ANGELS 1988 PREVIEW SECTION : Q & A : Gene Autry Talks About Business, Personnel and the Ongoing Quest to Reach the World Series

Since 1960, when Gene Autry was awarded the Angel franchise, he has waited for the team to win something, anything beyond an American League Western Division title. They’ve come close--earning division titles in three of the last nine seasons--but never advancing to the coveted World Series.

Autry, 80, has tried everything: managerial changes, the free agent market and, most recently, the development of a quality farm system. During a recent interview at his KMPC radio offices in Hollywood, Autry discussed the Angels’ annual quest for a pennant, as well as the day-to-day problems he encounters as the Angels owner.

The conversation:

Question: What are your thoughts concerning Wally Joyner’s contract dispute, and how do you feel generally about the salary demands of players with three or fewer years of major league service, for example: Danny Tartabull, Jose Canseco, Joyner?

Answer: After all, that was the contract that the players’ representatives made when they made this contract. At one time, it was two years before they could go to arbitration. Wally only has two years.

That was in the contract, that it was three years before he could go into arbitration. Now then, with Wally’s situation, he had two good years. But he wasn’t actually in comparison to others who have signed. I do not get involved with the general manager over making a deal with the players. I don’t think I should. If you do that, then a player can come directly to me and say, ‘I think I’m entitled to this.’ If I happen to give him one and go over the general manager’s head, then sooner or later, you’re not going to have an organization. You just can’t do that.

Here’s three guys who had better years than he did: (Glenn) Davis of Houston, (Will) Clark and Canseco. They all had better years than Wally did and they were signing in the neighborhood of $225,000, somewhere in that neighborhood, maybe $235,000 or $240,000. So Mike Port took the position that $245,000 was a fair price considering what the other fellows in the same amount of time that Wally had. That was the whole thing.

Next year, all three of those guys are going to be free agents. When a guy goes free agent, you never know what he’s going to do.

I don’t think anybody wanted to screw Wally, but on the other hand, suppose we would give him, say, $300,000. Well, next year when he goes to arbitration, they’ll say, ‘Look, he had this much; look at the jump they gave him.’ So you see, you can’t win anyway that way. So you’ve got to do what you think is the best thing to do.

Q: The Angels, perhaps for the first time in years, truly seem to have a new look to them, specifically, the emphasis on young, farm system-produced players vs. a team laden with older free agents. Why the change in philosophy?

A: Actually, some of the older players, we might have kept them a year or two long. It was a theory a long time ago by Branch Rickey, whom I always had a lot of respect for as a baseball man, and he always said that maybe it was better to get rid of a ballplayer one year too soon than it was to keep him one year too long. Most of our players were probably past their prime. They all kind of hit at one time.

Like Bobby Grich, he retired, of course. Don Sutton didn’t have a good year at all. A lot of our pitchers were just a little over the hill, I guess you’d have to say. Then we had the problem with (John) Candelaria, which is too bad; those things happen once in a while. The same thing with Doug DeCinces. Doug was hurt all the time. He probably shouldn’t have played last year at all--not with us. We had a young guy, (Jack) Howell, and he should have been playing third base. Anyway we had Doug, but he was finished.

Rod Carew, he retired. Our outfield . . . now Devon White I think is going to be a great ballplayer. At the same time, (Gary) Pettis is a great fielder, but gawd, he was a terrible hitter. He struck out over 135 times. A lot of times, in a tight ballgame, you need to score some runs. But he went down to nothing. (Brian) Downing can still swing a bat, but he’s had a bad arm for a number of years. But he has a heart as big as you can get in left field. Sometimes he doesn’t help you. We had too many of them that got old all of a sudden.

I’m a great believer in the farm system. I think last year there was a lot of unpleasantness in the locker room. There were a lot of players--Candelaria was a part of it--that set a bad example for the young ballplayers coming up. If you’ve got two or three older players in there who get to the young guys and talk to them . . .

I just think it was time to start over with the youth movement. When young guys all come up together they form a camaraderie. I think that’s what more or less happened with the Minnesota Twins. All those young guys came up together and played together and played as a team.

Q: What sort of expectations do you have for this team in the next few seasons?

