Winning an American League pennant means losing your designated hitter during part of the World Series, so it is just as well the White Sox did not advance.
Imagine the controversy that would have occurred this week, when the tournament moves to Philadelphia. The White Sox can’t stay happy attempting to cram all that talent into 10 places on the lineup card. Nine would be impossible, unfair, or, as George Bell might say, cruel.
Somehow, you expect the Toronto Blue Jays to survive, though. They beat the White Sox on merit, and that includes attitude. Lopping one man off the Blue Jays’ attack is infinitely more damaging to them than depriving the White Sox of, say, Bo Jackson. But the Blue Jays will handle the problem just as surely and deftly as they handled the White Sox.
The Blue Jays didn’t exactly wilt Saturday night, either, at the sight of the cantankerous Phillies. Game 1 of the Fall Classic was a clean kill for the defending champions, who waxed Philadelphia 8-5 at the SkyDome. The local government, in an effort to satisfy the Phillies’ needs, ruled that city bars could stay open until 2 a.m., an hour later than usual. Besides that, and allowing the Phillies a quick 2-0 lead, Toronto wasn’t especially hospitable.
John Olerud broke a 4-4 tie with home run in the sixth inning, which brings the Blue Jays to the issue of what happens for Game 3 in the City of Brotherly Love Tuesday night. With the Phillies at home, National League rules apply, so that cancels the infernal DH mechanism. It could also mean Olerud grabs some bench, and all he did this season was flirt with the .400 mark before slumping miserably to a final average of .363.
Olerud plays first base and plays it well. But his position might be the safest place to give a glove to Paul Molitor, the Blue Jays’ most dangerous offensive weapon. Molitor is Toronto’s customary DH, but he did log 23 games at first base during the regular season. Ed Sprague, the Blue Jays’ third baseman, is eminently more deserving of a seat than either Olerud or Molitor. Then again, what about Molitor in left field for Rickey Henderson?
“Only if the rest of our team dies,” says manager Cito Gaston, “will you see Molitor there.”
Gaston isn’t thrilled about the prospect of putting Molitor at third, either, which is why he calls this mess unfair. It is, but it’s always been. Starting in 1986, the DH has been used in every World Series but only when the American League team is at home. Before then, the DH was plugged into World Series, all games, during alternate years.
Conventional World Series wisdom is that a National League team can adjust better by merely adding a hitter than an American League team can by subtracting its usual 10th man from a lineup that has served all season. Gaston won’t argue the point. Somehow, he will wind up with a pretty good bat-Molitor, Olerud or Sprague-beside him in the dugout as a potential pinch hitter in Philadelphia. Thing is, Gaston used a pinch hitter only 27 times in 162 games.
“Exactly,” said Philadelphia manager Jim Fregosi. “That’s why I don’t think it’s an advantage to us at all. We build our benches in the National League for specific purposes. Role players for certain situations. You construct a ballclub different in our league than you do in theirs. And our bench has helped us win a lot of games.”
Indeed, the Phillies’ substitutes amassed 50 hits in 198 at-bats.
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If the Blue Jays continue to tee off as they did Saturday night, the DH factor might cease to matter. Should they win again Sunday and go to Philadelphia up 2-0 in games, defense would be of paramount importance.
That would mean Molitor sits and waits. Last October in Atlanta, Olerud bowed so Dave Winfield, the Blue Jays’ usual DH, could go play outfield while Joe Carter went to first. For the record, Olerud and Molitor say they will accept whatever Gaston decides. No complaints. Champions being champions. Are the White Sox listening?