells and saruti but they're pretty deep you know flanagan's pitched well he'll be game four starter for uh toronto mozilla the hitter he struck out his first time and he takes a strike here [Music] in the 85 playoffs steve was masterful in a first game victory very effective in a fourth game no decision at kansas city toronto eventually won the game then started the seventh game and was hit hard as the series slipped away from the jays [Music] dick hauser went with four pitchers in that series you mentioned a man a while ago who just recently retired who perhaps struck the worst blow against his blue jays franchise jim sunburn the bases loaded off the right field fence driving in three broke the game apart in game seven mozilli's gone and it's strikeout number four for stewart looked at third base for the appeal but the home plate umpire davey phillips didn't even ask because he called it all by himself a wicked fork ball you will see as the ball comes into your picture it just explodes in the trajectory downward and also went away it's johnny sullivan is usually the bullpen coach who is there helping ceto on the bench too clariano had an rbi single to right his first time up gave the jays a two-nothing lead at that point plays off and it's two and oh it's going to be a funny time of day night twilight where fly balls in the air outfielders are gonna have to help each other out you can lose them here a little bit difficult to see now hit toward the hole to his left is phillips stumbling righting himself and getting him at first [Music] whit leads off with a homer stewart retires the next three three one toronto pictures mound to throw out speedy ricky henderson and now tony phillips against speedy nelson lyriano has the thick grass slow it down and he makes an excellent play the wheels are spinning once that first foot slip he was a little bit off balance the rhythm was gone but he still threw out a very fast runner from the left side henderson hit a titanic home run leading off the second against steve steve was joking yesterday as he misses high about the size of the lineup and you do not want to get into a street fight with these guys parker maguire hunseco line drive over gruber for a base hit bell had him played very deeply big turn for henderson but he's content with a single and you could see hindu bust out of the batter's box lowing the arms on this boujee's outfield as hard as he could he was it more than a third of the way down when bell picked it up what again bottom half of the fifth a's down by two henderson lansford and conseco ricky walks stole a base then was robbed of a hit on a tremendous play by tony fernandez behind the bag at second hit 274 for the year with 12 home runs and 77 steals the major's best vince coleman led the national league with 65 for the cardinals speaking of the cardinals lou brock is the all-time record holder in steels with 938 in for a strike one and one henderson could very well pass him next year he's 67 behind brock who played 19 years and henderson has so far played 11. he broke brock's single season record of 118 when he swiped 130 in 1982 and the career record is just in front of him [Music] two balls and two strikes and really he'll have it in terms of both percentage and total when hank aaron passed babe ruth for example as marvelous as that achievement was it required thousands more at bats in this case henderson will not only get the raw total but he'll do it more quickly than the great hall of famer brock hit hard and mcgriff's got it a double header of sorts tomorrow on nbc game two here young todd stothelmeyer for toronto seven and seven mike moore and 11 for the a's at 12 pacific and three eastern time and then to wrigley field for game one of the national league series greg maddox against scott gerelts vince scully and tom sieber at the mikes came to the national league rick russell against mike bilecki and then the sun cliff i guess is opening on the road maybe against don robinson if his knees okay this is only the second time since the a's came to oakland in 1968 lansford taking a ball that there's been a good shot at a bay area world series in 71 they each made the playoffs it was the first division title for the a's and they were swept by the mighty orioles giants got in against the pirates and lost three games to one opposite field going to drop mookie up with it one out hit for lansford in contrast to last year when lansford was hitting 400 in early june and then finished the year at 279 he really sizzled after the all-star break this season to wind up at 336 exactly the same average he had when he won the batting title for the red sox in 1981 you know you look at the numbers that canseco put on the board after missing half a season playing with a little bit of it injured at 57 harvey eyes with his 61 base 6. you would think and a couple of years ago they would bust him in on the fist but earlier this year we saw him take a roger clemens fastball and 92 or three and put it up on the screen he's become a much shorter hitter with a shorter stroke likes the ball low yeah hard stripped in on the hands it better be weighing under the hands and with a lot on it he still is the most devastating offensive player in this league i think went healthy the last couple of years the walk total has gone up a little bit struck out well over 100 times each of his three full years