COMMENTARY : Artificial Turf One Reason for Reds’ Victories

Oakland Athletics’ fans cannot be having sweet dreams. Reds’ fans are having sweep dreams.

There is already a surreal quality to this World Series. The underdog Reds are up 2-0, and Dave Stewart and Dennis Eckersley have been defeated in back-to-back games. That was about as likely as the San Francisco Bay Area’s having an anniversary quake.

It happened because of Joe Oliver’s 10th-inning hit that scored and Billy (Don’t Call Me Norman) Bates, whose hit was his first as a Red.

And it happened because of artificial turf, that unspeakable indoor-outdoor carpet that turns the playing surface into a squash court and makes a mockery of the game.

Would Oliver’s twister that hippity-hopped over the third-base bag have eluded Carney Lansford on grass? How about Bates’ infield dink that handcuffed Lansford and started the Reds’ rally? Those were wimp hits, but wimp hits are the essence of playing on carpet.

All too often, artificial turf makes sound baseball strategy seem stupid. Every good pitcher learns to make hitters hit the ball on the ground, but hitting the ball on the ground on artificial turf is like hitting it off a trampoline. The Reds won Game 2 with a three-hit, 10th-inning rally off Eckersley without anything remotely resembling a line drive.

When the series shifts to Oakland tonight, the A’s should be helped by the return to grass and the designated-hitter rule. On grass and dirt, the Reds’ rally-starting choppers may prove to be inning-stoppers.