Angel Homers Make Long Day for Morris

They measure the distance of home runs at Tiger Stadium the old-fashioned way--they guess--and the one Chili Davis hit Sunday during the Angels’ 10-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers elicited sheer awe and admiration from the participants, if not necessarily accuracy.

“It went over the 440 (feet) sign in center field, so it had to be at least 460, 470 feet,” Angel Manager Cookie Rojas said.

“I imagine it was 460,” said Wally Joyner, who was standing on third base when Davis connected.

“He hit it so far,” Angel shortstop Dick Schofield chimed in, “I didn’t even see it.”

Sparky Anderson, manager of the Detroit Tigers since 1979, saw all of it, a shot against Jack Morris that carried well over the fence in straightaway center field--and Tiger Stadium owns the deepest center field in the major leagues.

Afterward, Anderson christened it as one of the three longest home runs he had ever witnessed at Tiger Stadium.

“Whew! “ Anderson began. “He and Larry Herndon . . . and (Jose) Canseco hit a ball . . . those three are the three best I’ve seen here. I don’t know which one went the farthest.

“I’ve seen a couple go over the roof (in right field), but the roof wasn’t that (far). That thing there, if he would’ve hit that to right field, it would’ve been so far over the roof that it would gone across to the hardware store in that lumberyard across the street.

“That ball was kissed.”

Anderson’s own guesstimate of its length?

“Well, it’s 440 to the first fence,” he said. “What people don’t know is that there’s a 10-foot gap after that and then a second fence. He hit that ball over the second fence and about 15 to 20 rows up in the seats.

“That’s a good 480 feet. It might’ve been 500.”

Or it might’ve been 550. Would you believe 600? The more people talked about it, the more impressive Davis’ home run became.

By the time both teams had showered, dressed and left the park, Davis’ blast had become positively Ruthian, an instant and bona fide Detroit sports legend.

But Davis, already making Angel history with his inventive approach to outfield defense, wanted no part of the new mythology.

Grousing his way from training room to locker stall, Davis grumbled to reporters: “I’m not in a real good mood today. A home run’s a home run.”

Was it the longest home run of his career?

“Nah, I hit one longer than that in Little League,” he deadpanned.

What about hitting a ball so far off a pitcher the caliber of Jack Morris?

“That wasn’t the Jack Morris who won 20 games (21 in ‘86) out there today,” Davis said. “Jack Morris was trying to force his pitches over the plate. He had no control. He made mistakes.

“It doesn’t matter who’s pitching. I’ll take ‘em any way I can get ‘em--against Jack Morris or that dead . . . Cy Young.”

Good thing he hadn’t made another error.

“I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today,” Davis said. “Sometimes, I get ticked off for no reason. . . . I was in a bad mood all day and I’m not changing now. I like being mad. When I’m mad, I’m aggressive.”

Davis stomped off toward the showers and Tony Armas, dressing next to Davis’ locker, grinned and nodded.

“He’s been like that all day,” Armas said. “I saw him sitting here like that and said, ‘Hey, I’m getting out of here.’ ”

Morris did the same, not long after surrendering what he called “the longest split-finger I ever threw.” On back-to-back pitches in the third inning, Morris gave up Davis’ three-run home run and George Hendrick’s second home run of the season, the latter of routine dimensions.

Then came a strikeout by Devon White, a walk to Bob Boone . . . and Anderson to the mound. Trailing, 6-1, Morris left the game after just 2 innings, failing to complete 3 innings for the third time in his last 3 home starts.

Morris (7-9) also surrendered a second-inning home run to Boone, raising his Sunday total to three. It marked the first time the Angels had hit three home runs in one game since April 12--and the first time all season they had struck three against one pitcher.

After being outscored, 17-1, in the first two games of this series, the Angels were suddenly swimming in runs, enough of them to turn an ill Kirk McCaskill into an easy winner.

Saying he was fighting a stomach virus, McCaskill lasted 7 innings and 124 pitches before turning matters over to relief pitcher Bryan Harvey. Harvey yielded two ninth-inning runs but nothing too serious as he preserved McCaskill’s fifth victory in 10 decisions.

En route to evening his 1988 record, McCaskill allowed 8 hits, walked 1 and struck out 7. He surrendered 2 runs, but both were unearned.

“This eases the nausea,” McCaskill said. “I kind of went into the game with reservations. I didn’t feel very strong.

“It helps being handed an 8-run lead. I made 120 pitches, but they weren’t 120 hard pitches.”

Davis helped make that all possible, and in memorable style, too. After cooling off in the shower for a few minutes, Davis did allow that Sunday’s home run ranked among the longest of his career.

“I hit one off Charlie Puleo (in Riverfront Stadium) that landed in the upper tank on the runway behind the red seats,” he said. “I hit one off Jerry Koosman that reached the upper tank in Philadelphia. I took Tom Browning into the upper tank in Cincinnati.

“The longest, I don’t remember. I just hit ‘em. As long as they clear the fence and no one with a glove on his hand and a number on his back catches it, fine. They all count the same.”

Whether they travel 460 feet. Or 470. Or 480. Or 500.

Angel Notes

Jack Morris’ staggering start (7-9 record, 5.24 earned-run average, 17 earned runs in his last 7 innings at home) has driven Detroit Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson to the edge--or at least into the Yogi Zone. Anderson launched into a rambling, somewhat coherent defense of Morris Sunday, saying that this was no time to “start looking at Morris sideways. An animal is a funny person. They know when you look at ‘em sideways and when you look at ‘em straight in the face. He won’t get that from me, because for nine years, he’s made me pretty prosperous here.” In other words, apparently, Anderson is not ready to give up on Morris. . . . Morris is 1-5 in starts at Tiger Stadium this season. In those games, he has allowed 41 earned runs in 37 innings, a 9.97 ERA. . . . Last add Morris: By game’s end, he was the only nine-game loser on either club. The Angels, a sixth-place team with a 35-45 record, have three eight-game losers (Mike Witt, Willie Fraser and Chuck Finley).

When George Hendrick kicked Dave Bergman’s fourth-inning single, it marked the Angels’ 29th outfield error of the season. And that’s in just 80 games. During 162 games last year, Angel outfielders totaled 24 errors. The breakdown of this season’s outfield breakdown: Chili Davis 14 (already a share of the Angel individual single-season record), Johnny Ray 5, Devon White 3, Tony Armas 3, Chico Walker 2, Jim Eppard 1 and Hendrick 1.