WINTER BASEBALL MEETINGS : Mauch Is Haunted but Also Is Hopeful : Playoff Loss Gnaws at Angel Manager, but 1987 and a New Look Lie Ahead

The nausea hammers at the pit of Gene Mauch’s stomach. The memory is the pits, period.

Even now, two months later, the manager of the Angels can’t escape the haunting recollection of how his team lost the American League pennant to Boston after having been one out from winning it.

“It’s still the first thing I think about every morning,” Mauch said, feigning a punch to his midsection. “It’s like a boom. I get up with it and then it passes.”

The Angels lost the playoff in seven games, after they seemingly had it won in five, and in a cursory interview on a quiet Tuesday at the winter baseball meetings, Mauch refused to reexamine his strategy in Game 5. That’s when he lifted Mike Witt with two out in the ninth inning only to see Dave Henderson ultimately hit a two-run homer off Donnie Moore, erasing the Angels’ 4-3 lead. Mauch also chose not to discuss the long-range impact of the defeat.

A reporter who joined the interview after it had started said: “I don’t know if you’ve been asked this yet, but I was wondering if the Angels’ collapse would affect the team in 1987?”

Responded Mauch, a bit heatedly: “I expect to be asked that several times and I’ll ignore it every time. I mean, if you’re asking me if the team can bounce back, I haven’t thought about that yet.”

Game 5? Does he still think about that? Does he reflect on how close he was to his first pennant in 25 years as a major league manager.

“Game 5 was terrible,” he said. “But I thought we’d win one of the last two games and couldn’t believe that we didn’t. It was as if Wally Joyner’s staph infection (which kept him from playing in Games 5, 6 and 7) infected the whole staff. Maybe the less I talk about it, the quicker (the memory) will go away.”

Mauch paused, then said: “I think the biggest regret I had after going home was that Gary Pettis and Dick Schofield had played such wonderful ball in the first five games and we still didn’t get it done.”

There are those who think the harsh memories will dissolve amid a bright future.

Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson said recently that Gene Mauch is heading into the best five or six years of his managerial career because of the quantity and quality of the Angels’ young players.

“We’re definitely going to be younger, but we’re still trying to win, not just break in new players,” Mauch said. “We still need a certain amount of stability and that’s represented by the three guys we’re trying to sign.”

He meant free agents Bob Boone, Doug DeCinces and Brian Downing. And if they’re not signed? What about the stability then?

“That could create a problem,” he said. “It’s possible that Joyner, Pettis and Schofield could handle that part of it, but I’d prefer not to pour that on their backs yet.”

The departure of Boone, DeCinces and Downing would also create a personnel problem, of course.

If they’re re-signed, the Angels intend to employ an outfield of Jack Howell in left, Pettis in center and Devon White in right. Downing would be the designated hitter, with Boone doing most of the catching. DeCinces would play third, Schofield short, Joyner first and there would be competition at second between farm products Mark McLemore and Gus Polidor or a platoon of Rob Wilfong and a veteran still to be acquired, such as Atlanta’s Glen Hubbard, perhaps.

The departure of the three free agents would seem to create significant problems with the designated hitter, catcher and third base positions--unless Howell played third and George Hendrick played left.

Either way, Mauch said, the Angels will present a different look next year, which is something he wants. The speed of White, Howell and, possibly, McLemore, when added to the speed of Pettis and Schofield, would give the Angels a new dimension.

“There’s nothing wrong with the way we’ve played,” Mauch said. “But there’s a limit on how long you can go at it that way.

“We play grind, grind, grind, and there’s a limit on how long you can do that before you’re grinding down everyone on your own team, including the manager.

“Next year, we should be able to run on a 3-and-1 (count) once in a while, and we should be able to hit and run with the knowledge that even if the batter doesn’t make contact, we still have a good chance of the runner reaching his base.

“The new approach should be stimulating to everyone. I mean, I’m already excited thinking about it.”

Mauch is thinking about a lineup that would have Pettis and the equally fleet White batting first and ninth, respectively, meaning they would be hitting back to back after the first inning, with Joyner third and Downing and DeCinces after that. Maybe.

A plaintive Mauch reflected on the possible loss of the three veterans and said: “You don’t suppose they’d take a cut just to spend another year with me, do you?”

Baseball Notes Gene Mauch, on Mark McLemore: “I saw him catch four balls with ease in Kansas City last September that hadn’t been caught (by an Angel second baseman) in years. I just don’t know if he can hit a lick or not. If he can play a contact game and hit .240, he can be a good player for us. (Scout) Cookie Rojas saw him in Puerto Rico and said that without qualification he can play defensively in the big leagues right now. Can we afford to have Jack Howell, Devon White and Mark McLemore break in at the same time? I don’t know. If two of them hit, we can probably handle the third.” . . . Will Mauch attempt to have Bobby Grich come back? “I’m a Bobby Grich man and I’ve told him that I thought he acted prematurely (in announcing his retirement on the night of playoff Game 7). But I won’t go on a campaign to have Bobby change his mind. It has to be his move.”. . . . Angel General Manager Mike Port said he expects to leave Florida after today’s owners’ meetings and did not foresee an 11th-hour trade involving the Angels. . . . Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said he may stay through Thursday, providing he has some company among his major league compatriots. The Dodgers have two offers on the table: 1--Greg Brock and Bill Madlock for Kansas City Royal left-hander Bud Black; 2--Brock for Seattle Mariner left-hander Matt Young, which would then allow the Mariners to trade incumbent first baseman Alvin Davis. Both offers are on hold. . . . The Dodgers and both Chicago teams have reportedly expressed interest in Texas utility infielder Curtis Wilkerson. . . . Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, on Jeff Hamilton: “He could be the best third baseman in the National League right now. The only question is his hitting.”