and 69 in 227 at bats this year it's larussa's contention that he's the rare hitter whose power totals actually would increase if his batting average went up because he's so naturally strong if he develops a more compact swing and just looks to make contact the average is going to come up and the homers will be there almost accidentally one-on-one out in a 1-1 pitch but first another throw over and you can see already wet very careful after he gave the sign of the location not to move at all because conseco on that last pitch looked like after the signals were down he took a look down at what looked like the plate but he might be looking back at ronnie rich setting up he didn't do it that time inside two and one bottom half of the fifth toronto leads it three to one each team has a solo homer dave henderson for oakland ernie witt for the blue jays yesterday in the off the off day they watched consent could take bratting practice like they used to ted williams or mickey mantle everybody stops and sees them hit him into the seats 450 near 500 feet time and time again this is high and away three balls and a strike parker on deck there's the cobra bell backed up very nearly to the warning track in left full count now dave steve reaching back for a little more on his fastball going away from the singer with a four-seamer and a riding fastball upstairs on casino steve comes in here a hot pitcher he won his last five starts nine of his last 12. and in 17 of his last 23 outings he held the opposition to three runs or less almost always giving his team a good chance to win his 3-2 pitch to conseco the runner goes swinging a miss he got him here's the throw it's bounced there and lansford has the steal lansford and henderson the two big base dealers lancer had over 30 during the regular season a cut fastball [Music] not a strong throw and he slides in and the call is missed wasn't missed second there i thought he tagged him but he didn't tag him on the way through a strong throw definitely gets him oh yeah the hard straight in slide to this point steve has thrown 69 pitches steve horn tells us only eight have registered better than 85 miles an hour john mclaren again puts tony fernandez on the first base side again and now he's moving mosby to left center field strike one to parker who's grounded out twice and that's what the scoring reports provided by gordon lakey the blue jays and dave bloom who traveled around with the oakland a's the last couple of weeks pull the ball on the ground and straightaway are late in the air the a's have had runners in every inning swings over at 0-2 they've left five you know tony fernandez is doing something i'm surprised parker isn't saying anything i know ted williams had a real change with eddie stanky tony is moving between the left side and the right side with the count now he is on the third base side for parker betty stanky used to do that stand back to wave his hands do all kinds of things and some call it the ted williams rule that was put in now tony's back on the other side he's he'll know where he's going they keep moving him from one side to the other from the bench transferred at second with two down and another o2 pitch coming [Music] when parker started so slowly naturally there was speculation that he had lost it and he couldn't catch up with good heat especially inside on him but larusso says when he turned a 95 mile per hour dan fleesack fastball around one night in milwaukee he was convinced that's a fastball from one of the game's dominating left-handers for the left-handed hitting parker well he's in the right league because there are fewer power pitchers over here and he may have turned one or a few others around but basically the good hard stuff does get him if it's inside as larussa puts it perhaps giving his player the benefit of the doubt he's got a 38 year old body but 19 year old wrists [Music] well he's in the right league because there are fewer power pitchers over here and you may have turned one or a few others around but basically the good hard stuff does get him if it's inside as larussa puts it perhaps giving his player the benefit of the doubt he's got a 38 year old body but 19 year old wrists [Music] what parker has become even has his skills have eroded somewhat he's a very positive clubhouse presence might not have always been that in pittsburgh but here he has been that's true for ricky opposite way could drop does drop lansford being waved home by lachman no play from bell and now you finally get the feeling on an october night in oakland that the battle has been joined they've been sitting on their hands until now good hitters have no fear of getting jammed and you just saw steve tried to pound him in in several pitches parker never flew open with the right shoulder to try and pull the ball he just continues to fight him off until he fought one off in front of george bell for an rbi base hit boy his biggest contribution was when mcguire had the bad back and consequence down he carried this team that's before they got ricky henderson that rbi back henderson with a mighty blast into the bleachers and left his first time up that gets the toronto blue jays bullpen going blind a single left is next time jim acker back for his second tour with the blue jays after a stop in atlanta getting ready steve works the henderson when the red sox got henderson along with spike