Angel Notebook : A Breakfast With Port Is Just That for Reggie

A meeting between Reggie Jackson and Angel General Manager Mike Port Saturday was supposed to send tremors throughout the team’s camp, but it amounted to little more than a ham-and-egger.

Jackson and his agent, Gary Walker, met with Port for 90 minutes before the Angels’ morning workout, and no crossroads in the career of Reggie Jackson were broached.

Jackson did not become an ex-Angel.

Jackson did not become the Angels’ starting right fielder.

Jackson did not become any richer.

“The meeting was revolutionary only in that today we had breakfast,” Port said. “Normally we have dinner.”

Nothing except perspective was changed by the meeting, which Jackson said he requested but which Port described as an annual spring pleasantry.

Reggie is still unsigned for 1986, still interested in playing the outfield and still scheduled for extensive duty as the Angels’ designated hitter.

Only now, Reggie feels better about it.

“I’m comfortable,” Jackson said. “He needed to hear some things I had to say, and I needed to hear some things from him.

“It was a good meeting. I hadn’t talked to Mike face-to-face since last season, and we were stumbling around over the winter. The only things being said were on the telephone or in the papers.

“A lot of things can change over the winter. Today, Mike brought me up to date.”

Port said his position regarding Jackson’s role with the Angels in 1986 hadn’t changed since the two held their first off-season talk last October.

“I got the same impressions from Reggie,” Port said, “as I did last fall:”

“(a) He is not afraid of a challenge and has no intent to rest on his laurels.

“(b) He wants to do whatever is in his capacity to help the California Angels win baseball games.

“(c) If the best plan is for him to serve as designated hitter, his aspiration is to become the best designated hitter in American League history.”

Jackson, however, was talking differently Saturday than he had earlier in the week or during the winter, when he was quoted saying that he felt the Angels were trying to phase him out.

“I’m not upset with the knowledge that I don’t have a job or I’m not one of the mainstays anymore,” Jackson said. “I’m not uncomfortable with having something to prove or having to earn my keep. Ever since I turned 36, I’ve been coming to camp like I was a rookie.

“I’m not 29 anymore. I’m not going to be in my 30s much longer (Jackson turns 40 in May). Whatever role they have planned for me--whether it’s left-handed pinch-hitter against a soft-throwing right- hander or clubhouse boy--I intend to be the best they have.”

Jackson has yet to sign a 1986 contract, but Port insisted that was a formality. Jackson’s multi-year contract was automatically extended for 1986 when he met certain statistical criteria (27 home runs, 85 RBIs) last year.

“Reggie will sign a contract,” Port said. “We’re 99.999% agreed in respect to a contract. As far as I’m concerned, Reggie and I could go on like this all year, but regulations say you must file a signed contract with the league office.”

Some opinions on Commissioner Peter Ueberroth’s ruling and sanctions against baseball’s admitted drug offenders:

--Doug DeCinces: “The players ought to be real happy they have an option to play (if they donate 10% of their annual salary to drug-prevention programs). They were caught doing something wrong, and in our society, if you do something wrong, you have to pay the penalty. That’s just life.”

--Bobby Grich: “It’s more than a slap on the wrist, but I’m glad to see they didn’t lose any playing time, because that hurts other people. That’s hurts their entire team.”

--Bob Boone: “It’s something I’m tired of hearing about. This is spring training and you’re working on things, trying to find your stroke. I’m trying to hit off John Candelaria without breaking my finger.

“You’re just so removed from it. I’m much more interested in reading about Ferdinand Marcos these days.”