The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 31

)l C4 Saturday October 18 1997 BASEBALL The Sacramento Bee Beane takes over for Alderson INDIANS US MARLINS HO THEY MATCH UP Cleveland Jim Thome is the package he hits tor a good average with excellent power and no empty-calorie stats Thome successful conversion from third base to first which opened a spot for Matt Williams in the infield may have been the best move of the offseason Flonda Jefi Conine is one of the two remaining players from the Marlins inaugural season five years ago he suffered a huge offensive drop-off from his performances in 1994 and 95 Edge: Indians most glaring need continues to be i pitching 1 need starting he said got kids who showed last season they can be like (Jimmy) Haynes and (Brad) Rig- by But they need to be put in a position in the tail-end of rotation need starters who have had success and shown durability to carry the load and take pressure off the young i i By trading Berroa and McGwire the ended up with a 1997 payroll of slightly more than $143 the second-lowest in base- ball Beane also said it is that Jose Canseco will be back in 1998 which will free up an additional $5 million for next season i still got a long ways to go in a process that started a couple of years Beane said see a bright future on the field in the next couple of years will be the first winter in the last four we can actually look to add players instead of worrying about next to Former GM will remain team president By Jim Van Vliet Bee Staff Writer Filling the shoes of Sandy Alderson the architect of three World Series teams in Oakland be easy So new general manager Billy Beane said he even try first order of business will be to simplify the vocabulary a little said Beane who will succeed the Harvard-educated Aider-son Alderson who left his law practice to join the in 1981 officially relinquished his title to his assistant of 3Vi years on Friday Alderson 49 will remain with the club as resident and will oversee the day-to-day operations very proud of what Billy has done as a player a scout and as my Alderson said has demonstrated all of the you well know a lot of work to Beane will oversee a continuing rebuilding process in Oakland which has seen the rush through young talent and lose established veterans en route to three straight second-division finishes in the American League West Alderson who guided the to the World Series in 1988-90 said demolition phase is in referring to the losses of such veterans as Dennis Eckersley Terry Steinbach Mike Bordick Mark McGwire and Geronimo Berroa over the last two seasons we can be aggressive and can concentrate on rebuilding We need someone devoting full attention to the acquisition of players And with the other duties of my job I do that any The decision to promote Beane was made at the organizational meeting last week in Phoenix where the team prioritized needs and formulated a game plan Beane acknowledged the Both teams have two choices here albeit for different reasons The Indians supplanted veteran Tony Fernandez with speedy Bip Roberts after getting Roberts in a late-season trade with Kansas City Both are switch hitters allowing manager Mike Hargrove to deploy them as he sees fit The Marlins use Crag Counsell against right-handed pitchers and Kurt Abbott against left-handers which means Counsell will draw the starts against Cleveland all-right-handed starting rotation Edge: Indians What people had been saying all season about Florida Edgar Renteria became obvious during the first playoff series against the Giants The kid can play Renteria and Cleveland Omar Vizquel in fact form one of the closest matchup decisions on the field Both have great gloves (Vizquel has won four straight Gold Gloves) both are stolen-base threats and both have struggled significantly at the plate during the postseason Vizquel normally would get the nod but he enters the Series having collected one hit in his last 25 at-bats Edge: Even Cleveland Williams remains the model of understated performance The former Giant had 32 homers and 105 RBI in a down year but his 263 average doesn't accurately reflect his contribution he hit 309 over the final two months when the Indians won the American League Central Florida Bobby Bonilla is one of the most dangerous hitters on either team and is developing a knack for the dramatic blow but if this Series turns on defense he a liability out there Edge: Indians Kreldler: Hernandez distinguishes reality Moises Alou has been an absolute zero in the postseason and sore wrist or no sore wrist you just expect that to continue Look for Alou one of the offensive pillars of Florida team with his 1 15 regular-season RBI to bust out somewhere along the line and if he does it will likely change the outcome of a game to the Marlins good Hargrove late Friday announced that David Justice a designated hitter for much of the season will start in left field for the games in Miami That's great news for the Indians Justice not only ripped up A pitching this season after being traded from Atlanta but he