SPRING TRAINING ’87 : Free Agent Catcher Is Missed in Mesa by Those Whom He Served So Well : The Angel Pitchers Go to Bat for Boone

Bob Boone’s bats made it to training camp. Last season’s leftovers, they are packed away in a box in a corner of the Angel clubhouse and stacked, rather curiously, alongside those belonging to retired second baseman Bobby Grich.

Boone’s old locker, the first one across the aisle from the shower stalls, now carries the equipment and uniform of another player. The name of the new owner: Butch Wynegar.

And the orange groves bordering the Angel training complex on both the east and west sides no longer serve as a personal jogging track for Boone, who would weave through the rows of trees with weights in his hands or strapped to his ankles.

It was bound to happen sooner or later--an Angel spring without Bob Boone. When you have a starting catcher pushing 40, you have to acknowledge that every new spring may be his last.

But this is entirely sooner than any of the Angels’ veteran pitchers either wanted or expected. At 38, Boone was the best defensive catcher and handler of pitchers in the American League in 1986. On his own, Boone won a Gold Glove. With him, Mike Witt won 18 games, Kirk McCaskill won 17 and the Angels won the American League’s Western Division championship.

“He’s the best catcher in the game,” McCaskill said.

“The best catcher I ever worked with,” said John Candelaria, who has a 17-5 record in the two seasons he has teammed with Boone.

“Pitching to Bob Boone is like a love affair,” Donnie Moore said. “You just fall in love. It’s so easy to adapt to him.”

Conversely, it can be asked: How difficult will it be to adapt without Boone? Can it be done? Or is the Angel pitching staff, which rose to prominence under Boone’s guidance the last five years, in for a swoon of post-Boone depression?

Welcome to the crux of this Angel spring training camp.

The fallout from Jan. 8 is just beginning to be felt. On that day, the Angels had three free agents to sign before the midnight deadline--third baseman Doug DeCinces, designated hitter Brian Downing and Boone. On that day, the Angels batted .667.

DeCinces agreed to a one-year guaranteed contract that could earn him $1.1 million if all incentives are met. Downing agreed for two years at an annual salary of $900,000.

Boone was offered one year at $883,000. Not bad for a 39-year-old catcher who batted .222 in 1986, but less than the $917,000 Boone averaged in his last three-year contract. Boone asked for another $10,000, which he likened to a pat on the back for a job well done.

The Angels said no. And for the paltry sum of $10,000--less than what Don Mattingly earns per game --the Angel pitchers lost what they consider to be their greatest boon.

Not surprisingly, those who were affected the most reacted the strongest. The Angel pitchers were rankled and disappointed and saw fault with both sides of the negotiating table:

--Guilty party No. 1: The Angels and General Manager Mike Port.

“I figured that he was our main priority,” Moore said of Boone. “Especially with the young pitching staff we have.”

McCaskill said: “I’m sure Bob Boone will tell you he thought he was a priority. He busted his butt for 150 games and they signed two players ahead of him. Maybe that had something to do with (Boone’s decision not to sign).”

Gary Lucas said it was “frustrating that they wouldn’t bring him back as a matter of fact. I thought he was the odds-on choice, the one player we’d bring back.

“Bob was offered some very good dollars, but I think he was looking for more than one year. For what a player of his caliber has meant to this pitching staff, you’d think he could command a little security.”

Even at 39, Lucas argued.

“I don’t know of anyone in the game who works harder to overcome the effects that age brings on,” Lucas said. “His experience is the biggest thing he offers to a pitching staff, especially playoff experience.

“He’s been in the hunt with Philadelphia several times and won it all in 1980. He was in the playoffs with the Angels in 1982 and ’86. He has a lot of winning experience, and that’s invaluable to a starting staff as talented as this one. Bob Boone makes us that much better.”

--Guilty party No. 2: Bob Boone and his insistence, at the last moment, for an extra $10,000.

“I don’t know the whole story, but it seemed kind of screwy,” Witt said. “Everything looked fine and then, it seemed to me, he asked for a little more money at the last second and that was the snafu. I can see how it happened.”

Moore said: “If that’s what it was, if it was just $10,000, it’s hard to believe. When you’re offered $880,000, what’s another $10,000 going to mean? Maybe it was a point of pride with him, I don’t know. I don’t understand it.”

Candelaria spoke along the same lines.

“I learned one thing out of the whole thing,” he said with a grin. “I’m never going to Stanford (Boone’s alma mater).

“To be that close, money-wise. . . . I don’t know. It’s unfortunate. Bob did what he thought was right, and I have no right to judge.”

Boone’s separation from the Angels could be as permanent as forever or as temporary as early May. Baseball rules prohibit Boone from re-signing, or negotiating, with the Angels until May 1, and Boone originally said he planned to play elsewhere. But spring camps have opened across America and Boone remains at his Villa Park home.

Both the Angels and Boone say they are leaving the door open. If the market stays as barren in March and April as it has been thus far, an Angel-Boone reunion could be only a couple of months away.

“He still may be here,” Lucas said. “This could be a temporary, day-to-day thing.”

Moore added: “You never say never in this game. I can tell you, I wouldn’t be disappointed if he showed up here in May.”

Yet, preparations otherwise are being made.

“We have to make do with what we have,” Moore said. “We have to start spring training thinking he’s not going to be with us and work accordingly.”

Witt said: “I’m looking at it as, Butch Wynegar is our catcher. I’m looking forward to seeing how we work together once the games start. I want to see how good I am by myself. I want to see if it’s difficult without Bob Boone.”

Witt, 26, and McCaskill, 25, were practically weaned as major league pitchers by Boone. “He’s the only catcher I’ve ever had,” said McCaskill, who broke in during 1985. Witt began his Angel career in 1981, one year before Boone’s arrival from Philadelphia.

“I could tell the difference between Brian Downing and Ed Ott (who caught Witt as a rookie) and Boone right away,” Witt said. “The way Bob set up, it seemed as if I had three times as big a target to throw to. I don’t know how he did it, but it seemed like I had a lot more room to work with. He made it a lot easier.”

Boone took Witt through the long and often exasperating transition from untapped potential to Cy Young Award contender, from 7-14 with a 4.91 ERA in 1983 to 18-10 and 2.84 in 1986.

“He was a steady, settling influence on me,” Witt said. “He did have a clue and, over a period of time, that became a reinforcement to my way of thinking. He gave me a lot of confidence.”

He also might have made Angel pitchers appear better than they actually were. When it came to the art of “stealing strikes”--turning borderline pitches into called strikes--Boone was known around the American League as public enemy No. 1.

“By the way he caught a ball, he could get a pitch four or five inches off the plate called a strike,” Witt said. “That’s something you’re not born with.”

So, now, this is the big challenge for the Angel pitching staff. Is there life after Boone?

Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann has tried to prepare the staff.

“Lach told us all, ‘You were the ones who threw the ball,’ ” McCaskill said. “He might have made the calls, but I threw the pitches. That’s the way I have to look at it.”

Still, McCaskill is hoping for eventual accord between Boone and the Angels.

“I hope he’s back,” he said. “He’s a teacher. I look up to Bob Boone. And I still feel he can teach me a lot more.”