Gene Mauch : He Knew All Along That Angels Would Have a Good Year

Now it can be told. During the idleness of March, when the Royals were kings and the Angels were too old and too cheap and too lacking in offense to do anything to change it, Gene Mauch saw the race in the American League West somewhat differently.

“To me, it looked like it’d be relatively easy for us,” Mauch says. “If all our pitching stayed in line, I thought we’d be very comfortable this year.”

Mauch only reveals this now, on the eve of his second appearance as a postseason manager. In the spring, Mauch took care to keep these ideas to himself.

Long before they were tagged the Last Chance Gang, the 1986 Angels were better known as the Last Place Gang. Or, if the breaks went their way and their moon was in its proper house, fourth place. Maybe.

What, precisely, had the Angels done since gasping their last in the American League West race of 1985?

They had not re-signed their future Hall of Fame first baseman, Rod Carew.

They had not re-signed their only .300 hitter, Juan Beniquez.

They had named George Hendrick, who batted .210 in 1985, their right fielder.

They had made one trade, picking up a middle reliever, Gary Lucas, who had a history of back problems.

They had gotten a year older.

All things considered, Mauch sounded like a man who had hit one too many fungoes.

But Mauch was blinded by the light of the Angel pitching staff, which is understandable considering that he had managed the Phillies before Steve Carlton, the Twins after Jim Kaat and the Expos during the reign of Bill Stoneman.

“There’s no limit to what we can do, the way we can pitch,” Mauch says. “No limit.”

Mauch thought he had five potential 15-game winners in Mike Witt, Kirk McCaskill, John Candelaria, Don Sutton and Ron Romanick. He thought he had the franchise’s best bullpen in 25 years in Donnie Moore, Stewart Cliburn and Lucas.

Never mind that 10 of the Angels’ 14 position players were older than 30 or that those position players--plus Carew and Beniquez--had tied for last in team batting average at .251 in 1985. Mauch figured he’d find a way to squeeze out three or four runs a game.

Then the Angels broke camp in Mesa, Ariz., and injuries began to put the squeeze on those plans.

Moore and Cliburn hurt their shoulders. Lucas aggravated an old back injury. Candelaria developed bone spurs in his pitching elbow.

Mauch faced opening day with considerably less than he had bargained for. “A lot of adjustments had to be made,” he said, stating the obvious.

Not so obvious was where those adjustments might come from.

Aging Ken Forsch, trying to resuscitate a dormant pitching elbow of his own, replaced Cliburn. Doug Corbett replaced Moore. Journeyman Jim Slaton took Candelaria’s spot in the rotation. Terry Forster, released by Atlanta and signing after a one-day tryout with the Angels, filled Lucas’ role.

It was stopgap all the way and, eventually, Mauch had to resort to stopgaps for the stopgaps--T.R. Bryden, Chuck Finley, Todd Fischer, Mike Cook. The Angels were scrambling and, by mid-June, they had the record to prove it.

On June 16, the night Texas’ Charlie Hough went from no-hitter to passed-ball infamy, the Angels stood at .500, 31 wins, 31 losses.

The Angels’ best baseball was ahead of them, but Mauch remembers those first 62 games as the foundation for his second division championship.

“Yeah, it was trying,” Mauch said. “The Candelaria thing happened, Donnie Moore was out for a couple of months, Lucas was out half a season. But they stayed together until the team was intact.

“Finally, from about Aug. 1 on, it became very comfortable.”

The way Mauch had envisioned it from the start.

Candelaria returned from April elbow surgery July 8 and his impact was immediate. He pitched five shutout innings in his first start against Milwaukee. He pitched five more in his second start--in Fenway Park against the Red Sox.

Candelaria won 9 of 11 decisions and the Angels, gradually, pulled away in the West.

“Getting Candy back gave us just another day where we felt like ‘We’re gonna win,’ ” Mauch said. “There’s nothing healthier than coming to the ballpark each day with that feeling. If you don’t win today, you say, ‘Well, we got Witt tomorrow.’ And if you don’t win tomorrow, ‘Well, we got McCaskill the next day.’ ”

Between that June 16 ninth-inning rally against Hough and their Sept. 26 clincher, the Angels went 59-34--a winning percentage of .634. They won the West with 10 games left on their schedule.