probably knows the Florida staff as well as anybody on Cleveland team Edge: Marlins Cleveland's Marquis Grissom wasn't great this season Florida's Devon White wasn't even there for much of it While White at least could look to injury to explain his halting performance case was more elusive He struggled after his spring-training trade from the Braves and really hit his stride (or hit his weight) until Hargrove moved him from the top to the bottom of the order But Grissom has been a giant Series performer the past two years with a 404 average White remains an athletic-enough fielder and as the Giants could tell you he still knows how to deliver the key hit Edge: Indians Injury will not keep Bonilla out of lineup The most dangerous hitter in this Series7 It's the Gary Sheffield and notwithstanding a brutally disappointing regular season Sheffield can be pouty he can make the easy play in the field look downright impossible But he knows how to swing the bat and how to take a walk (1 21 during the season) and he scored six runs in six games against the Braves in the NLCS Manny Ramirez remains enigmatic in right a powerful but maddeningly free-swinging hitter and a stone-gloved fielder He could win a game with one swing Edge: Marlins For years Sandy Alomar Jr was one of great what-ifs a catcher too often injured to fulfill the promise of his baseball bloodline But Alomar is charmed in 1997 the closest thing the Indians have to a spiritual presence if he's at the plate late in a game everyone in the park seems to understand find a way to deliver Flonda Charles Johnson was until this month the best-kept secret in baseball a brilliant defensive player and game-caller with a knack for the well-timed hit His 160 playoff average still produced seven RBI in nine games Edge: Even Billy Beane The new general manager has been a player and a scout for the qualities and capabilities of filling the job He will bring energy and insight to the At 35 Beane will be among the youngest general managers in baseball Beane said ready to accept the responsibility is something looked forward to doing since I was he said always wanted to run a ballclub been a great situation here as a player and a scout To be around people like Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan and then segue to the front office with Alderson who I believe is the best in the business has been a great training ground feel totally prepared But as Associated Press photograph How superstitious is Indians fan Janine Petersen? She said she will wear these clothes until the World Series is over from dozens of reporters at his news conference going to be like a Leyland said it is coed I can tell you that But the fun Marlins fan is killed A fan who wanted to display a banner on a commuter train overpass was killed before dawn Friday when an unmanned remote-control car rolled into him on a downtown rail loop in Miami The man died instantly and his name was withheld while investigators tried to locate relatives at Florida (Hernandez 9-3) 5 05 at Florida (Brown 16-8) 4 35 Cleveland (Nagy 1 5-1 1 5 20 4-6) at Cleveland (Wright 8-3) 5 20 5 20 Florida 5pm Florida 4 35 Livan Hernandez (9-3 3 18 regular season 2-0 1 23 postseason) It's impossible to overstate Hernandez importance to the team right now With Alex Fernandez injured up to the rookie from Cuba to reprise his masterful performance from the NLCS when he shut down the Braves so convincingly The highest compliment that can be paid Hernandez is that he almost never looks like a rookie out there but there's always a first time The flamethrower has struck out 19 in 14 postseason innings Mark Kreldler This one's a walkover no matter the formula Justice slips right back into his DH role for the games in Cleveland as he did during the season when he pounded 33 home runs and 101 RBI Brian Giles replaces Justice in left Flonda will go with either Darren Daulton or Jim Eisenreich for the DH-eligible games Both played on Philadelphia's 1993 World Series team Daulton supplies the sock and Eisenreich is a recurring threat to make contact Edge: Indians Starting Roberts at second base allows Hargrove to use Fernandez off the bench a great weapon and Cleveland backs that up with experienced veterans such as Pat Borders and Kevin Seitzer (though Seitzer went 0 for 8 during the A playoffs) Florida manager Jim Leyland can be picky he has Abbott John Cangelosi Alex Arias Daulton and Eisenreich among others available for spot duty and pinch-hitting appearances Edge: Marlins I hi 1 I li I I I i I I Bee News Services MIAMI Bobby Bonilla who has played with pain all season expects to do so again in his first World Series The Florida third baseman said a strained left hamstring keep him out of Game 1 tonight when the Marlins play the Cleveland Indians feels pretty he said Friday been through a great deal It has taken me a great deal to get here so I plan on missing The Marlins were so confident in availability that they replaced reserve infielder John Wehner with first baseman-outfielder Cliff Floyd on the postseason roster Wehner can