The San Francisco Giants may spend the winter viewed as losers instead of as the winners they were for most of 1989.
That can happen when you lose in October, especially via a sweep."There is only one team that can come out a winner and keep playing," Giants first baseman Will Clark said Saturday night after the Oakland Athletics closed out the World Series with a 9-6 victory. "How can you be ashamed of what we did?
"I don't know if anyone picked us higher than fourth coming out of spring training. We kept coming back. We battled until the end."
There was a mixture of tears, smiles and hugs in the clubhouse after the Giants held a short meeting.
"I have no reason to hang my head, no reason whatsoever," said Clark, who had one hit in Game 4. "I went out there in the middle of February until tonight and gave (Manager) Roger Craig everything I had.
"I'm not commenting on the A's. They're a good ballclub, a very, very good ballclub. But with four days off (after the playoffs), two (World Series) games, an earthquake, 10 days off and then we played two games, it's not what you would call a run-of-the-mill baseball season."
Starter Don Robinson, who yielded four runs in 1 2/3 innings, said the sweep does not make the Series defeat extra painful.
"Four games is all it takes to win," Robinson said. "Four-0 or 4-3, it doesn't make any difference to me. When they won four, they won.
"I don't think we played our best ball. We won the National League pennant with the second best pitching in the league."
Mike LaCoss, touched for three runs in relief of Robinson, said the Athletics are loaded with weapons.
"They have it all going right now," he said. "It seemed when they got the pitches to hit, they hit them. When they needed to make defensive plays, they made them. Plus, we faced two guys (Series MVP Dave Stewart and Mike Moore) who threw well all year and threw well in the World Series."
San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos told as many players as he could that the city was proud of them.
"The fans never gave up, the team never gave up," he said. "That's why we're all winners."