Notebook : For Reuschel, There’s Nothing Left to Say About Former Team

CHICAGO —  The moment, as expected, dripped with emotion.

What kind, nobody could be sure.

San Francisco pitcher Rick Reuschel, one day before pitching a playoff game against a Chicago Cub franchise that once considered him useless, was asked about hard feelings.

He stared as if the question concerned life on Mars.

“No feelings,” he said.

He was asked about the symbolism in facing a team to which he gave 12 seasons of his life, only to be sent to the minor leagues and then excluded from their 1984 playoff roster before finally being sent adrift as a free agent.

“Makes no difference,” he said.

He was finally asked flatly if, tonight being Game 2 of the National League championship series, there would be extra satisfaction in beating his former team.

“It sure would be nice for you guys if I would say something like that,” Reuschel said. “But I figure you can write that story without me. And you probably will.”

On the eve of the 5 p.m., PDT, game, Reuschel proved the only thing trickier than hitting his off-speed pitch is breaking his game face.

Reuschel, who has given up only three runs in 16 1/3 innings against the Cubs this year, would not talk about the Cubs. Not about his good years (1972-1981), nor his ignored years (1983-1984).

He said his most memorable game here was the first one he pitched in 1972, but then when asked about the game, he said, “I don’t remember it.”

The Giant media guide lists his home as the Chicago area, but when asked if he still lives here, he said, “I don’t remember.”

Before the 40-year-old veteran could be asked about the need for experience in the playoffs--the Cubs’ Mike Bielecki will be making only his 39th major league start--Reuschel talked about the need to eliminate people who ask questions like this.

“I never like to talk to the press, and I give the minimum cooperation I can get away with,” said Reuschel, who gave even less than that Wednesday when he refused to attend the customary pregame press conference involving the next day’s pitchers.

“I don’t think the fans need to read what I say,” he said. “If they are watching the game on television, or listening on the radio, they don’t need to read what (I) say. Nobody needs to talk to me.”

Reuschel is considered the favorite today. Bielecki, at 30, is only in his first full big-league season after being rescued from Pittsburgh last season.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Bielecki, who Wednesday couldn’t seem to talk enough.

Of all the dreams answered with this series, perhaps none is sweeter than the one belonging to Cub reserve outfielder Marvell Wynne.

He was a Chicago city high school basketball player in 1979 when he left the playground to attend, on a whim, a Kansas City Royal baseball tryout camp in nearby McKinley Park. He was joined by 200 other hopefuls.

“There was so many people, and nobody knew me, I didn’t think I had a chance,” Wynne said.

Yet he was the only one the Royals signed. Ten years later, after being traded to the Cubs this summer from San Diego, he is living with his mother in his childhood home and living out a fantasy.

“It’s strange, but I’m loving it,” said Wynne, who would be the starter if Jerome Walton’s sore right hamstring gets worse. “I’ve come a long way from the West Side, all because I took a chance. Now I’ve made my ultimate goal, right here at home.

“About the best way to describe it is, a miracle.”

On Sept. 7 in Philadelphia, Wynne’s first hit as a Cub was, well, what else? A home run.

There is a little-known family feud involved in this series: the son of Cub Manager Don Zimmer is Giant scout Tom Zimmer. Seven years ago, Tom signed a player from West Palm Beach, Fla. This week second baseman Robby Thompson could help beat the elder Zimmer.

“Sure we both want to win, but in our situations, it’s no big deal between us,” Tom Zimmer said. “The Cubs know everything about the Giants, the Giants know everything about the Cubs, so when we got together (Tuesday), we talked about his diet.”

As much as Cubs’ big-play utility infielder Domingo Ramos may worry opponents, it’s nothing compared to the way his name plays on the mind of Cub announcer Harry Caray. That’s because until a couple of days ago, Caray didn’t know Ramos’ name.

He continually called him “Pedro” Ramos, the name of a former big-league pitcher. He finally learned of his mistake when, on the air, he was discussing how the Cubs’ success is largely due to little-known players.

“Like Domingo Ramos? The guy you know as Pedro Ramos?” asked partner Dewayne Staats.

“Well,” Caray said of the 31-year-old Domingo, “he’s about as old as Pedro Ramos.”

Don Zimmer admitted Wednesday that he knew the Cubs would win the division title nearly a month before they won it. He said the vision came on Saturday, Sept. 9, a day after the Cubs had blown a 7-2 lead against St. Louis to lose, 11-8. At the time, they led the Cardinals by just one-half game.

On that Saturday, trailing the Cardinals, 2-1, in the eighth inning, Luis Salazar tied the score with a single. Then with one out in the 10th, Salazar’s run-scoring double gave the Cubs a 3-2 victory. The team won 13 of its remaining 19 games to take the championship.

“People talk a lot about turning points, well, that was the big game there,” Zimmer said. “When we walked in there Saturday morning, we had blown a big lead and we weren’t feeling too good. We were just the one-half game up and were in danger of losing it all.

“Then to win a game like we won it. That, and the game that clinched the division (title) for us, were the biggest games all year.”