Poor showing by all for A's anniversary team

September 23, 9:11 PMSF Baseball ExaminerDavid Bush

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A lean, less mean Mark McGwire

The turnout for the A’s 40^th-Anniversary Team, both in the stands and on the dais, was disappointing Sunday. The home season finale against the Seattle Mariners, preceded by what was supposed to be a celebration of the All-Time team in Oakland, drew only 18,807 or about half of what the Coliseum holds.

However the attendance of the honorees wasn’t that close to their capacity. Of the 15 selected -- nine position players, three starting pitchers, a designated hitter, a closer and a manager -- only five were on hand for the ceremony. Outfielders Joe Rudi and Rickey Henderson, pitcher Dave Stewart, catcher Terry Steinbach and shortstop Campy Campaneris were the only ones on the field to be cheered by the small but enthusiastic gathering in the stands.

Catfish Hunter, one of the starting pitchers, died in 1999, but a family member might have been invited to represent him.

Some of the other absences were excusable, most were understandable although not necessarily justifiable. Carney Lansford (third base), Dennis Eckersley (closer) and Tony La Russa (manager) all have jobs in baseball that kept them away. Each recorded a video message that was played on the scoreboard, as did Vida Blue, whose non-appearance is a little harder to explain since he did manage to make at least one game in Oakland this year.

Second baseman Mark Ellis, the only active player on the team, was undergoing surgery and outfielder Reggie Jackson was involved in the ceremonies surrounding the final game at Yankee Stadium. Dave Kingman, the DH whose tenure in Oakland was as famous for his sending a rat to a female reporter as it was for his home runs, was absent. That his unpleasant personality could have added anything to the event is doubtful. He was not missed.

And then there’s Mark McGwire, who tarnishes his already shredded reputation every day he stays in hiding. “I haven’t talked to Mac, I don’t think anyone has talked to Mac in a few years,’’ said Stewart on Sunday. “It’s too bad, because he was a great guy and a great teammate.’’

But Stewart was speaking of the McGwire he knew before the steroid accusations (the scoreboard video of some of  McGwire’s Oakland heroics showed a man large but considerably smaller than the gargantuan figure of later years) and the shameful performance before Congress. Whether the cheerful, amiable McGwire who was Rookie of the Year in 1987 will ever re-appear is questionable. But he is going to have to emerge sometime, and Sunday, with a friendly crowd and a manageable media contingent would have been a great place to start.