owen from seattle late in the 86th season he really didn't do a darn thing for boston in the regular season and hadn't had a hit in the playoffs until he struck the crucial blow up donnie moore then hit what could have been the world championship winning home run in the 10th inning of game six off rick aguilera but that was washed away by what happened in the bottom of the tent that breaking ball is starting to get more and more upstairs from dave steve now trying to overthrow a little bit with a pop out maybe some quick strikes flat had no downward action on the last one one and two to hindu who hit 250 for the year and struck out 131 times which was the highest figure on the team toronto went with a nine-man pitching staff and they kept rob ducey the young canadian for the outfield left-handed bat he's got him this time so steve finally retires henderson parker with an rbi hit the a's are back within one pilot nick nicoleri [Music] stewart's team has crept back to within a run he works to fernandez and gets it in there a ball and a strike and lansford's in eight ten feet in front of the bag at third tony fernandez many times will fake about and do what he calls the slug bunt hit at the shortstop buy him or try and slap it by the third baseman [Music] the two one popped it up steinbach off with a mask terry's got it [Applause] so fernandez is now one for three and here's ernie witt who's had a good night a sacrifice [Music] you get a certain left-hander he doesn't play against many left-handers he might try and shoot it the other way there were some teams who put a shift on him later on in the season likes the ball down fastball that is if he guesses right which a lot of catchers do he'll guess a location and be able to adjust he pretty much hits with his hands bob he came up with that wide open stance feet spread well apart take some lower body action away but cedar gaston fellaini kept his head steadier pops this one back off short henderson comes in and ricky takes it for the second hour [Applause] head-to-head this year the a's won seven out of 12 from toronto against the american league east the past two years they played 655 baseball winning 110 and losing 58 the balance of power has definitely shifted the american league east wants the best of baseball's four divisions is now clearly not as good as their counterpart in the west look at some of the pitching staffs in the west kansas city and california and oakland white sox's got a lot of young good pitchers seattle and langston deal got three excellent young arms tony larussa since since he's been in the west has had tremendous success against the eastern division in just the last year or two [Music] one-one pitch to gruber fastball up in his eyes and he pops it up it's out of play in many parks right here but lansford's got it leaning into the dugout tommy rounds the coach saved him from tumbling head over heels was right there a souvenir almost anyplace else and it makes you admire what the man who made the catch there did with the map this year because how many points will that take off your average balls like that not going out of play as it was he chased puckett to the season's last day [Applause] as we move to the last half of the sixth steve nursing a 3-2 lead he's given the a's six hits his mates have five off stuart and mcguire may have just tied it first pitch see you later [Applause] [Applause] [Music] dave steve came out and on his 81st pitch perhaps showing him little stiffness after all those hard sliders against this slugging team and i guess that's why jim acker is up in the bullpen before he even threw one pitch one that was just very deeply in hard by mark mcguire big week for the maguire clan his brother six foot eight inch dan maguire is a quarterback at san diego state transferred from iowa watch what big brother mark did on this pitch from steve and he knows it watch the people react behind the dugout that wasn't one of those you root on as it makes its way toward the fence they knew it was gone in an instant brother throw for 500 yards last weekend against utah i wonder if there's ever been an nfl quarterback as tall as 6'8 mcguire might become the first one and two to steinbach he struck it out and single the game's tied at three you know we were talking about oakland's 7-5 advantage over toronto this year and their mastery in general the american league east keep in mind that unlike the national league where you play 18 games against your own division and 12 against the other in the american league it's a balanced schedule you play every team pretty much the same number of times steinbach goes down swinging fifth strikeout for dave steve and since you can't play yourself obviously you actually wind up playing more games against the other division than your own which makes the concept of east and west in the american league purely arbitrary this may anger some people in toronto and in baltimore but since everybody played the same number of games in essence against everyone else the teams that really deserve to be here would be oakland and kansas city kansas city and california each had better records finishing second and third in the west than anybody in the east except if you watch patterns down through the year if a guy's got a little injury the manager might arrest him against the opposite division in fact they might even save a pitcher sure