A: This season, if a couple of these kids come through for us, we might be right up there. I think we’ve got a damn good infield with Joyner, (Mark) McLemore, Howell and (Dick) Schofield. The outfield with (Chili) Davis and White and if (Johnny) Ray can work out all right in left field, I think he’s going to be all right. He’s a good ballplayer. I think we could surprise a lot of people.

Right now, everybody’s short of good pitchers. I like this Willie Fraser, the way he came on last year. He’s a hard loser, he hates to lose. He’s got a little bit of Drysdale in him; he’s not afraid to take his part of the plate. I hope (Kirk) McCaskill is sound. If he’s sound, he’ll be a big help. (Mike) Witt, he can pitch. I hope he gets his 20 games. He’s been around it so many times. And (Dan) Petry, I think he can help us.

Q: When you hired Mike Port as your general manager and vice president, what were you hoping to accomplish and how would you assess his job so far?

A: Mike Port, and this is just not my opinion, is perhaps one of the outstanding young general managers in the game. Mike is a great detail man. He knows the contracts. He knows what you can do and what you can’t do. I think I have all the confidence in the world in Mike Port. It’s a tough job. Anyone can be the hero and give the ballplayer whatever he wants, but he might break the ballclub doing it. You’ve got to have somebody who will be fair with you, but at the same time, he’s got to look at the owner’s side of a ballclub, too.

Q: What do you consider the finest decision you’ve made as the Angel owner?

A: Well, I think that probably my signing (Reggie) Jackson, because that helped us at the box office. We tried free agents. I think that helped turned this ballclub around. It helped us get respected and turned us into a contender.

We brought in Bobby Grich, who did a good job for us. Don Baylor came along. He did a good job for us. We brought in Fred Lynn. He gave us a pretty good year, but Fred was one of those ballplayers who always had a bad leg, bad knee or something. He never played a full season for us.

Once, I was in Boston--I had to go up there because I had a detached retina in my right eye--to see a specialist. I stayed at the Ritz-Carlson and Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey had an apartment in the hotel. We had breakfast there at the hotel and he told me, ‘I’ve tried buying a ballclub. There’s no way you can go out and buy a ballclub and expect to have a winner. I know. I’ve bought Joe Cronin, Jimmy Foxx, Bob (Lefty) Grove . . . but all that money and talent, we still couldn’t win. I’m really a firm believer that you have to bring the players up in your own organization in order to be a competitor.’ I’ve never forgotten that.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about what happened to the Angels last year?

A: If you look at the standings, up until the last month, we were right up there . . . in contention. It seemed like after McCaskill was hurt . . . and then the same thing happened to Candelaria, he was gone . . . Sutton just had a bad year; that’s all you can say. Even Mike Witt didn’t have his best season. We had so many ballplayers, like (Ruppert) Jones, and he didn’t have a good season. Some of the older players didn’t have good seasons. It was one of those years where everybody petered out in September. We had a chance, but then all of a sudden the balloon busted, that’s all there is to it.

Q: Now that Reggie Jackson is apparently retired from baseball, can you comment on what sort of impact--positive or negative--he had on this organization in general and the impact he had in the clubhouse?

A: Reggie had a great impact on young players, and sometimes it might be good and sometimes it might not. Sometimes you have a big name like that and he could have some adverse opinions to young ballplayers. I think that Wally listened to Reggie a lot. I think that Reggie was a good player, no doubt about that. On the other hand, Reggie always wanted a lot of money for what he did, which is all right; I don’t think that’s bad. Sometimes you can maybe talk to a young ballplayer, give him advice that’s not good to the player or the owner, either.

Q: Do you think that Jackson was good for Joyner or bad for him?

A: I wouldn’t want to answer that question. I don’t know if he was or not. A lot of people in a clubhouse can say things to a young fellow. They may look at that first baseman with the Yankees, (Don) Mattingly, and say, ‘Hell, I’m entitled to that (contract).’ But they have to prove that they’re Mattingly. You don’t know.

Q: Jackson has expressed an interest in someday buying a major league team. What would you do if he offered you a fair market price for the Angels?

A: Right now, no. The club’s not for sale.

Q: Have you been approached in recent years by those interested in purchasing the Angels?

A: I’ve had several offers to buy the club or to come in as a minor stockholder with an option to buy the club. But I don’t want to get involved with a deal like that. I want to keep the club in my estate and it will remain in my estate. Right now, I have no idea of selling.

