Howell Comes Out of His Slump . . . Naturally

The latest issue of the Angels’ program has a cover picture of Jack Howell in a wheat field--well, in reality, it’s a weed field--and Howell, clad in jeans and a T-shirt, is literally knocking the cover off a baseball.

The headline reads: “The Natural.”

Naturally, Howell was 2 for 20 coming into Friday night’s game against the White Sox.

But no one in Anaheim Stadium Friday night was waving a program and making any derogatory remarks about the Angels’ unnatural choice for a cover boy. Howell made Robert Redford look like a Punch-and-Judy hitter on this evening, hitting the ball hard on all four trips to the plate.

And he came away with a pair of hits, including a game-winning three-run homer to cap a six-run fifth inning, as the Angels beat the White Sox, 6-4.

Howell has 11 home runs this season and a .263 batting average in spite of his recent problems. But he still doesn’t exactly fit the “Natural” mold.

Howell grew up wanting to follow his father’s footsteps on the basketball court. Jack Sr. played four years of basketball at the University of Arizona.

The younger Howell’s basketball career was not exactly the stuff of movie scripts, however, and by the time he was a freshman at Pima Community College in Tucson, he had decided to concentrate on baseball.

After two years at Pima and one at Arizona, Howell still wasn’t a top-round draft pick. In fact, he wasn’t an any -round pick. After a good season in the Alaska Summer League in 1983, he managed to raise the interest of Angel scout Rick Ingalls who signed Howell to a professional contract that year.

“In truth, I’d have to say I’m the opposite of the Natural,” Howell said, smiling. “I’ve had to work awfully hard to get where I am. I don’t take that stuff to heart, anyway. Three or four days ago, I thought it was going to say, ‘Jack the Ripper. “‘

Howell slammed a double down the right-field line in the second, lined out to right in the fourth, hit a towering home run to right in the fifth and lined a shot off the leg of pitcher Scott Nielsen that caromed to shortstop Fred Manrique, who threw Howell out at first in the eighth.

“It was a good night,” Howell said. “I hit the ball fairly well and maybe I’m back on track. But I haven’t really been struggling that much, I just haven’t been able to get any luck. I had a couple of 0 for 3s on the last road trip that could have been 2 for 3s.

“But it’s still nice to get some hits and help the team for a change.”

Manager Gene Mauch, who saw Howell play in an instructional league game in 1984 and made sure he was promoted to the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate in Edmonton despite a so-so season in Double-A, said he was never worried about his left fielder, even when Howell was slumping.

“It wasn’t a pitiful 2 for 20,” Mauch said. “He was striking the ball well. And nothing Howell does surprises me. When you have the ability he has and work as hard as he does, something good just has to happen.

“The only thing I want to make sure of is that he doesn’t fall in love with those homers. That’s the biggest pitfall any young player can fall into. You saw it happen to one of the best last year . . . our first baseman.”

Howell and Angel first baseman Wally Joyner are close friends. They played together in the minors and still hang out together on the road. And Mauch believes that Joyner’s experience last year--he hit 20 homers before the All-Star break and only two after that--was enough to keep two players from ever falling into that trap again.

Howell admits that initially he was “real jealous” of Joyner’s success. But the soft-spoken left fielder would just as soon toil in somewhat relative obscurity.

It just seems more natural that way.