Things Are Really Clicking at Angel and Dodger Camps

Pull up a chair and let me show you some vacation slides I took while visiting the spring training camps of the Dodgers and Angels. Will someone in the back please turn out the lights?

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Here’s a shot I took inside the Dodger clubhouse at Vero Beach. Note that the players seem to be very tense, very alert, except for the two or three who are napping. This new alertness and tension is attributable to the presense of Kirk Gibson.

Last season, the Dodgers were too loose. A baseball team needs tension, lest the overall attitude becomes what the players call “laxadaisical.”

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Here’s the Angels’ clubhouse at Palm Springs. This shot was taken just after Gene Mauch retired. Notice the loose, relaxed atmosphere, exemplified by this food fight. This new casual clubhouse ambiance is attributable to the presence of Cookie Rojas, the new manager.

Last season, the Angels were too tight. To be truly effective over a long season, a baseball team needs to be loose, relaxed, almost laxadaisical.

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Here’s Cookie Rojas, joking around with several Angels players. The players say they feel relaxed around Cookie. How could you not feel relaxed around a guy named Cookie?

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For the sake of history, let’s have a quick slide review of Angel managers, and why they failed. This is Gene Mauch. Too serious. Click . John McNamara. Too grumpy. Click . Mauch again. Still too serious. Click . Jim Fregosi. Too pushy. Click . Dave Garcia. Not pushy enough. Click . Norm Sherry. Too friendly. Click . Dick Williams. Too unfriendly. Click. Bobby Winkles. Too short. Click . Del Rice. Too tall. Click . Lefty Phillips. Too left-handed. Click. Bill Rigney. Too laxadaisical.

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Here’s Dodger veteran Mike Marshall, seething as he sees that his name has been left off the starting lineup for the spring training opener against the Chunichi Dragons.

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And here’s Marshall a couple of weeks later, sitting out a game with what a club official calls “a touch of the flu.”

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This is an anonymous Dodger player, his face hidden by a shadow, telling a reporter that Pedro Guerrero is a “cancer on this team.” The same player also told the reporter that Mike Marshall is “a touch of flu on this team.”

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Here’s a close-up shot I took of the infamous Kirk Gibson cap, with the eyeblack rubbed into the sweatband. Note that Gibson’s cap is of unique design. It’s the only one in the big leagues equipped with steam vents.

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Roster cuts near the end of spring training must be handled with great delicacy. Here’s Tom Lasorda addressing his players, saying: “All Dodger infielders, take one step forward. Not so fast, Mariano.”

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Here’s Mariano Duncan, displaying the kind of intensity the Dodgers think he’ll need to make it in the big leagues. Unfortunately, as you can see, Mariano is displaying that intensity as he throws equipment about the clubhouse, enraged at his demotion to the minor leagues after hitting a robust .100 in spring training.

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Craig Shipley, Dodger utility man, here is sadly packing his bags after being assigned to the minors despite hitting .588 this spring. The Dodgers kept Dave Anderson, who hit .086.

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Here’s Lasorda slapping his forehead and saying: “Shipley hit .588? Geez, I thought that was his fielding average.

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In this shot, Lasorda is explaining why he shipped Shipley and kept Anderson. “I can’t go by spring stats alone,” Lasorda says, pointing out Anderson’s career big league batting average of .228.

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Lasorda again, here discussing journalism philosophy with several sportswriters. Note that the sportswriters’ hair is blowing straight back, as if in a windstorm. Lasorda’s voice has three volume settings--loud, booming and hide the crystal.

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Here Lasorda is protesting after the Guerrero-Duncan incident that the press is putting him on the witness stand, “Like Oliver North! Like Jimmy Swaggart! Like Gary Hart!”

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Lasorda again, posing for snapshots with some Dodgertown visitors--Oliver North, Jimmy Swaggart and Gary Hart.

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This is Dodger General Manager Fred Claire, standing near a Dodgertown diamond and telling reporters: “I like our club. I like all aspects. I like the power, the speed and the outstanding attitude.”

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Here a team administrative aide is quietly pointing out to Claire that the team he has been watching work out is not the Dodgers, but the Chunichi Dragons.

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Back to Angel camp. You know this guy. Genial Gene Autry, owner of the Angels. Under his guidance the Angels are 0 for 28 seasons, and the organization has tended to ship out such guys as Nolan Ryan and Dickie Thon, and ship in such guys as Bill Travers and Frank LaCorte. Autry, who made approximately $8 trillion for recording “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and was a major force in ushering in the era of baseball’s big-money free agents, is shown here griping about today’s overpaid ballplayers.

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Spring training means hard, grueling work under a relentless sun. Here two diligent Angels hitters work overtime grooving their swings.

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And here we see the work pay off handsomely as both players hit the middle of the fairway with their tee shots.

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Here’s a shot of the action as the new, relaxed Angels give up 13 runs to the Seattle Mariners in the first inning of the Cookie Rojas era. It’s a new big league record for relaxation. The Angels rallied for a 3-17 loss.

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And finally, here are Cookie and Tommy at a joint press conference to promote the Freeway Series. Both managers say they are eager to begin the season, and that their players are happy and enthusiastic and ready to play ball with laxadaisical intensity.