WALLY WALLY WALLY : After the Circus That Was 1986, Joyner Is Happy to Let Others Grab Spotlight

A year ago, he was all apple cheeks and peach fuzz, Orange County’s home run-hitting sapling. Everybody wanted a piece of him, and by the time the baseball playoffs rolled around, there was hardly any of him left.

All the king’s horses and men weren’t required to put Wally Joyner back together again. Just a few doctors. He survived 1986--the media circus, the crush of instant celebrity, the debilitating leg infection--and, now, he is thriving in 1987. Already, he has hit more home runs (24) than in his storied rookie season. With 86 runs batted in, he is on a pace to easily surpass last year’s startling total of 100.

Joyner is back--perhaps burned by the madness of 1986, but also tempered by it. He has learned when to say no and when to take it slowly. He has been indoctrinated to the bottom-line methods of management during a spring-training contract dispute and has seen the fickle finger of fame flutter more erratically than a Phil Niekro knuckleball.

Eyes that were wide a year ago now come equipped with a certain wariness.

“There’s a little bit more thickness on the ice now,” Joyner says.

A more wily Wally, if you will.

And, Joyner claims, a happier Wally.

“I’m enjoying this season a lot more,” he said. “I’m more relaxed, I’m more mature. I have my privacy back, I have my way of life back.”

Fifteen home runs in his first 36 games as a major league player changed Joyner’s life more than he could ever have imagined. Suddenly, he was no longer a rookie first baseman. Suddenly, he was a national icon, the Angels’ boy wonder, the curator of Wally World.

“I’d never been around anything like it,” said Angel third baseman Jack Howell, Joyner’s roommate and close friend. “Everybody and his brother wanted to get ahold of him. There are only so many companies and people and agencies and fans and reporters you can talk to. But people felt like he owed them something--all the time.”

Joyner felt swamped.

“It was tiring,” he said. “It invaded my privacy and my family life so much that--this didn’t happen, but I thought about it--maybe subconsciously I found myself hoping to do bad for a while so they would leave me alone.

“I know last year, when my average went from .310 to .272, people stopped bothering me. Quietly, I climbed back up to .310 by the All-Star break. And, it started all over again.”

Joyner became the first rookie to be voted into the All-Star Game’s starting lineup by the fans. This year, despite comparable statistics, he sat out the All-Star Game, neglected by both the fans and American League Manager John McNamara.

Joyner says he didn’t mind. He spent a year as everyone’s front-page news. Now, he’s finding that life among the tire ads isn’t bad.

“If you didn’t follow us every day, you really wouldn’t know I’m having a better season than last year,” Joyner said. He seems both pleased and proud of that fact.

The spotlight nows points elsewhere, toward the new sensation on the block, Mark McGwire. Joyner is glad to have passed the torch, but he has empathy for his successor in the baseball fish bowl.

“I honestly believe that if Mark McGwire were left alone, he’d be having a better year,” Joyner said. “He’d have more than 37 home runs. He had 37 home runs in a short period time, when nobody knew him and he was just doing his job.

“Home runs fascinate people. Last year, I was chasing Roger Maris, I was the next guy. Then, it went from me to Jose Canseco. And it went from Canseco to Eric Davis. And now it’s gone from Eric Davis to Mark McGwire.

“Everybody’s a front-runner. Not only in baseball, but in all things. Like movies. I’ll go out and see a movie that everyone’s talking about. Well, this year in baseball, everybody’s talking about Mark McGwire. People don’t want to go to the ballpark to see somebody bad.”

Howell believes there’s another, simple reason why Wallymania has abated in 1987.

“Everyone who wanted to talk to Wally already has,” Howell said.

And this, Howell adds, is good.

“He went a whole year without having any time for himself,” he said. “Now, he has leisure time. He can do some fun things when he’s on the road. He can go touristing, he can sleep till 1 or 2 if he wants. He can do the things he wants to do.”

So what does Wally Joyner, aged 25, do with his spare time? Well, he’s taken up a hobby.

It’s called pitching.

