COMMENTARY\Finley could pick the talent.

Byline: Joe Gilmartin Phoenix Gazette 

He was a bull in baseball's china shop. Or, if you will, a mule.

He was Jerry Jones without Jerry Jones' money, Bill Veeck without Bill Veeck's charm.

He was a marketeer at a time when sports people in general and baseball barnacles in particular still sneered at marketing as something housewives did at the grocery store.

He was ahead of his times and behind his times. He was his own best friend and worst enemy. He was the best of owners and the worst of owners.

He was Charles O. Finley. He liked to say the "O" stood for "owner," and fellow owners grumbled it stood for "obnoxious," but, in truth, it stood for "Oscar."

Most of the pieces on Charles Oscar Finley's passing this week at the age of 77 played variations on themes of innovativeness, combativeness, flamboyance and promotional skills.

And while he was certainly innovative, combative, flamboyant and promotion-minded, he was also as shrewd a judge of baseball talent as ever there was.

Although he was bitterly resented by much of the Establishment, Finley almost single-handedly built the Oakland A's into a dynasty that won five straight division titles and three straight World Series in the '70s.

I always thought his promotional prowess and innovativeness were overrated and his baseball acumen was underrated.

He deserves high marks for realizing before most of his peers that baseball could be sold as fun. And many of his gimmicks that were once considered outrageously far out (like flashy uniforms) are now considered the only way to go. But they never really did him that much good.

For all his marketing foresight, the A's were never that big a regular-season draw in Oakland. Especially when you consider how good they were.

And while he is considered the father of World Series night games and the designated hitter, two innovations that have made baseball a lot of money and more than a few enemies, it was really as a judge of baseball talent that he made his most lasting mark.

The real difference between Finley and his fellow owners, including those who shared some of his promotional vision, is that Finley's teams were a huge success on the field.

In the process of creating a dynasty, he showed an uncanny knack for spotting greatness in young players. And you had to give him most of the credit because he was really the only common thread running through all those great years.

Some people said his real baseball skill was picking other people's brains.

Actually, a lot of the innovations and attempted innovations he was given credit/blame for, like orange baseballs and having balls delivered to umpires via a mechanical device, had been introduced years earlier by Ray Dumont through his National Baseball Congress tournaments in Wichita, Kan.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo Charles O. Finley is considered the father of World Series night games and the designated hitter, both of which have made an impact. Associated Press