give him an extra day's respite against somebody else but then you get another debate about why i think there's dr robert brown former yankee third baseman yogi's roommate now the american league president see that's one of the reasons i think with four divisions going to be an mvp in each division you play 162 games to win your division but that dilutes the award and takes some of the luster i care less what the writers think they wrote the fact remains that you don't always play your top players against the opposite opposition division at times but you will concede this the divisions mean more in the national league he pushes a butt up the third baseline gruber charging no throw so phillips red hot in september is two for three in the first playoff game and on an unusual cow two balls no strikes kelly gruber figures now he's gonna hack away maybe try and come up with an extra base hit he conceals it well doesn't hardly slide the hand up the bat till late and out comes cedaw gaston [Music] steve's finished hacker's coming on we missed the pitch while we were gone we apologize for that it was a pitch out and the runner phillips wasn't going now the possibility of the hit run becomes even bigger as renee lachman brewer's seattle manager now coaching a third for tony la russa a little bit of speed on first and then a tie ball game a sinker ball curve ball pitcher not a power pitcher guy with a handle the back go to right field and the count 2-0 on gallego hacker and relief of steve who lasted just five and a third there you see akker's numbers he won a game in relief in september at cleveland ending a string of 14 consecutive losses since 86 with atlanta there goes the runner swinging a miss by gallego wit's throw bounces there and he's got the steal well although witt has contributed with his bat and although many steals come on the pitcher not on the catcher it's still possible that this could be a theme of this series oh no the a's are very aggressive whit is a 37 year old catcher who doesn't have a great arm and they're going to test it what the oakland a athletics have throughout the lineup they do not have more team speed blue jays have more potential based steelers but the blue jays base steelers aren't quite as smart some of the younger kids don't know how to take leads a high chopper gruber can't get it fernandez does flip throw [Applause] safe that bunt by phillips early out of the city got kelly gruber in a little bit tighter even for gallego in case he tried to drop it down and keep something going create a first and third by being in so shallow he can't get back and get it and tony fernandez after the deflection can't throw him out phillips held second he's steve's responsibility officially packard trying to prevent things from going completely haywire here for toronto two on one out a check down at first base no it's ball one acker had been exiled to atlanta lost 14 straight decisions for some woeful braves teams before coming back to toronto and joining a pennant race and making a contribution in september yeah pitching in middle relief for the atlanta braves you're not going to get many wins in there this is something you don't want in game one if they keep tacking runs now when you go to nine-man pitching staff you get that extra position player bat which is what the blue jays decided to do you don't like your bullpen to get pounded on early even though it's only a short seven game series the blue jays staff is not known for complete games either check swing foul one and two steve who you'd expect to be the game five starter sunday at the sky dome threw 89 pitches he struck out six he walked two he gave up eight hits he can't win and he could lose if phillips scores from second and the a's hold that lead and 89 pitches for dave steve is a lot more than for some other guys because of the hard slider and a little bit more strain on the elbow the a's with good speed on the bases and great speed at the plate akko works and it's high some people felt that this is the game the blue jays had to have on the road with steve their ace going and then when he did get a lead also well maybe the blue jays can split here and if todd pitches well tomorrow stonemeyer we really got something anderson stays alive spoiling the 2-2 pitch tomorrow's match-up certainly favors oakland mike moore at 19 and 11. todd stottlemyer the youngster at 7-7 the a's had stewart win 21 and two others storm davis and mike moore win 19. no american league team has had a pair of 20-game winners since the tony larussa managed white sox of 83 with dave duncan as the pitching coach lamar hoyt and richard dotson each reached the 20-win plateau hoyt won the cyonk hit him hit him to load the vases barry weinberg the trainer is going to be out ricky henderson in that crouch don't know if he's looking breaking ball the ball and i'm sure actor was to try was trying to throw it up and in but it just tailed in even more and ricky with the count what it was two and two was trying to protect the outer half of the plate i didn't see if it hit him on the wrist on that bone right above the hand but that's a bad spot if it did barry weinberg the trainer freezing it for him it looks to be just above the wrist left forearm larussa out there and the next hitter lansford peering over little freezing agent the ethyl fluoride to help temporarily prevent some swelling in