play third Floyd Bonilla said he felt something pop in his hamstring while fielding a grounder in the eighth inning of the pennant-clinching victory Tuesday in Atlanta He immediately came out of the game and fielded a grounder since although he took batting practice Thursday Welcome to Hotel Leyland Jim Leyland in the World Series for the first time is living a fairy-tale existence Specifically the fairy tale of the three bears wife rented eight beds today that were brought to my house in the manager said be honest I know who the hell is staying at my That line provoked laughter Schedule Game 1: Today Cleveland (Hershisher Game 2: Sunday Cleveland (Ogea 8-9) Game 3: Tuesday Florida (Leiter 1 1 -9) Game 4: Wednesday Florida (Saunders Game 5: Thursday Florida at Cleveland Game 6: Saturday Oct 25 Cleveland at Game 7: Sunday Oct 26 Cleveland at TV: BfiM if necessary at ity from the games not even on the eve of the World Series just a group of guys playing together for a common cause playing for a goal playing for a ring playing for each other and something that years down the road you can look back at and be happy Hernandez said through an interpreter Cuba something that you were chosen to do you were selected to do and you basically just played it for roughly translated for something that you even aware of what you were Livan Hernandez? be all right Jim Leyland will be all right So much has been made of finally breaking through reaching the World Series after falling short three years in a row with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the early 1990s But really Leyland is just part of the demographic The Marlins as a team know from Fall Classics and over the next week learn whether that is their great blessing or their undoing They have four players on the 25-man roster who have been to the Series before White Daulton Jim Eisenreich and Al Leiter and only White will likely be out there every day It can work either way These Marlins particularly know about World Series pressure The good news is they much remember the past five years either it seems like a lot said Florida first base-man Jeff Conine one of two remaining players from the expansion team in 1993 you go through four years of losing seasons -162 games a year it seems It ended in 1997 despite all of the weirdness or maybe even in concert with it Hernandez came on as a real force Kevin Brown became barely hittable around the league (and unhittable by the Giants) and Huizenga disrupted the good vibe by announcing midsummer that now that he had inflated salary structure with some of his behemoth deals it turned out he was losing money on the proposition he would put the team up for sale Huizenga for myself and the players is a great owner anybody that would go out and do what he did for the ballclub so we want to lose Leyland said felt all along and I feel to this moment that Wayne business not my Well yes and no Leyland does not exist in Florida if not for Huizenga who may now be hedging somewhat on his sell decision And the Marlins most likely'do not exist here in October of 1997 without Jim Leyland And without the Marlins of course the Indians are just another team trying to win a World Series Instead they get to be (he staid old guard the group with the poise experience and nerves to win it all The smart money says thq Indians will do just that The humid slightly clammy money left of it that fly out of your wallet at the dog track that money goes with the team in teal Teal in October: very contrasty MARK KREIDLER can be reached at (916) 321-1149 or write him at Box 1 5779 Sacramento 95852 Continued from page Cl pearance between the nonsense about the suffering Cleveland fan seems laughable You want bitterness? Go commiserate with the Cubs all the bile you could ever hope to process Nevertheless the Indians don the garb of leathery old coot in this baseball play with the Marlins taking the role of gleefully naive child It took the giddy Floridians all of five seasons to hit the Series an occurrence that ought to send shudders down the crooked spines of right-thinking fans everywhere But the truth is just about impossible to find too much objectionable in a place discovering baseball anew Even two years ago the forcible expansion into South Florida another league needing its Wayne Huizen-ga fix was looking like a colossal misreading of the market Now Miami stands on the verge of becoming a legitimate place to feed and house an actual franchise Marlins have a very good ballclub very good said Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove got a few good friends on that ballclub and the hard work put in getting here No I think fantastic to come to South Florida and play the World Series It bother me at hard to know really just how to react to the Marlins They finished with the second-most victories in the National League They dominated the Atlanta Braves during the regular season and in the National League Championship Series They have Jim Leyland as their manager and Leyland is the epitome of legitimacy in this league And yet there