Bottom Line Comes First : Blue Jays: Their businesslike approach to winning leaves the players somewhat short on camaraderie.

Success speaks for itself, they emphasize, but several veteran Toronto Blue Jays put down the cellular phones each Blue Jay has in his locker long enough to wonder if this couldn’t be an even better team if it weren’t quite so dispassionate and businesslike.

“This is not to say there isn’t an intensity and focus,” pitcher Dave Stewart said before the trip to Chicago for tonight’s opener of the American League playoffs. “It’s just to say that the intensity and focus are a little different here.

“I don’t know if the guys can say they really know each other, and that hasn’t allowed us to play up to our potential.

“We had a lot of fun and laughs in Oakland. We did a lot of things and related to each other away from the ballpark that I haven’t experienced here. I was so close to Carney Lansford (former A’s third baseman) that I knew instinctively how he would react to situations on the field. I think that’s something missing here.”

A leader in Oakland, Stewart said that as a first-year man with the Blue Jays there was only so much he could attempt.

“It will be my goal next year to try and get guys together away from the park,” he said. “(Manager) Cito Gaston is very supportive of that.”

Said Paul Molitor, also in his first year with the Blue Jays: “Basically, this is a team that was more thrown together than grown together, and that’s simply a reflection of modern baseball. We’re very focused on the field, but there’s not a lot of camaraderie otherwise. There are small cliques of guys away from the ballpark and not a lot of rah-rah, let’s-go-win-this-game type of stuff in the clubhouse. It’s a businesslike approach with not a lot of false emotion.

“I think that’s a product of experience, confidence and a system in which you have a lot of turnover each year.”

If the party-oriented Philadelphia Phillies are apt to pop for a beer keg at any time and any place, the Blue Jays are more apt to reach for the cellulars they received from a sponsor.

The dial-a-player philosophy of a management rich in financial resources and player talent has contributed to 11 consecutive winning seasons, three American League East titles in a row and last season’s World Series championship. It has also caused some grumbling in the rest of baseball. The Blue Jays might not be the damn Yankees of another era, but General Manager Pat Gillick acknowledged that there probably are invectives directed his way.

“I don’t think the industry is particularly happy with the way we go about it,” he said. “There’s definitely some irritation out there. We’re not immune to what the industry thinks. We have some consideration for the other clubs, but they have to do what they have to do and we have to do what we have to do.

“If the rules and economics change, we’ll have to be flexible, but we’re doing what the rules permit us to do to win. We feel we have that responsibility to the players who work hard for us and to the fans who support us in record numbers.”

As baseball tries to paint a bleak financial portrait and pleads for salary sanity, the Blue Jays have a major league-high $50-million payroll, but will turn another profit after their fourth consecutive season of SkyDome sellouts.

Blessed with those deep pockets and a productive farm system, the Blue Jays are consistently in position to trade for players such as Devon White, Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar. They are consistently in position to sign others such as Molitor to replace Dave Winfield or Stewart to replace David Cone. They are consistently in position to deal for late-season insurance such as Rickey Henderson, Cone, Candy Maldonado, Tom Candiotti, Bud Black, John Candelaria or Mookie Wilson.

Somewhere down the line they might regret giving up Mark Whiten in the Candiotti deal or Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson in the Cone deal or Steve Karsay in the Henderson deal of last August, but that regret is likely to be diluted by the champagne that seems to flow every October.

“I think a general manager has to tap as many resources as he can to build a club,” Gillick said. “I don’t think he’s really doing his job unless he does. I think the farm system still has to be the main source, but you can’t limit yourself, particularly with the nature of the beast right now. It may be possible (to build a club with farm products alone), but not at all probable.

“We’ve used our system to get guys like Carter, White and Alomar who figured then and now to be cornerstones of the team for several years, and we’ve used it to get guys like Henderson, Cone and Black who might get us over the hump for that particular year.

“Everybody seems to want to zero in on Henderson or some of those others, but nobody says anything about the Yankees dealing for Lee Smith and Frank Tanana, who can be free agents, or Paul Assenmacher, who’s got a big contract through next year. It’s just the way the game is now.

“I mean, we got rid of nine players last winter. If we’d had our druthers, we’d have retained Cone, (Tom) Henke, (Jimmy) Key, Winfield and a couple of the others. We might even have won more games than we did this year, but our payroll would have been $65 million instead of $50 million. We couldn’t afford it. The point is, when you look at who we replaced, we’re really down a couple players from last year, but nobody talks about that, either.”

First baseman John Olerud, third baseman Ed Sprague, catcher Pat Borders and shortstop Tony Fernandez, who left and returned, are the only Toronto products among the regular position players. Starting pitchers Pat Hentgen and Todd Stottlemyre also came through the system. Gillick gives catcher Carlos Delgado and shortstop Alex Gonzalez a chance to play regularly next year.

In the meantime, the businesslike Blue Jays overcame injuries and inconsistency in their pitching to win 95 games. Their potent lineup was second in the league in runs and included five players with 21 or more home runs and three--Olerud, Molitor and Carter--with 100 or more runs batted in. In addition, Olerud, Molitor and Alomar finished 1-2-3 in the league batting race, a first in the modern game. Faced with a last challenge by the Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, the Blue Jays won nine in a row in September and 17 of their last 21.

“This is a very talented club that should win it all because it’s the most talented,” said veteran pitcher Jack Morris, sidelined because of an elbow injury. “It’s just that I’ve had more fun with some of the other clubs I’ve been on because the camaraderie was better.

“I mean, it’s kind of a Catch-22 to have those 50,000 people in the stands every night. It’s a blessing for the organization and players, but maybe the intangibles suffer. They can replace anyone they want at any time they want. It’s not like bringing players up through the system and have them fight, scratch and want it together.”

Amid the turnover, the low-key Gaston has been a stabilizing factor, the players reflecting his demeanor. Bad apples don’t last. George Bell, Derek Bell, Kelly Gruber and Dave Stieb all wore out their welcomes.

Last year, in an attempt to enliven teammates and fans, Winfield took on a cheerleading role. No one did that this season.

“Times change,” Gaston said, when asked about camaraderie. “I can remember being with the Pirates briefly in ’78. We had a six-hour wait for a flight once and 14 of us went to a movie. You wouldn’t see that today. Everyone has little groups they hang out with, but ours isn’t as bad as some teams I’ve seen, and the only thing that matters is that everyone has the same goal. I mean, these are good people. I think everybody likes each other even if they don’t hang out together.”

Gaston also said that if there is dislike of the way the Blue Jays operate, it is strictly jealousy of a type that once caused hatred of the success of the Dodgers.

“It certainly can’t have anything to do with being a Canadian team, because 96% of us are U.S. citizens,” he said.

Molitor said that winning won’t carry the same feeling as it would have with the Milwaukee Brewers, with whom he spent 16 years, but it’s a different game now. The Brewers, he said, left him with no alternative but to move, a conclusion Stewart was reaching with the A’s. Toronto represented the winning environment, camaraderie or not.

“One of the first things Mr. Gillick and Mr. (Paul) Beeston (the Blue Jays’ president) said to me when we began negotiating was that until the system is changed, they are going to try and win as much as they can as fast as they can,” Molitor said. “A player can’t ask for more.”