Baseball : Ryan Pays Final Respects to Most Influential Pitching Coach

Leaving his ranch in Alvin, Tex., Friday morning to spend the afternoon in Southern California represented a sad duty for Nolan Ryan, the former Angel who now pitches for the Houston Astros.

Ryan returned here to pay final respects to Tom Morgan, the most influential pitching coach of Ryan’s spectacular career.

“It’s hard to put a value on what Tom meant to me,” Ryan said. “But he was more than just a pitching coach. He was a friend, as well.”

Morgan died Tuesday, four days after suffering a stroke. He was 56.

A baseball Who’s Who attended Friday’s services in Palos Verdes, the longtime home of the always buoyant Plowboy--pitcher, coach and scout during a lifetime in a game that left a struggling Ryan on the verge of a career change before their paths crossed in the spring of 1972.

Morgan was the Angels’ pitching coach. Ryan, obtained from the New York Mets for Jim Fregosi, came to the club during the winter.

Ryan was 25 and had a 25-39 record in parts of five seasons with the Mets.

He had a fastball that lit up speed guns and a control problem that prompted hitters to increase their insurance.

“I was at a crossroads,” Ryan recalled. “I could have continued being frustrated and ended my career prematurely or I could hope to find someone who could help me.

“Fortunately, Tom was there to help, the first pitching coach who really taught me anything about mechanics.

“I can remember a spell when I was really wild and they put me in the bullpen for about 10 days.

“Tom and I went to the park early every day to throw, rain or shine. I remember going with him to Yankee Stadium after the game had been called by rain so that I could throw off a mound under the stands. I remember that we went out to the stadium in Baltimore so that I could throw on a day off.

“I remained pretty erratic, but that was still the turning point of my career. Those mechanics gave me the basis on which to build. If it wasn’t for the interest Tom took in me and all that time he spent with me, I don’t know where I’d be.”

The relationship thrived even after both left the Angels. Ryan often called Morgan to say hello or discuss pitching mechanics.

In his first year with Houston, struggling again, Ryan invited Morgan to San Diego to watch him throw and correct the flaws.

“I felt he knew me better than anybody I’ve worked with,” Ryan said. “We were very close--on and off the field.”

There were three of them really--Ryan, Morgan and Jimmie Reese, the 82-year-old fungo king who still coaches for the Angels and the godfather of Ryan’s youngest son, Reese.

The sudden loss of their good friend was a grievous one for Reese and Ryan, but the memories live and the monument to Morgan, who helped many other pitchers, including a young Randy Jones and an aging Tommy John, will grow each time the 39-year-old Ryan takes the mound.

Those 253 wins, 4,277 strikeouts and 5 no-hitters represent a eulogy in themselves.

As Ryan noted, Morgan took the time and interest. What more is there to say of anyone?

Have all those fans who called out “Boooone” every time Bob Boone came to the plate or threw out a runner at Anaheim Stadium lit up the Angel switchboard since his departure?

The Angels say no, which doesn’t mean that Don Sutton didn’t have something to say about it.

Reached at his Laguna Hills office, Sutton was asked what the reaction has been among Angel pitchers.

“I’ve really only talked to Kirk McCaskill, and we feel very unfortunate that we won’t be able to work with the best catcher in the business,” he said. “I’ve been able to work with some very good ones in my 21 years, but Bob Boone was the best.”

Sutton, the former Dodger, said he would put John Roseboro, Jeff Torborg and Steve Yeager in one quality group of catchers he has thrown to, but that only Jim Sundberg, his catcher at Milwaukee, and Boone are on the “upper shelf,” with Boone rating the edge.

“He’s not the best hitter, not the best runner and not the best thrower anymore,” Sutton said of Boone. But from the standpoint of a pitcher working with a catcher, he’s the best overall.

“Having a guy like him frees me up to put more energy into my delivery and mechanics,” Sutton added. “I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to throw to a certain hitter in a certain situation. Boone does half the job for you. He prepares like a manager. In fact, other than a manager or two, I’ve never seen anyone more learned.”

Will Boone’s absence have an impact on the Angel staff?

“Initially, it has to,” Sutton said. “What happens after that is our responsibility. We can either wallow in the might-have-beens and what-ifs or we can go to the park determined to turn out a good product.”

Nevertheless . . .

“Bob was a friend of mine,” Sutton said. “I’ll feel both a personal and professional void. I really don’t see how something like this can happen.”

With Lance Parrish having severed his Detroit ties until at least May 1, if not forever, Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson is looking at Mike Heath as his catcher. Heath appeared in 95 games with the Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals last year, hitting 8 home runs and driving in 36 runs.

Said Anderson: “I’ve had Johnny Bench and I’ve had Lance Parrish and now I’ve got what everybody else has.”

The Philadelphia Phillies have asked Parrish to undergo another physical and forward all medical reports on the back injury that prevented him from playing after July 26 of last year.

The Angels may also go this route. General Manager Mike Port is no longer hiding his interest in Parrish and Rich Gedman, another free-agent catcher.

“There are a number of players out there we’d like to investigate,” Port said.

“Whether that investigation leads to a pursuit is hard to say.”

The collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players, reached after a two-day player strike in August of 1985, remains only a collection of loose-leaf documents that require final editing and publishing in booklet form.

In fact, the owners’ Player Relations Committee filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board the other day, charging the union with redrafting sections of the agreement.

The PRC grievance was filed in response to a union grievance in which Barry Rona, the PRC’s legal counsel, was charged with violating the agreement by instructing the clubs that they can continue to negotiate with the 10 free agents who cannot be re-signed by their former clubs until May 1.

That would mean, for example, that the Angels could continue to talk with Boone and that the Tigers could continue to talk with Parrish. Rona insists that the bargaining agreement does not prevent continuing negotiations. He says it only prevents the players from re-signing until May 1.

All of this seems a childish spinoff of the economic war that the owners initiated last winter and are winning on all fronts.

The union’s only hope is the collusion grievance that is still being heard and may hinge on the testimony of Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who is expected to appear sometime in the next few weeks.