No, not the Mike Witt kind of pitching, although that might answer a few thousand of Gene Mauch’s prayers.

Joyner has taken up the Mary Lou Retton, Jim McMahon, Michael Jordan kind of pitching--which entails an entirely different sort of delivery.

“You gotta see this,” Angel publicist Tim Mead says as he pulls a slick, black-and-white portfolio out of the file cabinet in his office.

On the cover of the portfolio is an action photo of Wally in mid-dive, reaching out to glove a ground ball hit to his right. Stripped across the top is a bold headline: “Outstanding in his own field.”

Open it up and you find another headline: “And your field, too.” Inside is what amounts to a three-page resume for any corporate executive interested in employing a clean-cut, well-rounded first baseman to hawk his product.

There’s a picture of Wally smiling and holding a can of Slice, the soft drink he already plugs on television. There’s a picture of Wally, dressed in coat and tie, with his wife Leslie and their two little girls.

There are quotes from references:

--”Good man, good pro and a class act, a friend for a lifetime,” said Reggie Jackson, Oakland Athletics.

--”A man who is at the top of his profession, but has not forgotten the important things in life--friends and family. I’m proud to say he is my friend,” said Dale Murphy, Atlanta Braves.

There is an extensive listing of his baseball achievements and, as an added bonus, a rundown of “Career Accomplishments.” Such as:

--Television: Dance Fever, semifinalist judge, 1986.

--Product Endorsements: Nike shoes; Slice; Crevier BMW; Rawlings sporting goods.

--Public Appearances: Andy Williams Pro-Am Golf Tournament; YMCA Orange County 1987 Kick-off Celebration; “Hot Stove” Dinner, Fresno; Pizza Hut Softball Classic, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

On the back cover, there’s a phone number to be called for more information.

Wally Joyner is for hire.

“I’m available,” Joyner said. “I did a couple of things (advertisements) last year and I didn’t mind doing it. I did the Slice commercial with Mike Scott, Ozzie Smith and Lenny Dykstra and it was a lot of fun. That type of work is very interesting to me.”

Joyner is proud of the portfolio.

“I hired a guy to do something like that,” he said. “We did it to see what would happen. He did a good job.

“This is how the world is run. Movie stars do commercials for companies because they’re popular, because it sells. . . . I’m not going to prostitute myself or overstay my welcome, but if I can do it and a company thinks I can help it, I’d like to do it.”

Plus, Joyner points out, the options for a Mormon pitchman are limited. Milk is OK, but the Wally Wine Cooler is definitely out. Alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, for starters, are taboo.

“There’s not that much I can do, anyway,” said Joyner, who had to turn down a proposed spot for the California lottery last year.

“There are only so many things I can pick from. That’s why the brochures are out.”

Joyner entered the 1987 season a marked man. He had produced the most schizophrenic of rookie years--.313 and 20 home runs in the first half, .257 and 2 home runs in the second--and this made people wonder: Will the real Wally please stand up?

Many predicted a fall, that the 1986 fade-out was a harbinger for one of the great sophomore jinxes of all time.

Joyner heard, and read, all of it.

“It didn’t bother me very much,” he said. “I had a good year last year, but it’s easier to doubt than to praise somebody. I had two seasons in one--a good season and a bad season. People were betting on which season Wally was going to have this year.

“Me, I knew Wally Joyner could play. The only thing I knew I had to do was keep myself healthy. Last year, I hit 22 home runs in basically half a season. I’m not saying I’m a 44-home run hitter, but I spent the second half of last year trying to overcome an injury.

“I felt I’d improve this year if I kept my health.”

His leg was long ago cleansed of the staph infection that hospitalized Joyner in the middle of the 1986 American League playoffs. And, for most of the first four months of the 1987 regular season, Joyner successfully avoided serious injury.

A July 19 collision with Milwaukee’s Glenn Braggs ended that run, leaving Joyner with a badly bruised rib cage. He has been in and out of the lineup since, but with the help of an elastic rib brace, he’s been able to get by. Last week, Joyner hit his 23rd and 24th home runs of the season--surpassing the total they said he’d never again reach.

