Angels Won’t Budge; Moore Still Unsigned

The scene in the cocktail lounge of the Jolly Roger Inn in Anaheim Tuesday evening wasn’t exactly what Donnie Moore and his agents had in mind.

There they were, three bodies slouched in chairs surrounding a table covered with wadded napkins, half-empty Bloody Marys and a bottle of mineral water. Not a champagne glass or a smile or a signed California Angels contract in sight.

Moore and agents David Pinter and Peter Rose had finally received the meeting they wanted with Angels owner Gene Autry. And that was about the only good news they had to report Tuesday.

A short meeting--just two hours in duration--yielded no new results, despite the introduction of a scaled-down contract proposal by Moore’s agents. Moore, the Angels’ 1985 most valuable player and holder of the team single-season record in saves, is still unsigned, with both sides a good distance apart and the free agent re-enlistment deadline now just hours away.

“It’s disappointing, but we expected as much,” Rose said. “We never got around to discussing the finer points of the contract because some gaps remain on some basic issues. Like length of contract and money.”

Actually, the real obstacle appears to be money. Moore says he’s willing to compromise on the contract length, a major stumbling block early in the negotiations. Moore has said he wants at least four years guaranteed, but the Angels are offering three.

“OK, give me a good three-year contract and I’ll play here,” Moore said. “We sign a good three-year contract.”

And what, in Moore’s estimation, is a good three-year contract?

“More than what they’re offering,” he said.

What the Angels reportedly are offering is a three-year pact worth $2.68 million. It is basically the same offer they made in October, took off the table in November and re-issued again in December.

And again Tuesday.

“It may have been a negotiating mistake,” General Manager Mike Port said, “but we presented them with our best offer too soon. What we offered them (Tuesday) was in the same ballpark of the offer that we made Oct. 29.”

That angered the Moore contigent, which came into the meeting with lesser expectations and a new proposal, their smallest contract request to date.

Even Port conceded, “To their credit, what they presented to us today was significantly less than the offer they gave us in San Diego at the winter meetings.”

Moore: “We bent a little bit. They should bend some, too.”

Rose: “We wanted more flexibility, to try to put a deal together. . . . (But) we’ve been looking at the contracts of Bob Stanley, Willie Hernandez and Bill Caudill and analyzing what they’re being paid. We feel Donnie should be at the same level, but the Angels aren’t offering it.”

Autry’s presence at the meeting had encouraged Pinter that a settlement was near. He had long sought a face-to-face session with the Angels owner, saying that “he’s the boss, the one guy who can say yes or no.”

Monday, an optimistic Pinter said, “I’ll be very, very shocked if we don’t have a signature (on a contract.)”

Tuesday, when it didn’t happen, Pinter had little to say.

On Autry: “He’s a nice man.”

On Autry’s influence on the meeting: “It’s too early to tell.”

On whether Pinter’s optimism had been misplaced: “I’ll answer that question for you (Wednesday).”

The big question--Will Moore be an Angel in 1986?--will be answered, one way or another, today. The deadline for free agents to re-up with their present club is midnight tonight (9 p.m. PST).

If Moore is still unsigned after 9 p.m., the Angels cannot re-sign the relief pitcher until May 1. Moore expects to be pitching for someone by the start of spring training.

In other words: Sign now or see you later.

So, the Angels are this close to severing ties with perhaps the finest relief pitcher in their history, a man who saved 31 saves and fashioned a 1.92 earned run average in 1985. No meetings between Port and Moore’s agents have been scheduled for today.

“I know where they can be reached and they know my phone number,” Port said. “It’s open-ended right now.”

Said Rose: “If you’ve been around (contract) negotiations, you know that most often, they reach the crisis situation. We have a deadline. If we’re intent to get together, we’ve got to get together by 9 o’clock (tonight).

“I can’t believe that it would get to 9:01 with it being, ‘If I don’t call Mike, he won’t call me.’ We’re not playing that B.S. game. I expect to be talking.”

And, a final word from Moore:

“If they want to sign me to a three-year contract for more than the $2.6 (million) or the $2.8 or whatever they’re offering, if they can better that, they’ve got a relief pitcher and I’ve got a team. If not, well, that’s life.”