JACKIE AUTRY : After Facing Her Problem, She’s Back in Training

When pitcher John Candelaria returns from a 28-day stay in a rehabilitation program, he will find an unlikely and influential ally who identifies with his recent struggle: Jackie Autry, wife of Angel owner Gene Autry and a recovering alcoholic.

On June 2, Autry, 44, completed an addict-alcoholic program at the Betty Ford Center at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, not far from the Angels’ spring training site in Palm Springs. Ford, whose celebrated recovery from prescription drug abuse led to the Center’s focus, served as Autry’s temporary sponsor.

“Nobody knew I had a problem,” Autry said last week at Anaheim Stadium. “I’m the one who felt I had a problem. I think an alcoholic comes to a point in their life and says they can’t deal with a situation any longer and they feel they need to take care of it. There are a lot of people that I know who are alcoholics who deny that they are alcoholics. Denial is the first problem with an alcoholic. Once you admit that you’re an alcoholic, the rest seems to come a little easier.”

Asked about her husband’s reaction to her bout with alcoholism, Autry paused for a moment. She spoke of his supportiveness but added, “He’s still in denial about my alcoholism.”

Autry, one of 80 patients who participated in the recent sessions, remained at the Center for nearly a month. She left, she said, with a better understanding of herself and of her alcoholism.

“It’s a hereditary, chronic, progressive disease,” she said. “It’s not unlike sugar diabetes. . . . It can be dealt with. A diabetic has to take the insulin shot once a day; the alcoholic has to go to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). That’s their insulin shot.”

When possible, Autry attends local AA meetings “as often as I can and sometimes not often enough.” The first 90 days after the rehabilitation program’s end, Autry said, are the most trying. Depending on the individual, three AA meetings a day might be necessary. By her own count, Autry visits the meetings about three or four times a week.

Autry said she isn’t sure of the origin of her alcoholism. It could have been hereditary, but there is no known evidence of a family problem. And possibly, though not likely, she said, the growing demands and responsibilities with the Angels were partly to blame. By her own admission, Autry was “overly perfectionistic,” a common trait, she said, of alcoholics.

“An alcoholic can give you 5,000 reasons to why they’re an alcoholic, why they want to drink,” she said. “I can’t tell you if stress complicated the problem, but I’m sure it probably did, trying to do too many things at once.”

It is because of her recent experiences that Autry has taken a special interest in Candelaria’s troubles. While Autry said she never dictated Angel policy concerning Candelaria, she certainly may have influenced it. When General Manager Mike Port contemplated appropriate action after it was learned that Candelaria no longer regularly attended counseling sessions, Autry offered a valuable insight.

She first explained to Port the problems Candelaria faced, if indeed, he were an alcoholic. She then told Port that if the condition were diagnosed as alcoholism, “that John could not . . . deal with the pressures of what he was going through on an out-patient basis and go to AA, that he was going to have to do it as professionally as possible.”

Not long after the conversation, the Angels placed Candelaria on the 15-day disabled list June 19 “for personal reasons.” It was the second time Candelaria had been put on the list. Soon afterward, Candelaria entered a 28-day rehabilitation program.

“I am a recovering alcoholic and I am a graduate of the Betty Ford Center,” she said. “So when you ask me the question of John’s problem, I can relate to him very well. I fully intend to talk to John once he’s out, and if I can be of any help, I will.

“I am very sensitive to the problem. I still think John has a great deal to offer to baseball. If he uses his tools that he’s given, he’ll be fine.”

Meanwhile, the Angels are one of a few major league baseball teams that prohibit alcohol on team charter flights or in the clubhouse. The policy, Autry said, was unrelated to Candelaria’s troubles and certainly had nothing to do with her own alcoholism. Instead, it was a legal issue, a question of whether an employer must share in the responsibility of an employee’s actions if the employer provides alcohol.

“John just happened to have some problems that were alcohol-related at the time and it was just an unfortunate situation,” she said. “But it was not to pick on any specific ballplayer.”

THE METAMORPHOSIS

Six years ago, on a pleasant Sunday in July, Jacqueline Ellam became Mrs. Gene Autry. Those were the days when Jackie Autry would have been reluctant to confess to alcohol abuse. Nor would she have ventured an opinion about the inner workings of Angel management, or the tribulations of a starting pitcher involved in a rehabilitation program. She was the owner’s wife, an outsider of sorts, who knew little about the business of baseball, about its many quirks and rituals.

Asked during a 1982 interview if she would prefer a greater voice in team decisions, she said: “I really wouldn’t like any more input and I’ll tell you why. I really don’t feel I’m that knowledgeable.”

No longer. Now she details, in precise fashion, the reason major league owners refused to bid for celebrated free agents such as Tim Raines and Andre Dawson. She is able to cite figures and factors as if she were born with a copy of the collective bargaining agreement. Ask her about the importance of a productive minor league system and a sermon follows. Mention profit margin and she directs your attention to the television contract negotiations due to begin in 1989.

Autry, while still in training, considers herself a franchise owner. It is now her job, her vocation. By her own calculations, Gene Autry, 79, makes “99%” of all Angel management decisions, “but that’s not to say that he and I don’t have some discussions periodically.”

When Gene Autry acquired 100% ownership of the Angels in 1983, he and Jackie made a decision. They would treat the Angels as their first love, devoting the bulk of their time to the team.

A management company was hired, at Jackie Autry’s insistence, to evaluate the entire Angel organization. It found the team in need of a larger front office staff, of a modernized and streamlined ticketing service, of better cost control. Perhaps more important, the report helped educate her.