Q: Are you, in a sense, training Jackie (Autry’s wife) to be a co-owner?

A: Well, I’m not exactly training her, but I’m bringing her in more and more all the time. She’s a pretty sharp woman. She’s been a banker. She’s financed a lot of projects. She’s had an awful lot of experience in the business. She’s got a good level head on her, so naturally I’m working with her.

Q: Raider owner Al Davis has hinted that he would be happy to include the Angels as part of the proposed Irwindale stadium project. In light of the Angels’ sometime difficulty with the Rams and the City of Anaheim, are you considering a move?

A: No, I have not been approached on that. I’m very happy where we are in Orange County. When we started looking for a place to move back in 1964 or so . . . we talked to several different groups. We had people in the Valley want us to build a ballpark there. We had Stanford research and make a survey for us. They said within 20 to 25 years that the population center of Southern California was going to be down in Orange County. They pretty much hit it on the head. We’re pretty well satisfied to remain in that locale.

Q: What were your thoughts concerning the remarks made last year by Dodger General Manager Al Campanis, and how did you feel about his dismissal?

A: Of course, Al Campanis is a friend of mine. I like him. The remark he made, I don’t think was intended to be interpreted like a lot of people did interpret it. I have never heard Al Campanis say anything derogatory about the color of any ballplayer; never have. To have somebody throw a question like that a him in a position that he was in, sitting out there in the Astrodome in Houston, with a pair of headphones on trying to listen . . .

I felt sorry for him very much because I consider him a fine baseball man, and I don’t know of anybody that has helped the black ballplayers more than he did when he was there. I think it was very unfortunate.

Q: Did you ever consider trying to find a place for him in your organization?

A: No, I hadn’t thought of that. But if we could use someone in that capacity, I wouldn’t hesitate to talk to him.

Q: How difficult was it to secure the 1989 All-Star game? What goes on behind the scenes?

A: I felt that we should have the All-Star Game. It’s been a long time. In fact, Buzzie Bavasi never worried about getting that damn All-STar Game because it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Everybody has just about had the All-Star Game. So I talked to Bobby Brown, the president of the American League, and I talked to the selection committee, and I talked to the commissioner. They asked, ‘What about your lawsuit?’ I said, ‘Well, regardless, I feel good enough about it that the parking lot will still be there.’ Finally, Peter Ueberroth said he was in favor of us having it. But he said that if the parking lot is tore up, then we’ll have to move it some place else. Right now, I don’t think there will be any building going on.

Q: Did you have to agree to have a new scoreboard in place at Anaheim Stadium as part of the deal to get the All-Star game?

A: We’ve been talking about that scoreboard for a couple of years. To be honest with you, the city also was interested in a new scoreboard, too. Because the one we have is far outdated. We’re using a scoreboard that was used back in the early 1900s. That’s why I raised hell. But we had to work out a thing with the Rams and the city. I hope it’s ready for the start of the season.

Q: Not that Bobby Grich didn’t deserve to be inducted into the Angel Hall of Fame, but why him first over, say, Jim Fregosi?

A: Bobby is the first one that is retired. People say Fregosi, but Fregosi is still active; he’s the manager of the White Sox. Nolan Ryan is still pitching. There’s so damn many of them (still active), I said, ‘Why not Bobby Grich? He put in 10 or 11 years here. He’s just retired and a lot of young people saw him play. We’ve got time to put the rest of them.’

They asked me about Bobby, and I said that they couldn’t find a nicer man. He was always popular with the fans. So I said to them that it was perfectly all right with me. It definitely was not overlooking Fregosi or anybody else, because Jimmy’s one of my best friends.

Q: And if you will, your picks for the 1988 season?

A: I look for Oakland to be right up there. They’ve got a lot of power. They’ve got a pretty good pitching staff. I think the Yankees are going to be right up there. I think Toronto is going to be tough too. And I think if we have some luck with some of our pitchers, we might be up there, too.

In the National League, the Dodgers have certainly made some big changes. You can’t count San Francisco out. They were right there last year.

The Mets looked so good at times, I figure they’ll be right up there this year. Now St. Louis, Whitey Herzog is a good friend of mine. A great guy, The White Rat. I look for all these teams to be better this year.

The winner . . . the Yankees, if they come back, might be in a position to win it.