Angels Go Into a One-Day Boone Swoon : After Clincher, Mauch Rests and Catcher Manages in a 1-0 Loss

For most of the playoff-bound Angels, the day after clinching the American League West title resulted in a day off. If Friday night was a time to drink and be merry, Saturday afternoon was a time to don dark glasses and recuperate.

So Manager Gene Mauch made out a lineup card consisting in large part of Edmonton Trappers. He told his veterans to take it easy and then, surprisingly, did the same thing himself.

Once the batting order was completed, Mauch handed it to catcher Bob Boone. “You want to run this thing?” Mauch asked.

Why not? Manager-for-a-day could be great fun.

As it turned out, Boone’s Angels went out against Texas’ Charlie Hough at Anaheim Stadium and racked up all of two hits. Boone’s starting pitcher, Don Sutton, also allowed two hits in his 7 innings, but one was a fourth-inning home run by Larry Parrish.

Boone wound up a 1-0 loser in his managerial debut.

Today, it’s back to catcher.

“I got fired,” Boone said. “No, I hadn’t done that before. And no, what happened out there wasn’t much fun.

“There was not a whole lot for me to do. I couldn’t display my genius . . . or maybe I did.”

Basically, Boone stood in the near corner of the dugout, watching Hough (16-10) no-hit the Angels through 6 innings before Ruppert Jones grounded a single under the glove of shortstop Jeff Kunkel into left field. Jerry Narron had the other Angel hit, a line-drive single to right in the eighth inning.

Boone made a couple of moves. He brought on reliever Gary Lucas in the eighth inning and then had him work a pickoff play. It worked, too, as Lucas caught Oddibe McDowell off first base.

Mauch was asked for a critique of the rookie manager.

“I thought he was a little weak on his offense, but his defense was superb,” Mauch said, grinning. “But that’s always been his specialty, hasn’t it?”

There were other views inside the Angel clubhouse.

Terry Forster said: “He should have used me. Not as a pitcher--as a hitter. Hey, I have a lifetime average of .397. You got a .400 hitter and you leave him on the bench. You’ve got to know your players.”

Kirk McCaskill said: “He knew all the poses. His foot on the lip of the dugout, his hands on his hips, his arms folded. He had them all down.”

Boone disagreed with that last assessment. “I didn’t know what to do with my hands,” he said. “Put them in my pockets or what?”

So Boone didn’t revolutionize the science of baseball managing in one afternoon. Not much one can do with two hits.

But if Boone ever gets another chance, he’d do at least one thing differently.

“I’d get a big lifeguard stand,” he said. “I’d have my computer printouts on my right, some iced tea on my left and some flash cards, color-coded, in front of me. I’d be ready.”

Angel Notes

Charlie Hough had been this route before. On June 16, he lost a no-hitter in the bottom of the ninth--and, eventually, the game on two passed balls. Saturday, his no-hitter again was ruined, but he managed to emerge with a win. “I’ve thrown well against them in this ballpark but haven’t had much luck,” Hough said. “I’m sure they were in for a next-day letdown. It wasn’t their full lineup, the whole bit, but it was the big leagues. I had to work hard out there.” . . . In each of his three full seasons as Angel manager (1982, 1985 and 1986), Gene Mauch has won 90 games or more. Davey Johnson of the Mets is the only other active manager to have won 90 games in three consecutive seasons. . . . On Mauch’s desk Saturday were several unopened telegrams, presumably offering congratulations for the division title. Who sent them? Mauch shrugged. “Both of my friends, maybe,” he said.