Along the way, Joyner has slumped, spoken out against Angel management, endured his first big league losing streak and attended his brother Crandon’s funeral. It has been anything but a joy ride, but if 1986 taught Joyner anything, it was the art of taking it all in stride.

“He’s having another great year,” Howell said. “I was with him during the worst year he could ever have, his first year in Triple-A (1985), when he hit .190, .200 the first half. He went through all that stuff, but he stuck with the same plan.

“In the second half, he came back to hit .350, .360 and over the long haul, he had a good season. The next year, he got called up. The rest is history.”

And this is the latest chapter. A look at Wally Joyner, Year II:

MARCH

The organist at Anaheim Stadium greets every Wally Joyner at-bat with a snippet of the “Leave It To Beaver” theme, which is cute, but no longer appropriate. Joyner’s Wally Cleaver image took on a much sharper edge during spring training, when he became embroiled in his first contract controversy.

General Manager Mike Port, playing no favorites, played hardball with Joyner. Negotiations did not begin until Joyner reported to camp and then Port imposed an arbitrary signing deadline five days later. Joyner wanted $200,000, Port offered $160,000.

After considerable haggling, with Joyner accusing the Angels of valuing the dollar over another division championship, the two sides compromised on a base salary of $165,000, plus incentives that could bring Joyner’s final 1987 total to $195,000.

Looking back on the experience, Joyner said he learned that “a first-year player does not have very much leverage. I felt like I was treated decently--I wasn’t treated the best, but they could have done worse to me.

“I was not extremely happy. . . . What the owners are saying is that they overpaid some players in the past and now they are going to correct that. Well, fine. Correct it. Do that--but also reward the the players who brought in the fans and made you have a winning season. I felt like I was one of those players for the California Angels.

“But during our talks with the Angels, it was not, ‘Wally, you’re our guy and you helped us do a lot. Here.’ It was more like, ‘Well, let’s go down the list and see what other players your level are getting and do this because we have to.’ That’s how my feelings were.

“They did what they wanted to do--and that’s sign me for as little as they could.”

Joyner said he never considered a walkout, as teammate Kirk McCaskill did.

“The only thing I thought could happen was I’d let them renew me (at $62,500, the major league minimum)--and then make sure everybody was aware that I was not happy with what was going on,” he said.

Arbitration, though, is a different story.

“I’ll go to arbitration,” Joyner said. “As a baseball player, it’s our only outlet for fairness and respect from the ballclubs, outside of walking out and holding out.

“What I did this year--come into camp unsigned and have five days to negotiate a contract--I’m going to try not to let that happen. Hopefully, I can sign before spring training.”

APRIL

Fifteen home runs and 37 RBIs in 36 games. A game-winning home run with the roof collapsing in Minnesota. A grand slam against Toronto. Two home runs in his first visit to Tiger Stadium.

This was Joyner’s introduction to the major leagues in 1986. “I was as perfect as you could get the first month of last season,” he said.

Joyner knew it couldn’t happen again in 1987. Yet, he tried.

Still bothered by a spring hamstring-pull and admittedly pressing, Joyner was batting an imperfect .188 with no home runs on April 18. The next day, he threw a ball away that led to Minnesota’s winning run and hit into the game’s final out.

Afterward, he refused to talk to the press, seeking refuge in the players’ lounge and advice from Don Sutton.

“The low point of the season,” Joyner calls it. “I was at the point where I felt I was not doing my job to help the Angels win.

“Not only wasn’t I getting the base hits and the home runs, I wasn’t scoring a guy on a ground ball, I wasn’t catching a ground ball. I just felt like I was hurting the team. Instead of doing just 50% of my job, I felt like I was a failure.”

Sutton served as a buffer and a sounding board.