the air and they'll get an ice back on as soon as they can you can see how much ricky his head has all but in the strike zone and striding and diving into the ball and the ball just keeps following he can't get out of the way [Applause] i don't think you can talk about all the sluggers in the american leg now that anybody gets thrown as close to ricky more often because something he's a hot dog he intimidates you on the bases the pitchers get upset at him that's not to say acker was throwing him he wasn't with two on in that count bases loaded one out remember the a's grounded into 163 double plays this year easily the most in the majors crowner to short they're going to turn it fernandez deliriano take out slide and the throw gets away ricky henderson made the play there's going to be a big argument they're going to ask for a call out at first base and according to the line of the rule they should call him out he slid but at the completion of the slide the instructions for the empire say he's got to still be able to come in contact with that base i mean stoodheart fernandez is arguing with dale ford cedar gas does not yet come out it's the kind of slide you want the man's on your team consent uh lancer one of those very guilty all year long um hitting in the double plays and what a jump ricky henderson had with the bases load he's gonna get it and here comes david casey keep on going he's not out of the line that's a legal slide until he went well past the bag that's the letter of the rule and of course dale ford may be thinking of intent of course by the time he goes past the bag it's not to get luriano because luriano was out of his path at that point so two runs score and conseco bats taking strike one hair on luriano what an aggressive slide by ricky henderson the bar where the base is loaded what a jump you get oh the middle infielder's at your mercy you get a good aggressive lead as ricky down the 01 pitch strike two several a's hit into more than 20 double plays individually this year lansford was one of them they're 163 as a team was just eight short of the record set by the plotting red sox in both 82 and 83 and that one looked made to order but henderson turned in a key play conseco strikes out on three pitches but some big damage has been done three runs come home two of them unearned back after so suddenly the blue jays trail for the first time in the game and let me correct something i said toward the end of the inning as stewart goes to work here in the seventh against masili and lee fouls it away only one of the three runs are unearned because officially you can't assume a double play even though had lyriano's throw been true they would have gotten it you've got to count to get yours and check her money order for six dollars to work charitable work dave stewart does in this area he's an oakland native went to saint elizabeth's high school he gives about a quarter million dollars each year out of his own pocket to various area youth organizations the boys clubs literacy programs anti-drug efforts he did not have a few years ago the best image of any player in baseball but that has been completely turned around he's one of the game's good guys had a chance that last inning or so to see how tony roose and dave duncan work their bullpen did honey cut up honey cut up looking for mosby wilson mcgriff and then eckersley got up but because stewart had just a nine-pitch inning even two balls were hit hard eckersley sat right back down so they're not gonna let him blow himself away or throw too many pitches in the bullpen and apparently when stewart came back in he must have told a russian then duncan hey look nine pitch inning i think i can finish it off for you he sat right on the bench put the jacket on the x sat right back down there is an art when to get people up when not to perhaps the master is whitey herzog so you don't blow your bullpen away before they get in the game [Music] steinbach one for three a single and two strikeouts ward's ahead of him one and two under jimmy williams and in fairness to jimmy tom henke was not effective early in the year the bullpen was juggled so that ward for a while was the closer when cedaw gaston took over he said the first priority here is to get the bullpen back in order with henke at the bottom and the bottom fell out of that as steinbeck gets the dubious hat trick terry strikes out three times tonight on nbc after your late local news at least in most parts of the country tonight's show starring johnny carson well let me ask you someone by david letterman i mean in the event that this game would go a long time against tai i don't know right which of those three might they scratch where our audience would not see it is there anything that could be just pushed off there do they just go on with the programming i believe that would work in inverse order that's just a wild guess but it's my notion here [Music] dwayne ward's stuff can be awesome the throw in the high 90s a great sneaker you've struggled lately you were talking about haki struggling early at the end of last season ward pretty much became the closer last few months and then in spring training and control problems he can be awesome and then he can just for some reason lose his stuff or the strike zone he's got a great arm catchers hate to catch him you see more pass balls wild pitchers with him on the mound because