Angel Memories Still Trouble Candelaria : He Criticizes Mauch, Says Sutton Tried to Push Him Out of Rotation

Now in the camp of the New York Yankees and preparing to pitch for the team of his boyhood dreams, John Candelaria is also attempting to erase the nightmare that was 1987, his final summer with the Angels.

--Twice he was arrested on drunk driving charges.

--Twice he was on the disabled list and in rehabilitation at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange for unspecified problems that Candelaria says had nothing to do with alcohol, though the Yankee media guide disagrees, calling it the result of alcohol dependency.

--Trading him to the New York Mets in September for two minor league pitchers, the Angels seemed intent on ridding themselves of what they perceived to be an ongoing problem.

All of that is in the record.

But the nightmare, from Candelaria’s viewpoint, went deeper.

He said that Don Sutton, a teammate at the time, seeking to preserve a tenuous hold on a berth in the Angels’ rotation by getting Candelaria out of it, set up his first drunk driving arrest by phoning the police to inform them of his condition after the team returned from a trip.

“I don’t know how a guy can be such a great pitcher and such a lousy individual,” Candelaria said Monday.

Candelaria was even less complimentary about Manager Gene Mauch.

“I’m tired of everyone calling him a genius,” Candelaria said. “He’d rather exercise control of his team than win. That’s just one reason why he hasn’t won in 26 years (as a big league manager) and never will win.

“I mean, you can’t finish last with the team he had last year. There was too much talent. I’ll never be a major league manager, but if I had the same team he had last year, I’d beat him by 20 games.”

Asked if he might be looking for scapegoats, Candelaria shook his head and said: “Not at all. I have no one to blame but myself for what was a very tough and frustrating year, and I’m not looking to blame anyone. Who the hell am I to judge anyone with all the crap I’ve done in my career? I just retaliate when someone hits on me, and I just feel I was hit on enough by the Angels. I’m just explaining my side. I mean, I was damaged all over the country.”

Damaged, he said, by the driving arrests, the first of which has been dismissed, the second of which is pending.

Damaged, he said, by the perception that he was traded because of a drinking problem, which, he said, he has never had.

“It wasn’t my decision to go into therapy,” he said. “I was forced to go by the club. I’m not saying that it wasn’t beneficial because it was in the context of the problem. I’m just saying that it wasn’t alcohol.”

Candelaria refused to identify the problem, though he is known to have put himself through an emotional wringer since the death of his infant son, John Robert, in a swimming pool accident.

Could he have coped with the problem in his own way? Candelaria nodded affirmatively but said that Sutton complicated the situation by calling the police after the club’s arrival at Ontario Airport via charter flight from Detroit.

“He later told me it was out of concern for my well-being,” Candelaria said, “but I think he acted out of self-preservation. He was pitching terrible at the time, seemed on the brink of release and was looking for a way to get me out of the rotation. He was afraid what being released might do to his chances of making the Hall of Fame.

“I mean, if he was acting out of concern, why didn’t he ever call me when I was on the disabled list? Why didn’t he come see me when I was traded? We live only a quarter of a mile apart.”

Asked about his actions, Sutton, reached at the Dodgers’ training base in Vero Beach, Fla., Monday, said: “I don’t want to explain it. I don’t want to deal with any of that crap.”

Candelaria opened the 1987 season 4-0 and finished it 8-6. He was 25-9 in his three seasons with the Angels, yet they traded him for anonymous minor leaguers in September and showed no interest in re-signing him when he rejected the Mets’ winter offer and became a free agent.

“Would I have gone back to the Angels?” Candelaria said. “Of course. It’s a great place to pitch, and we still make our home in Laguna Hills. I never wanted to leave California in the first place.

“To me, it’s amazing that the Angels weren’t interested (over the winter). They have a lot of question marks (in their pitching rotation) and no left-handed starters.

“Maybe they felt that I still had problems. Maybe Mrs. Autry (the wife of club owner Gene Autry) was concerned because she had been through (alcohol) therapy herself, though I always found her to have a lot of class and felt she treated me very well.

“I think it just goes back to Gene Mauch. He isn’t a very good manager, and I think he knew that I knew that. I expressed my opinion in the clubhouse a few times and I wasn’t alone. You had a lot of babies running around telling (Executive Vice President) Mike Port. I think it comes down to the fact that neither Port nor Mauch really care for veteran players. I was one they didn’t like, and Doug DeCinces was another.”

Candelaria cited Gary Pettis, Devon White, Dick Schofield and Mark McLemore and said that a team blessed with speed was seldom allowed to run on its own.

He said Mauch’s desire for control also resulted in the instability that stems from frequent lineup juggling and the absorption of his roster before the critical late innings. “Most of his players are scared to death of him and that’s no way to win either,” he said.

“I came to the conclusion that he had no real concern for his players when I started a game at Boston (May 3) after having a cortisone shot in my side the day before,” Candelaria said. “I got through the fifth inning with an 11-1 lead and told Lach (pitching coach Marcel Lachemann) that it was starting to hurt and thought I should come out.

“Instead, they sent me back for the sixth inning and the seventh inning, and they didn’t take me out until I had given up three more runs.

“I asked Mauch about it later, and he said that he was enjoying watching me pitch and had forgotten that I was in pain. It wasn’t too long after that that I went on the disabled list, and that was one of the reasons. I had aggravated the condition. I mean, that’s when I lost any respect for Gene Mauch.”

Mauch could not be reached for comment at the Angels’ training camp.

Candelaria, now 34 and confident he can regain his previous success, is assured of a berth in the Yankees’ rotation. He said he rejected the Mets because they couldn’t offer him the same assurance.

He is guaranteed $700,000, with the Yankees holding an option on 1989 at $800,000. He believes that the talent here is superior to any team he has ever played on, even the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, who won the World Series.

Even as an Angel last year, Candelaria had talked about what it would be like, having grown up in New York and getting the chance to pitch in pinstripes.

“Every kid fantasizes about pitching for his hometown team,” he said. “I wished I could hit like Mickey Mantle, too, but I couldn’t hit a lick. I wasn’t asking to be traded when I talked about that.

“As I said, I would have liked to keep playing in Anaheim, but there’s no doubt that it’s worked out for the best. I’m looking for another (World Series) ring, and Anaheim is no place to get it as long as Gene Mauch is the manager.”