is no getting around the fact that when his other plans for building a winner failed to bear fruit Huizenga went out and purchased himself one The owner of the Miami Dolphins the Florida Panthers and the Blockbuster Video empire among other treasures Huizenga spent the past offseason in a wild baseball buying spree committing himself to $89 million in long-term contracts in a desperate effort to circumvent the entire farm-system process Bobby Bonilla Moises Alou Livan Hernandez Dennis Cook Leyland Result: whoa This is a good deep and enormously confident Florida team leavened by the veteran presence of people like White and Leyland and Darren Daulton but buoyed by the irrepressible enthusiasm of kids like Hernandez the 22-year-old Cuban defector who will be the starting pitcher tonight Hernandez against postseason grandpa Hershiser? Right a game of contrasts Hernandez walked around in a happy daze Friday a man just impossible to ruffle He is one of those people whose roundish face makes him seem even younger than he is and it belies the enormity of what he has gone through to get here Like most defectors family remains in Cuba Like many defecting baseball players his first year in the States was one of wildly erratic performance And unlike so many of his oft-dour US-born colleagues Hernandez has absolutely no problem separating the real The Alex Fernandez injury comes into play here diminishing a Florida rotation that otherwise seems the clear pick over Cleveland's all-righty combination Florida rookie Uvan Hernandez the star of the NLCS needs to come up huge again in Game 1 which is asking a lot of a 22-year-old But if he can the Marlins then can turn to Kevin Brown in Game 2 which eases the burden of using either Tony Saunders or Al Letter down the line Cleveland goes with Orel Hershiser in Game 1 but the Indians' real wild card is rookie Jaret Wright They'll get decent efforts out of Charles Nagy and if needed Chad Ogea Edge: Marlins Dennis Cook was unbelievable for the Marlins against the Giants and he hasn't given up a hit yet in 5V3 postseason innings But Cook aside Florida's bullpen can get shaky very fast Cleveland brings more to the mix with Brian Anderson Eric Plunk and Paul Assenmacher capable of handing the ball over to set-up man Mike Jackson who had a good season and has been positively brilliant in October Opponents hit a collective 148 against Jackson during the playoffs Edge: Indians Neither of these guys inspires a ton of confidence Robb Nen was exquisitely hittable during the year and wound up with nine victories an unconscionable total for a relief ace Cleveland which started the season with Jackson in this role goes with Jose Mesa who allowed 83 hits in 82V3 innings and was bounced around pretty good in the playoffs If the Series comes down to these two look out below Edge: Marlins Jim Leyland will be the first to tell you that he left Pittsburgh to manage in Florida because the Marlins were going to spend the money to make Leyland look like a genius again They did and he did Leyland knows how to run a game and he knows how to make players go to the wall for him Hargrove had to endure the criticism of his own general manager John Hart when Hart felt that the Indians were underperforming during this season But Hargrove held the center together made the right moves down the stretch and guided his bunch past the two tougnest tests in the A the Yankees and Orioles Edge: Marlins It matters and the Indians have a ton of it Cleveland's roster includes 15 players with at least one World Series behind them the Marlins just four And several of the Indians veterans are at the key positions Hershiser Grissom Justice Mesa Experience assures nothing of course but would you rather have it or not? Edge: Indians Today's starting pitching matchup Alomar tied a seemingly certain loss to the Yankees with a homer won a game against Baltimore with a shot to the wall the Indians beat the Orioles in Baltimore to wrap up the pennant The Marlins meanwhile became the first wild-card team to advance to the World Series and they turned back the Giants and Braves decisively in doing it Edge: Indians Orel Hershiser (14-6 4 47 regular season 0-0 2 45 postseason) Hershiser is considered the consummate October warrior a former World Series MVP with an 8-1 lifetime record in postseason play Few who were around for the 1995 Series will forget the bipolar Hershiser inexplicably asking out of Game 1 claiming he had run out of gas and leaving his teammates baffled and then turning around in Game 5 to deliver one of his great performances to push the Series to a sixth game He was nearly untouchable in this year's ALCS Cleveland has Jacobs Field one of the finest and most loving dedications to baseball constructed in the last 25 years Florida has Pro Player Stadium which once was called Pro Player Park which before that was known as Joe Robbie Stadium and which above all is a football facility And could someone turn down the music7 We wore hoping to hear you know the game Edge: Indians The pick: Cleveland In six 4 Mark Kroidler.