In the end, Mauch was right.

It was easy.

But was this an easy team to manage? Whoa, Mauch says.

He draws a comparison to his other playoff club, the 1982 Angels. That team had no pitcher with more than 13 wins or 8 saves, but did have a set lineup that produced nearly 190 home runs.

“Hell, they were all four years younger,” Mauch said. “There wasn’t the necessity for resting players to the extent we’ve had to do this year.”

Mauch had to tread a fine line between keeping his players fit, and, at the same time, happy. He was more successful at the former.

Mauch platooned Bobby Grich, 37, and Rob Wilfong, 33, at second base. He split the designated hitter assignment between Reggie Jackson, 40, and Rick Burleson, 35. He shuffled Hendrick, 36, and Ruppert Jones, 31, in and out of right field. He found ways to spell Doug DeCinces, 36, at third base and Brian Downing, 35, in left field.

Predictably, there were complaints--loud ones from Burleson, Jackson and DeCinces.

To this, Mauch responded predictably.

“I really don’t particularly care,” Mauch said. “We got done what we needed to get done . . . so far.

“Reggie Jackson is going to end up with as many at-bats as he had last year. So will DeCinces. Brian Downing will probably get as many at-bats. But there were still times when all of them needed rest.

“Look, I’ve been all those ages. I know what it’s like to be 41, 40, 39, 38. Reggie Jackson wants to bat 892 times a year. But I can’t think of anyone at those ages who couldn’t benefit from a rest once in a while.”

Well, maybe one. Bob Boone, at 38, caught in 144 games this season for Mauch.

“You can’t generalize about Boone,” Mauch said. “There’s not a catcher his age who’s supposed to get the at-bats and the games he does. But Bob Boone is different, a whole heck of a lot different.”

Mauch takes pride in how time off during the first half of the season influenced DeCinces’ outstanding second half--”He’s still as strong as a bull.”--and how well the right-field shuttle of Jones and Hendrick developed.

When the Baltimore Orioles were winning pennants in 1979 and 1983, volumes were written about the splendid left-field platoon of John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke--how Earl Weaver and Joe Altobelli took two bit players and received Mantle-like production from the position. The Jones-Hendrick tandem has gone virtually unnoticed, but totaled 31 home runs and 96 RBIs in 1986. Jones had 17 homers and 49 RBIs, Hendrick 14 and 47, respectively.

Contrary to popular belief, Hendrick wasn’t a throw-in in the 1985 Candelaria trade. He was a throw-away. Hendrick had batted .230 in 69 games with Pittsburgh and the Pirates, looking to dump his $737,000 salary, sought Hendrick’s inclusion in the trade.

When the Angels went into spring training trying to sell Hendrick as their right fielder, the criticism was heavy.

“I would imagine George would be listed among my most pleasant developments of this season,” Mauch said. “If the truth were known, only George and I knew it was going to work.”

Among Mauch’s least pleasant developments was the lack of a fifth starter in the pitching rotation. Bodies were moved in and out but the spot remained vacant.

Slaton went 4-6 and was released. Cook made one start and lasted four innings. Romanick assumed the role when Candelaria returned in July--only to wind up in Edmonton before the end of the month.

Ray Chadwick was recalled. He went 0-5. Vern Ruhle was salvaged from semi-retirement. He went 1-3. Urbano Lugo returned from off-season elbow surgery in September. He went 1-1.

“It was frustrating but I’ve never known anybody who’s ever had enough pitching,” Mauch said. “We can rave all we want about our first four, but you’re always looking for a little more.

“All you’re really looking for from a fifth starter is a .500 record. If the first four guys give you a cushion of 25 games over .500 and the fifth starter breaks even, you’re gonna win 95 games.

“I honestly thought Ron Romanick was going to win half of his games. But too much went on during the last half of last season and the first half of this one that said otherwise.”

Romanick was 13-4 at the 1985 All-Star break. Between then and the 1986 All-Star Game, however, he won only six more times. On July 22, he was sent to Edmonton.

