Chili’s Glove Remains Cold as He Ties Angel Record for Errors

Chili Davis, the amateur gourmet cook who was so glad to get out of San Francisco, Tuesday night tied the Angel record for errors by an outfielder in a season with more than half the season remaining.

Guess that makes him a butcher, baker and Candlestick-hater.

Davis, who butchered two more plays in the outfield Tuesday night during the Angels’ 8-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins, tied Ken Hunt, who had 14 errors in the Angel outfield in 1961.

Davis has 86 games left in which to break the record. And, given the way he’s been playing, he should put this infamous record well out of reach.

Davis, who dislocated a toe while kicking a chair in frustration after popping up Sunday, continues to boot the ball with a regularity that amazes everyone concerned . . . and it seems that Davis himself is beginning to get concerned.

Up to this point, he had been joking about his play in the field, saying that little kids in the upper deck were tearing up his baseball cards, that his glove must have been turned inside out and that he punished his glove by throwing it into other players’ lockers.

But after Tuesday night’s game, Davis, usually one of the most approachable Angels after a loss, was nowhere to be found. He remained in the players’ lounge until more than half his teammates were dressed and on their way home.

“I don’t have any answers,” Manager Cookie Rojas said. “He’s making a lot of errors I know he doesn’t want to make. Fourteen already? That’s an awful lot.”

Early in the season, Davis said he would have to just keep producing with the bat when his glove wasn’t helping the team. He still leads the team in RBIs (42), but since hitting a game-winning home run June 21 in Minnesota, Davis has been mired in a 1-for-20 slump.

He grounded to the pitcher twice and flied out twice in four trips to the plate Tuesday night.

And, of course, he had even more trouble in right field than he did at the plate.

In the second inning, Davis was one of three Angels chasing Tim Laudner’s bloop to short right-center. The ball fell in between center fielder Devon White, second baseman Johnny Ray and Davis. It bounced, hopping up right at Davis but somehow eluding his glove and rolling behind him to allow Laudner to take second.

“In all fairness, on the first one, Devon ran right in front of him and might have blocked his view of the ball,” Rojas said.

The record-tying error occurred in the fourth with Kirby Puckett at the plate. The center fielder of the Twins lofted a fly ball down the right-field line. Davis cruised over to make the catch, but the ball deflected off his glove about five feet in front of the box-seat railing along the foul line.

Puckett was unable to cash in on his second chance, however, slapping a comebacker to pitcher Jack Lazorko for the final out of the inning.

“That one was a little close to the fence,” Rojas said, “but it was an easy out. He should have caught it. Maybe he took his eye off it.”

A great many of Davis’ faux pas this year have been on seemingly routine plays. He has had the most trouble judging what the ball will do after it hits the turf. He puts his glove down in one spot and the ball invariably finds its way to another. And he has dropped his share of fly balls that were momentarily in his glove.

“He’s been working on it every day,” Rojas said. “Now that he’s not hitting, he may be thinking about that. I just don’t know.

“But just today I hit him 50 line drives and ground balls out there. At least he’s working at it.”