his ball runs all over the place so let's pause briefly here tony for station identification on the nbc television network here's a 2-0 pitch to tony phillips drifts outside 3-0 bob costas with tony kubick at the coliseum in oakland game one of the american league playoffs five three a's as they bat in the last half of the eighth phillips has had a big night a double a bunt single a stolen base and a strike call by the way jay leno is guest hosting the tonight show this evening and our own ahmad rashad is among david letterman's guests [Music] gallego next in the 3-1 pitch [Music] the scheduled hitters in the 9th as larussa mulls his decision or perhaps he's already made it he can let stewart go back out or bring in eckersley but eckersley isn't throwing fernandez wit and gruber are the scheduled toronto hitters here's the payoff inside neil austin now the way they've run off the pitcher combination to this point you might expect some movement again ceo gaston allows john mclaren his third base coach a former catcher to call his pitch out that's what ernie will be looking in on not at mclaren that is al whitmar the pitching coach right there mclaren seated in a crouch i see him go to some signs to his face if he wants a good job gallego hits one off his fist in the shallow center field mosby coming on can't get there and it bounces by him phillips to third and maybe more being waved home by lachman here's the throw by bardstown george bell hustling over from left after mosby took a spill and firing at home on the fly the a's are always aggressive lachman did the right thing he waved phillips home but bell gets him at the plate well lloyd mosby full he's playing deeply he took a step back can't get it can't smother it and look where hernandez comes and george bell waves them off and this is the book they're going to run george bell's elbows well folks a lot of strength on that throw the block off by witt he keeps him off the plate and the call by davey phillips a very very aggressive play by latchman phillips and a super throw by george bell i remember these blue jays outfielders are used to playing deeply in the sky dope and an artificial surface the ball gets to more quickly bale ran 100 yards to get that ball sliced foul by henderson gallego trailing the play went all the way to third scored as a blue double and then phillips is cut down seven to two although the throw came from straight away center field has grounded out twice walked been hit by a pitch stolen a base to see if ricky does swing if getting hit near that left wrist has any effect watched him swing the weighted batman deck circle didn't see maybe having any trouble call strike two one and two although he doesn't have a hit henderson made the key play in the game knocking nelson lyriano off stride as eckersley gets ready now down in the bullpen and instead of preserving a three-all tie the throw went wild on what could have been a double play and two runs scored that's the difference this one almost gets away but a good block by wins he is leading the club in wild pitchers in fact the league and that's one of his most effective pitches he throws so hard he will bounce a lot of breaking balls some of them have gotten by catchers this year and ernie wett anticipated well played the rotation got the body out and knocked it down that was not an easy play but it's a common pitch for dwayne ward in these situations here's ward's 2-2 pitch to ricky backhanded by witten a full count as gallego dances back to third wayne ward has 13 wild pitches this season [Music] oh he'll take his chances with lansford [Applause] ernie what's going on right now this is one of those under the nine-man staff it gets away there it is whit throws to the plate now he just holds on he looked at it realized he didn't have a play and a big extra run for oakland it just seems when dwayne ward gets that man on third base he wants to overthrow things happen [Applause] his stuff is legend nelson has that kind of stuff on the other side he's got a great change but nelson's fastball is all over the place tough to catch but nelson doesn't show us hard as warp that's going to get the long slow walk out of the dugout from al woodmar [Music] baseball australians might remember this man who's been around baseball for i guess about 50 years managing pitching coach whether fairly or not as the thing was slipping away they lost 10 straight down the stretch they used jim bunning and chris short on two days rest a couple of times they had been their horses all season long and the pennants slipped out of their hands and most people observed that season up close not just players coaching men who felt that they had no business being in the first place i mean they played like 140 games like as good as they could as well as they could they were over achievers a little general mock did a great job to get him in position but that's the way of baseball you do a great job to get there and then lose at the end and everybody blames you anyway lansford hits it through the middle they've got another run it's 7-3 oakland [Music] [Applause] griffey sure has a way of being in the middle of a lot of things doesn't he and will he be here next year he started here billy martin let him run when he set the single season record for stolen bases he's an outstanding player for the yankees and he can be a free agent lansford stole 37 