In Mauch’s perfect world, a baseball manager would need only to concern himself with the action on the field, the balls and strikes, the runs and outs. Mauch remains one of the last of baseball’s purists.

But he’s also a realist. He knows the game isn’t played in a vacuum and, in 25 years, has grudgingly come to accept the annual distractions that surround a ballclub.

On the ’86 agenda: the uncertain contract situation of nine Angel veterans, Jackson’s monthly tirades, the publicity surrounding Sutton’s 300th victory, a rookie first baseman’s wide-eyed odyssey into Wally World.

Players in the final years of their contracts, realizing the necessity to build up summer statistics for winter negotiations, blamed Mauch when they weren’t playing. There was second-guessing, much of it by Jackson, who was offended by Mauch’s suggestion that he try to become a singles hitter.

Mauch shrugs at such talk.

“My worrying days are behind me,” he said. “By now, my feelings have callouses all over them.”

Mauch’s relationship with Jackson is a curious one, not quite love-hate, but close. One day, Jackson will wax on about how Mauch has “sympathetically” handled him at age 40 and how Mauch gambled in 1985 by making him the Angels’ right fielder. The next, Jackson will be back on the soap box, clamoring against Mauch’s rigid ways.

“It’s not a problem if you understand Reggie Jackson,” Mauch said. “And I understand Reggie Jackson exactly. I’ve been around the guy five years. I know what makes him tick.”

Mauch wouldn’t elaborate, but one of his quotes from spring training is revealing. “There’s always controversy around Reggie Jackson,” Mauch said. “And if there isn’t, Reggie will find a way to create some.”

A different sort of publicity swirled around Mauch’s rookie first baseman, Wally Joyner, in 1986. Mauch watched Joyner hit 16 home runs by late May--and then watched the national media swoop in on a new hero.

Despite Joyner’s slow finish, Mauch was impressed by how his young player held up amid the storm.

“He may never have another 40 games like that again,” Mauch said. “But since that first spurt, he’s played about like a good young rookie should play.

“He’s not physically tired, but sometimes you get mentally beat up. It’s like taking a piece of metal. You warm it up, beat on it, warm it up, beat on it. Pretty soon, there’s not much there. It’s going to disintegrate.”

Mauch also reflected on the nine veterans who could be starting their final days as Angels this week. Mauch chose to look at the bottom line.

“We’ve had some individuals who have gone through a lot,” he said. “They had to fight the collective battle, and the individual battle as well. And they did it. There is lots of character here.”

Is this Mauch’s best team?

“It’s a damn good one,” he said. “It’s the best pitching I’ve managed. In ‘82, we could put runs on the board, and so could my Minnesota team in ’77. But they couldn’t pitch.

“Because pitching is such a high percentage of the game, I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if this was my best.”

Mauch hopes to withhold final judgment until the end of October.

“I don’t want to talk finality,” he said. “I don’t intend to mean that we’re done. We’ve really got some more to do.”

Year Club League Pos. W L 1960 Philadelphia National 8 58 94 1961 Philadelphia National 8 47 105 1962 Philadelphia National 7 81 80 1963 Philadelphia National 4 87 75 1964 Philadelphia National 2 92 70 1965 Philadelphia National 6 85 76 1966 Philadelphia National 4 87 75 1967 Philadelphia National 5 82 80 1968 Philadelphia National 5 28 27 1969 Montreal National 6 52 110 1970 Montreal National 6 73 89 1971 Montreal National 5 71 90 1972 Montreal National 5 70 86 1973 Montreal National 4 79 83 1974 Montreal National 4 79 82 1975 Montreal National 5 75 87 1976 Minnesota American 3 85 77 1977 Minnesota American 4 84 77 1978 Minnesota American 4 73 89 1979 Minnesota American 4 82 80 1980 Minnesota* American 4 54 71 1981 California** American 29 34 1982 California American 1 93 69 1985 California American 2 90 72 1986 California American 1 92 70

*--Replaced by John Goryl on Aug. 24, 1980. **--Replaced Jim Fregosi with Angels in fourth place (22-25) on May 28, 1981. Angels finished second half of strike season in seventh place (20-30).