A FALL CLASSIC MATCHUP

By STEVE WULF/ATLANTA

THERE WERE NO DEMONSTRATIONS outside, no fans inside when a small, unassuming man took the mound in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium last Wednesday night. In preparation for the World Series, Greg Maddux was throwing live batting practice to some of his Atlanta Braves teammates, and they each walked away smiling, shaking their heads. They couldn't hit him, either. "Watching him pitch,'' said manager Bobby Cox, as he stood behind the batting cage, "just turns me on."

Despite the politically incorrect Native American motif of the 91st World Series--the Tomahawk Chop of the Braves vs. Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians--the first Fall Classic in two years should turn on a lot of people. It's North vs. South, the best in the American League vs. the best in the National, a team starved for a world championship because it hasn't been in the Series too often vs. a team starved for the title because it has been in the Series all too often. But the most intriguing matchup of all is the most basic in baseball: pitching vs. hitting, Maddux and Co. vs. Albert Belle and the Indians' latter-day Murderers' Row.

Score one for pitching. On Saturday night in Atlanta, Maddux limited the Indians to just two hits as the Braves won, 3-2, to take Game 1 of the Series. Despite the presence of American Indian Movement demonstrators outside the stadium, the sellout crowd delighted in doing the Chop and singing that irritating "war chant." No wonder Vernon Bellecourt of aim said last week, "We were all rooting for the Reds and the Mariners."

The last time these two franchises met was way back in 1948, when the Indians of Bob Feller and Lou Boudreau beat the then Boston Braves of "Spahn and Sain, and pray for rain," four games to two. (Since then, the Indians have made one more trip to the Series--they lost to the Giants in '54--while the Braves have gone four times, winning in '57, but losing in '58, '91 and '92.) During the '95 season, Maddux and Belle were so astounding that they took baseball history deep--deeper even than in '48.

Maddux, for instance, finished the year with a 19-2 record and a 1.63 ERA, making him the first pitcher since Walter Johnson in 1918-19 to have an era of 1.80 or less in two consecutive seasons. At 5 ft. 11 1/2 in., Maddux is one of the smaller Braves, and with his eyeglasses on, he's the last guy in the team picture you would peg for being the best pitcher in, oh, the past 75 years. "You should have seen him when he first broke in," says Braves outfielder Dwight Smith, who did indeed debut with Maddux in 1984, when the Chicago Cubs sent the two draftees to Pikeville, Kentucky. "He was an itty-bitty, skinny 150 pounder soaking wet, and you didn't think he would make it through the season, much less make the majors."

Maddux is not the hardest thrower in baseball, but he does have five pitches and total command of the strike zone. And as good as Maddux has become--he is about to win an unprecedented fourth straight Cy Young Award--he remains terribly unimpressed with himself. ''I just pitch," he says. The closest he'll come to a boast is this opinion expressed before the Series: "I like to think good pitching beats good hitting."

Belle, on the other hand, is swaggering and antagonistic. He has a rather checkered history, dating back to when he was kicked off the Louisiana State baseball team in 1986. In 1990 he went through alcohol rehab, but the trouble continued. Four times the left fielder has been suspended, once for throwing a ball at a fan and once for corking his bat.

Cork or no, Belle did something this year that not even Babe Ruth could do: he hit at least 50 homers with at least 50 doubles. He was worthy of the candy bar they named after him in Cleveland; unfortunately, Belle couldn't be bothered to show up for the official unwrapping. As he says, "I'm not really considered a media darling."

Yet Maddux and Belle do have something in common besides the fact that they're both 29. Belle, as befitting the son of two schoolteachers, is a student of baseball. He keeps detailed index cards on pitchers, and he spends as much time in the batting cage as anyone in the game.

There's one more thing that makes the Maddux-Belle confrontation enticing. Belle is still angry that the Braves passed him over in the 1987 draft because the team's general manager threatened to fire anyone who drafted him. The G.M. at the time was Cox, who eventually gave up his front-office duties to manage the Braves to World Series appearances--and losses--in '91 and '92. Says Cox: "Forget all that stuff about us being the Buffalo Bills of baseball. Forget all the Native American stuff. This Series is going to be about good old-fashioned hardball."