this year in addition to his 336 average the steals were a career high and seiko's 0 for three with a walk now it's very likely we'll see stewart in the ninth inning because it's not as close a game on the other hand a consideration for larussa is this why have stewart throw extra pitches needlessly because who knows when and for how long he'll need him later in the series plus eckersley is up again and it's been a long inning and after all the pitches that you know the situation changes again there's zach but he's stepping up on the bench even though he had the nine pitch inning the last time out but he sat quite a while on the bench with a pitching change in this city and again you maybe want to give accuracy some work because after tomorrow you got an off day heading for toronto and then it's a night game so heckersley may want to just refine a pitch and i'm going to throw an inning it's what's good about larussa and duncan they left their pitchers because their veterans determine a lot of times one-on-one well bell seemed to have kept things in reasonably good order with that great throw from center field but ward simply couldn't hold the fourth they were in a two runs down situation where with one mistake if the guy gets on base you bring the tying run to the plate who knows what might happen now they're down four you've got eckersley in the bullpen you'd have to think elvis has a better chance of coming back [Music] and ward somewhat typifies his blue jay team inconsistency that's the lady who can hang on him the offense the pitching it looks like world's champions sometimes for a stretch and then as they did the first couple months of this season you don't know what you're gonna get duncan a part of those little part of those great oakland teams caught with oakland with cleveland with baltimore toward the end not much of a hitter but a fine receiver and seiko comes up empty struck out twice goes over four with a walk but it doesn't seem to matter seven three a's right away to commercial you caught a glimpse of eckersley turning and trotting in from the bullpen so larussa has made his decision as it turns out it's not a save situation with a four run lead eckersley saved every game in the four-game sweep of the red sox last year in the playoffs and was the lcs mvp his first pitch to fernandez tony grounds it down to mcguire one out [Applause] an underrated first base we don't hear much about mcguire an outstanding throwing arm i don't know any reliever can come in and leave the league i guess there are some but who can come in and spot the ball under any circumstance where he wants to off any kind of pitchers mound like eckersley it's a hard sinker tanders obviously with his delivery give him a little more trouble in the right-handed hitters back door the curveball on you it's only walked three all season about a strikeout printing pitch a ball inside the width that truly bears repeating three walks in 57 and two thirds with 55 strikeouts 1-1 to ernie will remember when joe dimaggio came out here as a coach from charlie findlay and that big year reggie had with quite a bit of help from the yankee clipper joe d across the bridge in san francisco looks pretty good yet in fact how come at his age he looks better than you and me well well what to you pose these rhetorical questions fella nodding is that that's dick butler supervisor umpires and dick wagner used to be the gm at houston and big red machine cincinnati one-two pitch to whit on the fifth here's canseco going back and as he makes the catch let me adjust the statement i made about him a moment ago he did go over four but it was worse than i said he struck out three times tonight not two looks like his mates will get it done without a big contribution from last year's mvp [Applause] the kind of game when you're ahead first game in the league championship series on the road you don't like to get let get away with your ace on the mound dave steve ruber oh for two of the walk they had a 3-1 lead with steve and knowing that tomorrow afternoon they've got the inexperienced todd stottlemyer a 500 pitcher against 19-game winner mike moore their realistic objective was to come out of here with a split and tonight was their best chance well they got a little power from mcguire and dave henderson and then some very aggressive base running and dave stewart just hung in there didn't he one-two pitch down the right-field line canseco chasing it and jose makes a nice running catch so there's his contribution to a 7-3 a's win in game one [Music] [Applause] it took a while for the fans here to stir was almost eerily quiet for the first four or five innings maguire's lead off homer in the sixth brought them to their feet hayes wound up scoring three runs in that inning and that man ricky henderson made the key play lansford with the bases loaded and won out hit what appeared to be a double play ball to short fernandez flipped to lariano had the pivot and throw been good the tie would have been preserved henderson knocked lyriano off stride the throw went wild two runs scored and the a's win 7-3 fans about 50 000 of them a capacity crowd file out of the oakland coliseum

Channel: 1980s Sports Home

Views: 5,190

Keywords: 1980s, MLB, Canseco, Mark Mcguire, Bash Brothers, Dave Stewart

Id: uEp263rSfQk

Length: 98min 0sec (5880 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020