Bob Ryan: La Russa still mover, shaker

The Candlestick (Beck, Nen) et al. maker.

Wait a minute, La Russa said. “What did I do? Sparky [Anderson] used a lot of relievers. Dick Williams used a lot of relievers. Anyway, the whole closer thing wasn’t my idea. It was Dunc’s.’’

Let’s go back to 1988. La Russa is the Oakland manager and Duncan is his pitching coach. They’ve got a very good ball club, with one exception - no real short guy (the term “closer’’ was not yet in vogue).

“Dunc says to me, ‘Do we have anyone better than Eck [Dennis Eckersley] to pitch the ninth?’ I say no, we don’t. He says, ‘Doesn’t it make sense to use him as often as possible?’ And the way to do that is not to bring him in with men on base before the ninth, just pitch him one inning, the ninth. He starts the ninth, and that’s it. Then you could use him four or five times a week.’ ’’

This was totally revolutionary, and never mind the fact that Eck was traditional and stubborn and regarded relievers as failed starters. Of course, it got him into the Hall of Fame, so he looks at things a bit differently now.

Everybody does it now, and that means everybody. La Russa and Duncan changed baseball.