This Time, Dodgers, Angels Have It Made--With a Little Help

Spring training always comes along at a perfect time.

Football is dead and pro basketball is deep in the middle of its 82-game exhibition season, otherwise known as the Spud Webb-Buick-AT&T; Celebrity Dunkoff.

Spring training makes everyone feel good. You don’t even have to love baseball to love spring training.

Spring training is always wonderful, but this spring is special. The two local ballclubs, the Dodgers and Angels, more so than in any other spring during their long joint tenancy in Southern California, have prospects of winding up facing one another in the World Series.

Unless they blow it. That’s why I will dispense with the blather about the joys of spring training and get down to the business of making a few constructive suggestions to the two managers.

It’s not that I know a lot more about baseball than Gene Mauch or Tom Lasorda. On the contrary, they know more than I do, especially if you combine their knowledge. The trouble is, managers like these two care so much, become so involved in their teams that they might miss something that is simple and obvious to someone who is more detached. Unhinged, even.

Mauch, for instance, is making a mistake by converting Reggie Jackson back to DH. Play him or trade him, Gene. Taking away Reggie’s glove is like giving Sampson a crew cut. Nobody knows why, but without his glove, Reggie’s power is sapped. He becomes a lump, a .194 hitter.

Come to think of it, .194 isn’t a bad number when you compare it to .122, which is what your announced 1986 right fielder, George Hendrick, batted last season for the Angels.

Reggie will be 40 in May, Gene, and he needs the exercise, for his legs and for his ego. Defensive liability? Reggie still has an arm, and Gary Pettis supplies the legs. Jackson’s defense is erratic, but exciting. DH is no place for this guy.

Moving along . . .

Put this kid Wally Joyner at first base and make him play his way out of Anaheim. Some say this would be rushing him, considering that Wally has never faced a major league pitch. Maybe, but this “kid” will be 24 in June. Magic Johnson was 19 when he broke into the Lakers’ starting lineup. Fernando Valenzuela was 20 when he blew away the National League. A phenom is a phenom.

The alternative to Joyner at first base is a relay team of fill-ins, and you need stability at the big sack.

Also, please assign a bodyguard to Rick Burleson, to make sure he doesn’t strain his arm. This guy is your second baseman. Burleson at second--Burleson anywhere --makes your team’s fire burn hotter, and I know you’re big on heat, Gene.

Burleson at second frees Bobby Grich to play some first base, if needed, maybe even a little shortstop. Did I really say that?

Hey, if Dick Schofield doesn’t continue to improve as a contact hitter, couldn’t Grich play some shortstop while you’re waiting for Craig Gerber to mature? I know Grich is no Ozzie Smith afoot, but he has played the position. He played 81 games at short for Baltimore in ’72. Remember, Grich is three months younger than Bill Russell, who is still considered ambulatory afield.

Now let’s help the Dodgers.

Tommy, put the kid in center field. I’m big on phenoms this spring--Wally, Reggie, your kid Jose.

If this Jose Gonzalez is the center fielder you guys make him out to be, he’s got to play. You’re already strong up the middle with Mike Scioscia, Steve Sax and Mariano Duncan. You need a slashing, dashing, take-charge guy in center, someone to remind us all of Willie Davis, or even Billy North.

You can’t let Gary Pettis steal all the city’s 11 o’clock news highlights.

Unfortunately, all I have to go on in recommending Gonzalez for the starting lineup is the Dodgers’ word. No organization in all of sport toots a bigger horn for its prospects than you folks. If Al Campanis was in show biz instead of baseball, he would have heralded Sonny Bono as the next Frank Sinatra.

Still, the Dominican Republic has been very, very good to you Dodgers, sending you Pedro and Mariano. How can you turn down this latest gift?

Finally, Tommy, make Greg Brock battle for that first base job. For some players, battling for a position would be demeaning. Pedro Guerrero will start in left, even if he shows up a month late and hits .007 in spring training. Pedro is a star, a force.

But Brock is not yet in that class. He is not yet Gil Hodges, or even Wes Parker, and spring training is not simply a big aerobics class for millionaires. It’s a proving ground.

That’s about it, Tommy and Gene. You both seem to be doing a decent job with your pitching staffs, so I have no advice there.

And once spring training officially opens, I usually step back and mind my own business. But you both have my number if you need anything.