It was a head-shaker in more than one way

By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff, 10/7/2003

OAKLAND, Calif.-- Above the dugout, hundreds of Red Sox fans, some of whom had been baptized with spray from the bottle of Mumm Napa Valley sparkling champagne that Theo Epstein had handed to his brother Paul in the front row, were singing "Born in the USA" for Kevin Millar, waving "Pedro for Guhvanah" signs, chanting "Cowboy Up," and belting out the name of the one Sox player who could not take part in this epidemic of joy.

In the midst of the tumult, Epstein and manager Grady Little sat on the dugout bench, hunched over a cellphone, calling Highland Hospital in Oakland. That's where center fielder Johnny Damon was taken after a head-crunching collision with second baseman Damian Jackson had rendered him unconscious and left him with a concussion.

"He wanted to know if he caught the ball," Epstein said.

He hadn't. "But he's going to be OK," said Little, who talked with Jim Rowe, the trainer who was staying with Damon in his hospital room. "The CAT scan's OK, the other tests were OK, and we'll leave him here overnight."

But while he may have been in too much discomfort to smile, Damon knew even before Little called his room that the Red Sox had won a game, and a series, that Epstein said should go a long way in reversing the reputation of a team perceived by many as the ultimate tease.

"Gut-wrenching, but that's baseball," Epstein said after Derek Lowe, throwing what Grady Little said were two of the best pitches he has seen him throw all season, left the bases loaded with A's in the ninth inning of a 4-3 win in Game 5 of their Division Series, sending them to New York for a championship best-of-seven bout with the Yankees.

"We teetered back and forth from the cruelest of fates to what for the moment, at least, was the ultimate of goals," said Little.

At the game's conclusion, Lowe did a double fist pump and slapped his thigh with his glove -- a gesture that some in the A's clubhouse viewed as obscene.

"If I offended anyone, I'm sorry," Lowe said, "but if that's what they think I did, then I offended the fans of Boston with the same gesture after my no-hitter."

Early yesterday afternoon when Lowe was doing his running in the outfield at Network Associates Coliseum, Little approached him. "We told him that we were going to need him when the game was on the line," the manager said.

Lowe, sporting a buzzcut that made him unrecognizable to teammate Tim Wakefield, even though he was sitting two rows behind him on the team bus, was surrounded by his fellow relievers when he finally returned to the visitors' clubhouse, champagne bottles already popping at a dizzying rate.

"This was the most stressful thing I've ever been through," said Gabe Kapler, who was standing on the top steps of the dugout as Lowe struck out first Adam Melhuse, then Terrence Long, to close out the victory. "The whole series was so stressful, but so much fun. I'm so blessed to be a part of this."

Epstein, his shirt soaked through with bubbly, paid tribute to Lowe.

"I don't know anyone else in baseball with as much heart as Derek to throw those two pitches," Epstein said of the pitch Lowe calls the "two-seamer lockup" -- the two-seamer he throws inside. "I think we put a few things behind us historywise, winning this kind of game and this kind of series."

Jackson, alone among the Red Sox, had blood as well as champagne on his cheeks. The right side of his face had crunched with terrifying force into the right side of Damon's head as they converged on Jermaine Dye's shallow fly in center field. The collision left Damon with a concussion; Jackson was left with a cut on his face and "feeling terrible that I could do something like that."

Jackson said he never heard Damon coming. "Playoffs, man," he said. "I was going all out. I didn't want anything to fall and ruin what had been such a great game. It was so loud. I didn't hear a thing."

Relieved to hear that Damon would be OK, Jackson was able to enjoy the wet embraces of teammates, many of whom ran out to share the excitement with those fans hanging on the dugout.

"I want to see Boston fans shaving their heads, looking like us, as ugly as they can be," Millar said.