“I did a lot of listening,” Sutton said. “I told him there’s nothing wrong with being frustrated, with being hurt when you’re struggling. A baseball career is a series of struggles and the successful players are the ones who wade through them”

Said Joyner: “I just needed some help to point me back to the facilities and equipment I have. Any talk with a veteran ballplayer, seeing what makes him tick and come back after a horrid start or game, helps. I had to go back to the drawing board and Don helped me remember what got me there last season.”

Two days later, Joyner hit his first home run of 1987. Within a week, he had five. He ended the month batting .297 with 19 RBIs.

MAY

On May 9, Joyner hit his eighth home run, a three-run homer off Al Nipper that helped the Angels to an 8-1 victory over Boston at Fenway Park.

In the clubhouse, Mauch called Joyner and Howell into his office to relay the news he had known since that morning: Joyner’s 31-year-old brother, Crandon, stricken with Marfan’s syndrome, had died of heart failure.

“I was upset, selfishly upset,” Joyner said, recalling that moment. “I was thinking about all the great times I had growing up with my older brother and how I was going to miss him.

“Then, I was also upset about his family. Who’s going to take care of his kids? Later, I found out that he had time to get things in order and provide for his family.”

Crandon, who left six children, had been ill for more than a year and had made preparations, taking out a life insurance policy and seeing that his medical practice was left in capable hands.

Still, Joyner said he intends to financially assist Crandon’s family by establishing an annual “Wally Joyner Golf Tournament,” with proceeds going to his brother’s children.

“We’re right now trying to work out and work on a charity golf tournament to put a trust together for his children, so all of them can go out and get a college education,” Joyner said. “If we can do that this winter, I’ll be satisfied. We’ll hold it in Southern California somewhere. I’ve had people tell me we can get some pretty classy golf courses and have a lot of people attend.

“After that, I’d like to do it every year for a good cause.”

Joyner missed four games to attend Crandon’s funeral. By the time he returned, the Angels were on the precipice of a nine-game losing streak that would help sink the club into seventh place by June 3.

Another lesson for Wally.

“I learned that this game can humble you at any time,” he said.

Around him, Joyner watched the Angels’ pitching disintegrate. Included in the streak were losses by scores of 7-2, 10-8, 8-6, 8-7 and 7-2.

“One of the problems was everybody was trying to hit a three-run home run or score every time he got on base,” Joyner said. “Mike Witt’s problem was that he felt he had to throw a shutout or a one-run game every time out, trying to end the streak. You can’t do that on the major league level.

“We didn’t snap out of it for nine games, but winning 16 of 20 (in June and July) made up for it.”

JUNE

In addition to his responsibilities as Angel first baseman and run-producer, Joyner has accepted a new role this season: Club spokesman.

“I’ve been outspoken on a couple of things this year,” Joyner said. “I treat everybody fairly and I want to be treated the same way. The players deserve respect and if there’s a problem, let’s get it out in the open and solve it together.”

Joyner saw such a problem in mid-June when the Angels, acting in response to John Candelaria’s second drunk-driving arrest in a month, issued a ban on alcohol in the clubhouse and on team planes. Many players privately complained about the decision, but Joyner, a non-drinker, spoke the loudest on the record.

“The problem was that we had alcoholic beverages supplied to us on the airplane back home and once we got to the stadium, we had to drive ourselves home,” Joyner said. “Players get to drinking on a long plane flight and by the time they get to the stadium, the intoxication level is unsafe for them to drive.

“Any other place, it’s not a problem. One, because we don’t have enough time after games to get drunk. You can maybe have two beers. And, two, the transportation is supplied to players after road games.

“But instead of handling that problem, (the Angels) just eliminated all drinking. That didn’t solve the problem. They just eliminated everything. The players weren’t treated properly.”

Although the media onslaught has died, Joyner remains one of the most quoted--and quotable--Angels. The retirement of Bobby Grich and the release of Reggie Jackson created a void in the team’s clubhouse that Joyner sees himself filling.

“I think people come to me because I’m honest,” Joyner said. “Sometimes, I might say too much. But I’ll give reporters the time of day and tell them what’s going on.

“To me, a ballplayer has three jobs. One, he has to play on the field and help his team win. Two, he has to show appreciation to the fans. And three, he has to give interviews.”

