Angels : Cookie Isn’t Chip Off the Old Mauch, but There Are Similarities

The Angels did not find the next Gene Mauch when they appointed Cookie Rojas interim manager Friday, but to those who remember the playing styles of both men, the club came close enough.

“Cookie didn’t have too much natural ability,” said former major league manager Preston Gomez, now a special adviser to Angel General Manager Mike Port. “He didn’t run that good. He didn’t throw that good. He was a little like Eddie Stanky.

“That’s the same type of player Gene Mauch was. To stay in the big leagues for 16 years, like Cookie did, you have to do a lot of things. He was a heads-up player.

“Gene liked that.”

Rojas played for Mauch for seven seasons, 1963 to 1969, when both were with the Philadelphia Phillies. As Mauch had been, Rojas was a second baseman with scraped elbows and dirty trousers. And as Mauch has preached, Rojas lived and dived by the principles of Little Ball.

“I played aggressively and I played hard,” Rojas said. “I had to work hard to stay in the big leagues. I had to hit behind the runner. I had to hit-and-run. I learned to bunt.”

Rojas stuck around long enough to be voted into the All-Star game five times--four after age 32--and amass nearly 1,700 hits. He retired from the Kansas City Royals in 1977 with a career batting average of .263.

Such credentials don’t necessarily ensure future employment as a major league manager, but Rojas points to another overachiever, another former second base colleague, as an example when asked if he is ready for the responsibility of running a big league team.

“Well, was Pete Rose ready?” Rojas replies, noting that Rose went straight from the Cincinnati Reds’ lineup to the manager’s office--and, for a while, split time at both positions.

“I played 16 years, I scouted for nine years,” Rojas said. “I know the personnel in our league as well as anyone. Yes, I’d like to get the chance to manage.”

Rojas, 49, got that chance, interim or not, after Mauch’s stunning announcement that he was stepping aside for health reasons. Rojas was the consensus choice of Angel owner Gene Autry and Port--and, of course, Mauch--to hold down the fort while Mauch returns to Palm Springs to undergo examination.

That brings up two questions:

(1) Why Rojas?

(2) What kind of manager are the Angels getting?

Port cites Rojas’ obvious qualifications--his playing career, his nine years as an advance scout for the Angels, his eight years as a manager in the Dominican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan winter leagues--but adds that Rojas’ selection was one of convenience.

By going outside the Angels’ present coaching staff for an interim manager, Port said: “We’re solving one problem but not at the expense of the other (coaches). Reading the situation as we do, with this being an interim, short-term thing, we didn’t want to disrupt our coaching staff and have one of them wearing two hats.

“This keeps our coaching staff intact. We solved one absence without affecting any other position.”

Rojas has no managing experience other than winter ball, but those who played for him last year with La Romana of the Dominican League describe him as one Cookie cut from a different mold than Mauch.

“Cookie’s very close to his players,” said Chuck Finley, one of Rojas’ pitchers at La Romana. “He’s a great guy, very easygoing. After the game, when it’s time to relax, he’s your best friend. He’ll socialize with you, get to know you in a different atmosphere.”

Added Mike Cook, another La Romana veteran: “Cookie’s a player’s manager. He’s a very easygoing guy, on and off the field. You can talk to him about anything.

“If you’re sitting in a bar, he’d sit down and have a drink with you. He’d play golf with you. One day, Cookie got together with a couple of his friends, rented a boat and took a couple of guys on the team with him to go deep-sea fishing.”

That presents a striking contrast to Mauch, an intense personality who maintains a well-defined distance from his players.

“Gene is kind of off to himself,” Cook said. “There were some guys on the team last year that he didn’t talk to. That’s just the way Gene was.

” . . . Maybe it’s because the generation gap between us and Cookie is closer. He’s younger and a more relaxed personality. The players loosen up around him, especially the younger players.”

Cook recalled how Rojas defused a growing clubhouse controversy last winter when several Dominican players accused their U.S. teammates of receiving preferential treatment from Rojas.

“The American players are sent there by their (major league) teams and they’re supposed to play,” Cook said. “But some of the American players were slacking off, and the Dominicans felt (Rojas) should be playing them more.

“Cookie had said at the start that if you feel you’re being mistreated, come up to him and talk about it. Well, the Dominican players approached him about it. Cookie called a team meeting and apologized to everybody.

“He told the team what to expect the first day he got there--and he stuck to it.”

Strategically, Rojas hasn’t had much of chance to show his wares. He is 2-0 with the Angels this spring, the victories coming by scores of 14-3 over the Milwaukee Brewers Friday and 11-3 over the Seattle Mariners Saturday.

Apparently, Rojas teams hit.

“I’m not Houdini,” he said. “When they get 14 runs and 22 hits, I’m smart. If we lose, I’m a dumb . . . It’s the players. These guys have made it easy. I haven’t been able to do anything for two days.”

Closer games are certain to come, and when they do, Rojas hopes to unveil his favorite plan of attack, which also coincides with Devon White’s and Mark McLemore’s favorite plan of attack.

“I like the speed,” Rojas said. “If you can run, you should utilize it. The most important things in baseball are pitching, defense, speed and power. If you don’t have power, use your speed to produce more runs.

“This is uncomfortable for me,” he said. “It would be for anybody. I’m taking over for a manager who I’ve respected all my life.

“I learned a helluva lot of baseball from Gene Mauch. He’s one of the most knowledgeable baseball men I’ve ever met. I want him to get well and come back, and I can go back to advance scouting.

“Nobody wants these circumstances.”

Angel Notes

General Manager Mike Port talked with Gene Mauch Saturday morning upon Mauch’s return to his Palm Springs home. “He sounded all right,” Port said. “I think he was more upbeat than yesterday (Friday). That wasn’t easy for him--to talk to me and address his team and staff and the media and say, ‘I’m going to leave a baseball scenario.’ But that doesn’t change the present circumstances. For Gene Mauch to leave any baseball situation, particularly during the middle of spring training, heightens my concern about the situation.” Mauch’s physical examination is scheduled for Monday. . . . Tony Armas hit a pair of two-run home runs and drove in six runs Saturday as the Angels routed the Seattle Mariners, 11-3, giving the club 25 runs and 28 hits in two games under Cookie Rojas. Armas, bidding for a spot on the roster as a reserve outfielder, went 3-for-5 with an RBI single and a run-scoring groundout. “To me, it looks like the Tony Armas of two or three years ago,” Rojas said. “He’s doing everything right.”