“I would have to be honest and say that prior to this overall analysis that was performed, I didn’t know that much about what was happening on the business end of this company,” she said. “And there was really no need to (because of a prior agreement that would have allowed another partner to claim ownership in the case of Gene Autry’s death). Once that situation no longer existed and you have an asset you have to take care of, you better know what’s going on or you’re going to have some problems.”

In essence, Autry is in training to one day oversee the Angels. It is something the couple discussed after their marriage and after Gene Autry sold his interest in KTLA-TV to finance his acquisition of the remaining shares of the Angels. “I’d have to just answer for today because you never know in 5 or 10 years from now how you’d feel,” she said.

“But . . . it was our intention, both Gene’s and mine, that the team remain a part of the Autry family as long as possible. One of the things that we both agreed to when we sold KTLA was that if the ballteam could not break even and carry itself, we might have to consider selling it. I think that would be true of any business that we had. Neither Gene nor myself are in baseball to make money. But we’re not in baseball to lose money, either.”

So Autry continues to learn more about the team she may eventually inherit. She has listened to some of the negotiating sessions involving Reggie Jackson, Rich Gossage and Donnie Moore. She and Tom Seeberg, vice president of public relations, also have formulated a plan that will help Angel players better understand how to invest their earnings. And whenever possible, Autry tries to use the lessons she learned as a banker and apply them to baseball management.

“Baseball is really not unlike the business I came out of,” she said. “Banking is a service-oriented business and we provide a service--it’s called baseball. And we provide a service to the fans to provide baseball on the field.”

But baseball offers its own distinct dilemmas--the time Reggie Jackson accused the Autrys of insisting he retire, for instance. Or the contract negotiations involving Kirk McCaskill and Wally Joyner. Or the well-publicized problems concerning Candelaria. Or the stunning playoff losses in 1982 and 1986. Or the eventual prospect of becoming one of the few female baseball owners.

Jackie Autry on Jackson: “A superstar. I think given the change in direction that we are trying to make, I think it was best for Reggie to move on. Gene and I feel that Reggie is still a friend and hope he feels the same way. This was not a personal decision. This was a business decision that we made. Reggie is a businessman. I’m hoping. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Reggie personally about it, but I hope Reggie understands.

“Reggie is struggling,” she said. “He’s still struggling. You like to see a superstar go out on top. Johnny Bench is a man who comes to mind who retired, walked away from a contract because he didn’t want to embarrass himself on the field. One of the most difficult things for any professional in sports, and I would even have to go outside of baseball, is that a professional does not sometimes realize that their career is over and wants to hang in there. Whether it’s for the love of the game, whether it’s for money, I really don’t understand their innermost thoughts.

“Gene and I met with Reggie in the winter of 1985 at our home for about four hours. We just had a nice, friendly visit and kind of talked to Reggie about what he was going to do when he retired and didn’t specifically address retiring, rather: ‘When you decide to retire, what are you going to do?’ (Later) there were some stories in the springtime of 1986 where Reggie indicated that I had indicated that he should get out of baseball and yet I never had that conversation with him, and my husband was there with me the whole time and we were kind of mystified at how that all developed.”

Does she wish Jackson would have ended his career with the Angels rather than pursue another season?

“Yes, out of friendship to Reggie, though I understand in the last few weeks he’s doing very well and I’m very pleased for him. We consider Reggie a friend.”

On the barriers she’s encountered as a newcomer to baseball: “None at all. In any company, whether it’s baseball or any company, I think they evaluate you on your strengths and weaknesses and accept you for those strengths and weaknesses. I think if any individual comes off as pompous or arrogant, irrespective of what business they’re in, you’re not going to get any cooperation. You’re not going to be accepted. I readily admitted that I knew nothing about major league baseball from a management standpoint and people have been very good accepting that position and giving me some insight as to the intricacies and problems you have to deal with at a major league level.”

Autry on ownership: “The first thing I would tell them is not to buy a baseball team unless they want to get an ulcer or gray hair. It’s frustrating. There are times when I get the feeling that the ballplayers think the owners are the enemy, and we’re not. I sometimes get that feeling because I think the union portrays us as being that way.

“Yes, I think there are occasions when ballplayers don’t care about the owner, when they only care about their paycheck. I think that if you go back 20, 25 years ago, that was not the case. When I talk about this relationship with the ballplayers 20, 25 years ago, I can only see how Gene relates to ballplayers from that time period. They feel comfortable talking with the old boss, talking about before.”

Autry on pennant losses to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1982 and to the Boston Red Sox in 1986: “We were staying at the Marriott (in Boston). We just sat there. We didn’t know what to do. Gene’s been in this business for what, 27 years now, and he seems to be able to handle the disappointments better than I do. In 1982, I was devastated. I couldn’t talk to anybody (about the game) without crying. Last year, I guess I was a little more toughened by it. Though I don’t know if you ever get really toughened.”

Autry will learn, if she hasn’t already, that more heartaches and headaches await. It is the penalty of apprenticeship.

On Ownership: ‘The first thing I would tell them is not to buy a baseball team unless they want to get an ulcer or gray hair. It’s frustrating. There are times when I get the feeling that the ballplayers think the owners are the enemy, and we’re not. I sometimes get that feeling because I think the union portrays us as being that way.’

--JACKIE AUTRY

On Alcoholism: It’s a hereditary, chronic, progressive disease. It’s not unlike sugar diabetes . . . . It can be dealt with. A diabetic has to take the insulin shot once a day; the alcoholic has to go to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). That’s their insulin shot.’

--JACKIE AUTRY