NOTES : Sting of Racism Isn’t Forgotten by Gaston

ATLANTA —  Manager Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays recalls being forced to bunk in segregated housing in Waycross, Ga., in 1964, his first spring training with the then-Milwaukee Braves. He will never forget the sting of being denied entrance to restaurants in the South.

“There were places where you couldn’t get off (the team bus) and get food, and my teammates had to get me food,” he said. “I had one of my teammates tell me, ‘I know how you feel,’ and I said, ‘No disrespect intended, but you’ll never know how I feel.’ ”

Although those overt displays of racism are gone, subtle forms survive. Gaston said Friday that he is disheartened that no blacks have been seriously considered for any of the half-dozen managerial and front-office jobs that have opened in recent months. He said that he hopes his success will lead to the hiring of other black managers, although he doubts that will happen soon.

“I didn’t see anybody interviewed in Miami, Denver, Texas, Seattle, or the one in Cincinnati,” said Gaston, the first black to manage a team in the World Series. “I don’t know how much it’s changed as of lately. At one time, it seemed there was progress. Now, it seems to be going the other way. It disappoints me. I can be upset all I want and it doesn’t matter, but it does disappoint me.”

Gaston, whose team takes a 3-2 lead over the Atlanta Braves into Game 6 tonight at Fulton County Stadium, can’t explain the nonexistent growth in the ranks of black and minority managers. Gaston is baseball’s only black manager, and Felipe Alou of the Montreal Expos is the only Latino.

Atlanta’s Lonnie Smith raised the specter of racism Thursday by saying he has been judged more harshly than other players--and unfairly accused of a baserunning blunder during Game 7 of the 1991 World Series--because, “for one thing, I’m a black man, so I’m going to be criticized.”

Said Gaston: “I’m not sure and I don’t even waste my time figuring out why people would do things like (discriminate). I don’t understand prejudice or racism, because if we all believe in God, heaven and hell, there’s definitely going to be some minorities there and you’re not going to get rid of us.

“There’s some prejudice, not only toward minorities, but toward different races. Thank God I’m not that way. . . . I don’t think it had anything to do with my managerial career, but during the time I came along (as a player), it might have had something to do with how much I played at times, but I can’t prove that.”

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All-time home run leader Hank Aaron, Gaston’s roommate with the Braves in the mid-1960s and Atlanta’s senior vice president and assistant to the president, has long criticized the lack of blacks and minorities in managerial and executive positions. He pointed to Gaston and Alou, another former teammate, as proof that race is irrelevant.

“If you have the talent, players will play for you,” Aaron said. “Cito has the respect of his players, and so does Alou.

“It’s too bad we have to deal with these kinds of things in 1992. It shouldn’t happen. You look at Cito, who won the pennant, and you look at Alou, who took a team destined to finish in last place and kept them in the race. Both of them happen to be managing in Canada. The Canadian people have always been tolerant. Jackie Robinson started his minor league career in Montreal. The Canadian people have always stood very tall in that department, and hopefully America can catch up in that regard.”

Former major leaguer Chris Chambliss interviewed for managerial jobs in Miami and Seattle, and former major leaguer Don Baylor has been mentioned repeatedly for managerial positions, but neither has been a finalist for a job.

Aaron disparaged instances of teams talking to blacks but not hiring them as “ceremonial types of interviews.”

“You’ve got two new franchises coming in, teams in Denver and Miami, and they’ve all been ceremonial interviews with blacks,” he said.

“They’re trying to pretend they’re interested in hiring black managers, but that veil, I can see through it. They did the same thing to me when I was mentioned (for a job) in the commissioner’s office. They’re just trying to please the public and then they can say, ‘He wasn’t the right man for the job,’ and hire someone else.”

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The Braves took Friday off, but the Blue Jays worked out for almost two hours. It wasn’t a taxing session. General Manager Pat Gillick threw batting practice to the amusement of pitchers and backup catcher Ed Sprague, and reserve Turner Ward toted a video camera and microphone around the field to interview teammates and Aaron.

“Cito told us one of the great mistakes he made is he never talked to you about hitting. Is that correct?” Sprague, playing the role of reporter, asked Aaron.

That drew a chuckle from Aaron, who said: “He was quite a hitter. He was a great hitting instructor and a wonderful manager.”

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Without the designated hitter in Atlanta, Gaston will again have to juggle his lineup. Against left-hander Steve Avery tonight, Gaston will have Dave Winfield play right field and move Joe Carter from right field to first base.

The Blue Jays got only five hits against Avery in Game 3, defeating him, 3-2, on Candy Maldonado’s pinch-single in the bottom of the ninth against reliever Jeff Reardon. Toronto has batted .204 during the series, and Atlanta’s .222 isn’t much better.

But with David Cone starting tonight for Toronto, Deion Sanders is sure to be in Atlanta’s lineup. Sanders was six for 10 against Cone during regular-season play and went one for two with two steals while Cone was in Game 2.

“He’s had a tremendous series,” Atlanta General Manager John Schuerholz said of Sanders, who is six for 12 with a run batted in and three steals in three games. “He’s been the catalyst for our club many times this season, especially in the first half. The excitement level and energy level of the club seems to rise when he’s in there.”

Sanders on Friday flew to Tallahassee, Fla., but not to play football. He was there to help a friend open a restaurant.

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Schuerholz disputed claims by Sid Bream and David Justice that the Braves had lacked intensity earlier in the series.

“I don’t think you can play as good a game as we did without being intense,” he said.

He also said he was unaware of reports that Justice has become alienated from his teammates since Sanders--who threw ice water on CBS announcer Tim McCarver during the Braves’ pennant-clinching celebration--threw water at Justice and accidentally hit Justice’s fiancee, actress Halle Berry.

“To my knowledge, there is not (alienation among players),” Schuerholz said.

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Thursday’s game was the most one-sided, but also the highest-rated on TV.

Atlanta’s 7-2 victory over Toronto drew a 21.6 rating, according to figures released Friday by the A.C. Nielsen Co. That means that about 20.1 million households were tuned in. A CBS estimate said that 63.8 million watched all or part of the game.

The first four games--three of which were decided by one run and a fourth by two runs--drew 15.6, 20.2, 20.8 and 18.9 ratings. With a 19.4 average rating through five games, this series remains on a pace to be the second-lowest rated since the World Series games switched to prime-time in 1971, ahead of only the earthquake-interrupted 1989 series.

Times staff writer Steven Herbert contributed to this story.