A’s Can’t Escape Role as Favorites : La Russa Begs to Differ, but Most Think Oakland Has Clear Edge Over Blue Jays

OAKLAND —  The worst thing the Toronto Blue Jays ever did for their reputation happened last weekend.

They won their division title.

Until then, Toronto was the white-collar town with the shrinking-collar baseball team. Chokers de Canada. For the last five years, the Blue Jays have been the great underachievers of the American League, presumed to be loaded with talent and lacking in character, an extravagant waste of baseball ability.

Then they finally do what they’re supposed to do--beat out the Baltimore Orioles and win the Eastern Division championship--and by the time they arrive in Oakland, they find out they’re hopelessly in over their heads.

“A’s in five,” was the consensus around the batting cage during Monday’s pre-playoff workout. All of a sudden, the Blue Jays don’t have the pitching, don’t have the hitting and don’t have any business sharing prime time with the American League representative in what will surely be a Bay Area World Series.

So what happened to the conventional wisdom on the way to the Left Coast?

Athletics’ Manager Tony La Russa would like to know.

“These are the (same) Blue Jays we’ve been watching the last couple of years,” La Russa said. “They remind us of us a lot.

“You don’t look forward to facing their starters and you don’t look forward to getting into their bullpen. And the way they come at you offensively . . . they’re not one-dimensional. They have some power and they have some speed. They have right-handed hitting and left-handed hitting.

“They have a lot of ways to beat you, and I’m not woofing--playing Lou Holtz. They’re a good club.”

Unlike Holtz, the Notre Dame coach who never met an opponent he couldn’t hype, La Russa has reason to be leery of Toronto as his A’s begin the playoffs tonight.

It has something to do with Mickey Hatcher and Kirk Gibson and 104 victories going down the drain in 1988.

Oakland pitcher Dave Stewart said: “When we went to the World Series (last year), the Dodgers weren’t as good as us. But they won. It all comes down to playing hard and playing better in a seven-game series.”

And the 1989 Blue Jays, most assuredly, have a better-rounded team than the ’88 Orels. Take a glimpse at a few matchups:

--Jose Canseco vs. George Bell. Canseco won the American League MVP trophy in 1988; Bell won it in ’87. Canseco hit 17 home runs and drove in 57 runs in 65 games. Bell hit 18 home runs and drove in 104 runs in 153 games, although the first 36 were spent chafing under the managerial regime of Jimy Williams. He also batted .297.

--Mark McGwire vs. Fred McGriff. Toronto wins the tale of two first basemen. McGriff batted .269 with 36 home runs and 92 RBIs. McGwire finished with a .231 average, 33 home runs and 95 runs batted in.

--Carney Lansford vs. Kelly Gruber. Lansford lost the AL batting title to Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett on the final day of regular season, .338 to .336. Although Toronto’s third baseman, Gruber, batted 46 points lower (.290), he had 16 more home runs (18 to two) and 21 more RBIs (73 to 52).

--Dennis Eckersley vs. Tom Henke. Because he has 33 saves, a 1.56 earned-run average and last year’s playoff MVP award, Eckersley is the reliever of renown in the American League. But Henke, despite an awful start, finished with eight wins, 20 saves and a 1.92 ERA--with an 0.92 mark after Gaston replaced Williams. “When he turned it around,” McGriff says, “we turned it around.”

--Dave Stewart vs. Dave Stieb. Tonight’s starting pitchers. Stewart went 21-9 and will probably finish second to Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen in the AL Cy Young award balloting. Stieb went 17-8 and will probably finish the AL Cy Young balloting without a mention.

But the two own virtually identical ERAs (Stewart’s is 3.32, Stieb’s is 3.35), and Stieb has the superior hits-to-innings pitched ratio. He also held opposing hitters to a .219 batting average. Stewart’s mark in the same category: .264.

One more item of interest:

At 99-63, Oakland finished with 10 more victories than Toronto. But since switching managers--they were 12-24 and grousing their loudest under Williams--the Blue Jays are 28 games over .500 (77-49) and two games better than the A’s over the same span.

To call this series a mismatch may be missing the point. As McGriff puts it: “George Bell’s one of the best hitters in the league. Reporters may give him a hard time, but the guy can flat out hit. We’ve still got (Lloyd) Moseby, Gruber. You can’t take us for granted.”

There are reasons why the A’s are favored, of course. The midseason addition of Rickey Henderson gives Oakland one dimension Toronto can’t possibly equal. After Stewart, Oakland can come back with two 19-game winners (Mike Moore and Storm Davis), followed by a 17-game winner (Bob Welch). The A’s are also driven to erase the memories of last October, which first means a return visit to the World Series.

And then there is Toronto’s track record in series of significance. During the last five years, the Blue Jays have blown a 3-1 playoff advantage to Kansas City (1985), lost seven consecutive games down the stretch to Detroit (1987) and were outlegged to another division championship by an inferior Boston team (1988).

It is a past that will dog the Blue Jays until they reach their first World Series, and a psychological edge Oakland will attempt to exploit, which is why Gaston goes to great pains trying to absolve his players.

“In ‘85, we won the AL East and lost to Kansas City after being up, three games to one. But they did the same thing to St. Louis in the World Series,” Gaston said.

“I look back at 1987 and remember us having two guys on the DL at the end. I’d like to play that week again with Tony Fernandez and Ernie Whitt in our lineup.

“And in ‘88, Jimmy Key missed something like 75 days and we wound up finishing two games back.

“So, I don’t buy this thing about us not being able to win big games.”

The biggest games the Blue Jays have seen in a while are now upon them. And they approach them without the potential for easy alibi.

They have no serious injuries.

They have none of the pressure that accompanies a team expected to win.

For once, Toronto comes in undervalued and overlooked.

“We have a mission,” Moseby says. “We’re the underachievers. We’re the underdogs. We have the motivation.”

We’ll see what they do with it.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

OAKLAND vs. TORONTO

DATE SITE TIME Game 1 Today Oakland 5:24 p.m. Game 2 Wed. Oakland 12:06 p.m. Game 3 Fri. Toronto 5:20 p.m. Game 4 Sat. Toronto 10:06 a.m. Game 5* Sun. Toronto 1:36 p.m. Game 6* Oct.10 Oakland 5:20 p.m. Game 7* Oct.11 Oakland 5:20 p.m.

* IF NECESSARY ALL TIMES PACIFIC

WAIT TILL 1990

No matter whether it’s the Angels or Dodgers, each team needs to make out its shopping list. Stories, Page 3.