Joyner flashes back to 1986 and flashes a smile.

“Every once and a while.”

JULY

The first-half numbers that earned Joyner an All-Star starting assignment over Don Mattingly in 1986 were .313, 20 home runs and 72 RBIs. A year later, Joyner watched the All-Star Game from his Placentia living room, despite a .277 batting average, 20 home runs and 74 RBIs.

Joyner claims he wasn’t bothered by the snub.

“What happened with the All-Star game this year was fine,” he said. “It’s hard to beat what happened last year. It was a big deal to make it over the MVP of the previous year and be voted in by the fans. I’m not sure if I’ll make it again, but that was a big, big happening.

Said Mauch: “Wally was beaten by something he had no control over. It’s unfair. But by the same token, with the elation he felt last year by being picked over Mattingly and (Eddie) Murray, I think he’ll be able to live with this.”

Joyner agreed with Mauch.

“The way I look at it is the same way I look at rookie of the year (in 1986),” he said. “I wasn’t the rookie of the year because 28 reporters voted for Jose Canseco. To me, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t rookie of the year.

“This year, I was not selected by the fans or by John McNamara. Because of the rules, I wasn’t there. But I still had All-Star stats.”

Joyner pointed to the middle of his chest.

“All that matters is here.”

AUGUST

In the spring, when the doubters figured Joyner’s home-run swing was a six-week fluke, Joyner conceded that he may never again equal the 22 home runs he delivered in 1986.

“I’m Keith Hernandez-type hitter,” he said at the time. “I hit line drives, I put the ball in play. Hernandez hits 10 or 12 home runs a year--and still has a great season.”

In 1987, Joyner has had more than a Keith Hernandez-type season. In fact, he has had more than a Wally Joyner-type season.

On Aug. 4, Joyner connected against Minnesota’s George Frazier for home run No. 23. One more than in 1986.

Vindication?

“I’m not out to prove anybody wrong,” Joyner said. “I could show a pitcher up or a teammate up any time I wanted to. That’s not me. If you don’t talk a lot and do your job, you’re going to get along fine in baseball.

“I learned that in Puerto Rico. I had a great year there, but you’re treated no better or no worse than anybody else. Go about your business like that and I think your teammates appreciate that.

“You need nine guys. And you can’t have nine first basemen. You wouldn’t get anybody out that way.”

Health permitting, Joyner has a healthy shot at 30 home runs. But therein lies the rub. For the second time in as many Augusts, Joyner is hurting.

Last year, it was a blood infection in his right shin. This year, it’s the rib cage. Along the way, Joyner has also suffered from a bruised elbow, a badly bruised shin and back spasms.

Joyner was asked if he considered himself injury-prone.

“I’ve never been on the DL,” he said. “To me, injury-prone means being on the DL year in and year out.

“If you go out and play hard, things are going to happen. That’s one of the disadvantages of playing every day. If you don’t play, you don’t get hurt.”

The best news about the rib injury, Joyner said, is that the Angel trainers have detected it. Last year, the leg infection was not diagnosed until Game 4 of the playoffs, when it was far too late.

“I don’t think last year’s was serious if it had been diagnosed properly,” Joyner said. “This could be if it’s neglected. It could be career-threatening. The pain’s there.

“Last year’s was a quiet killer, so to speak. We had to treat it when it happened and we didn’t. It got worse and worse and then it hit me at an unpleasant time. But this one, we’re taking care of.”

Joyner missed the last three games of last October’s playoffs. The Angels lost all three. He wonders if things would have turned out differently if he had played. He’d like to get another chance this year.

Of course, that would mean a return to the limelight. Everybody watches you in October. For Joyner, that would mean more cameras and notepads and microphones.

Would it be worth the hassle, all over again? Wally World was a nice place to visit, Joyner recalls, but he wouldn’t want to live there.

Then again, maybe a quick trip back wouldn’t be all that bad. He could be so enticed. We’re talking some major perks here.

Remember, World Series heroes do endorsements.