Angels, Seeking New Start, Turn to Doug Rader

Needing to make a clean break from the malaise of the last two seasons but still smarting from the experience of Cookie the rookie, the Angels settled for the middle ground Monday and named Doug Rader their manager.

Rader, 44, wasn’t the freshest face around. He managed the Texas Rangers for 2 years and 2 months, didn’t have a winning season, finished last in 1984 and was fired after he opened the 1985 season with a 9-23 record. A retread? Well, yes.

But the fallout from the Cookie Rojas experience--a 75-87 finish, 29 games out of first--was enough to scare the Angels away from the untested names on their list of candidates.

As owner Gene Autry put it, “I think last year taught us a little bit about that.”

And as General Manager Mike Port said, “Candidly, we just did not feel we were prepared to run the gantlet again with someone with no prior managing experience.”

So Rader was the candidate of compromise. His selection as Angel manager is not the bold leap forward that, say, Jim Lefebvre represented. But unlike Lefebvre and Rojas, Rader has already walked the course. And unlike Gene Mauch, Jim Fregosi and Moose Stubing--others mentioned in the managerial derby--Rader is not a former Angel manager, which makes him enough of a new face, at least for the Angels’ purposes.

Rader also knows Port, and that undoubtedly helped. Their relationship dates back to the mid-1970s, when Rader was playing out his career with the San Diego Padres and Port was beginning his front-office career as the Padre minor league director.

Then, after Rader left the Chicago White Sox coaching staff after the 1987 season, Port hired him to scout high school and college talent for the Angels in Florida.

“When we were at San Diego, I signed him to a contract a couple of times,” Port said. “Then, when he was at Hawaii (managing the Padres’ triple-A team), I got to watch him manage against our Edmonton club. It’s one of those baseball relationships you develop over the years. I got to know Doug and his aspirations.”

Those aspirations were to manage in the major leagues. Three years after Rader’s flame-out in Texas, those aspirations caught up with Port, who was making his first permanent managerial hire. When Port was named Angel general manager at the end of the 1984 season, he inherited Mauch, and Port turned to Rojas out of emergency in 1988, when Mauch decided to retire.

This was an opportunity for Port finally to decide who would run his team on the field, finally to name his own man.

So Port looked up an old friend. Rader was the first candidate whom Port and the Autrys interviewed, and he remained a front-runner while others were weeded out.

Friendship does have its limits, however. Port couldn’t get cozy enough to talk multiyear contract, and he kept his offer to Rader to the minimum, 1 year.

“That’s OK,” Rader said. “I think Mike was gracious for giving me the 1 year. There are a lot of guys out there with no-year contracts.”

Along the way, Rader outlasted:

--Lefebvre, who is youthful and vibrant and who sincerely wanted the Angel job but lacked the all-important E-word. The Seattle Mariners, not so hung up on the experience factor, named Lefebvre their manager last week.

--Fregosi, who guided the Angels to their first divisional championship in 1979 and remains a favorite of Gene Autry. Not so, apparently, with Autry’s wife, Jackie, who was believed to be cool to the idea of Fregosi II.

--Stubing, the interim Angel manager who went 0-8 after Rojas’ firing. Buzzie Bavasi, the former Angel general manager who still offers advice to Port and Autry, recommended Stubing, calling him another Tom Kelly and saying, “A combination of John McGraw and Walt Alston couldn’t have won with that team then.”

But the 0-8 millstone sank Stubing’s chances. Promoting a winless interim manager doesn’t make for great public relations, but as Port acknowledges: “If we had done a better job for Moose that final week, who knows?”

Mauch, after taking a season off, is rested and healthy, but club sources say his return was not a serious consideration. Mauch will turn 63 this week and already has resigned twice from the Angels. The club was looking--hoping?--for a long-term commitment from its new manager.

Can Rader give it to them?

His trial in Texas lasted less than 3 seasons and resulted in a 155-200 record--a .437 winning percentage. In 1983, Rader’s Rangers finished third in the American League West at 77-85. In 1984, they plunged to 69-92 and in 1985, when Texas won just 9 of its first 32 games, Rader was fired in mid-May.

In 1986, he managed 2 games, getting a split, as an interim manager with the White Sox.

Rader left Texas with a reputation for being difficult for both players and reporters to deal with. A combative player, he approached the manager’s job in the same fashion, establishing such strident club rules as no pregame fraternization with opposing players.

Not surprisingly, the players revolted. And when they did, Rader found few friends in the media.

“I learned some lessons in Texas,” Rader said. “The initial mistake I made was that I took everything very, very personally.

“When members of the media wrote something negatively about the ballclub or me or the organization, I took it personally. I didn’t understand the nature of the media, and because of that, I got off to a very, very bad start with them in Texas.

“Also, I had problems addressing players one on one at first. . . . I honestly thought I had it inside me to pull character out of the ballclub single-handedly. I thought character and intangibles were enough to get a club to play above its level of ability.

“I learned that there is no substitute for tools, for ability. In triple-A, all the talent is comparable, and intangibles can make a difference. But in the major leagues, talent seeks its own level.”

Rader maintains that he has since matured and mellowed.

“The time away (from managing) enabled me to evaluate things objectively,” Rader said. “ . . . I’m an aggressive guy who wants to win, but I’ve learned that, as a manager, you need to temper your aggressiveness once in a while.”

Port, however, cited Rader’s aggressiveness as a plus, particularly for a team that has folded twice in as many Septembers and sleepwalked its way to a club-record 12 losses in its last 12 games of 1988.

“That’s a primary managerial prerequisite--to motivate a ballclub,” Port said. “If handled or channeled in the proper way, aggressiveness can be a good approach.”

When asked about the Angels’ apparent need for an emotional jump-start next season, Rader nodded.

“The first thing we need to do is have the players realize their abilities,” he said. “The Dodgers are a good example. They didn’t play over their heads, they just played to their ability. The other teams in the league didn’t.

“Also, we have to let the players understand that, other than day-to-day success, (individual) statistical progress isn’t important. Statistics are part of the game, but when you look at Kirk Gibson, who drove in just 76 runs and will probably be MVP of the National League, that puts statistics in their proper place.”

In other words, when Rader calls for the Angels to sacrifice in 1989, he won’t mean a bunt.

Rader said he will keep the coaching staff intact, save for hitting instructor Rick Down, who has left the club for a similar position in another organization, probably the New York Yankees’. Rader is expected to replace him with Merv Rettenmund, his hitting coach at Texas.

“Mike asked me about what coaches I preferred to bring in,” Rader said. “I asked him, ‘What’s wrong with the staff you have now?’ He said nothing. So I said, ‘So why are you looking?’ ”

As for personnel changes, Rader was vague, saying that he and the coaches must evaluate the Angels’ needs, which are many.

“We may not have excellent talent, but I think it’s good enough to get things turned around,” Rader said. “ . . . If this wasn’t a difficult job, I wouldn’t be here. If it was an easy job, there’d already be a manager in place--he wouldn’t have been fired.

“The disparity of games (behind first place) in the standings is fairly pronounced, but the difference between a successful year and a non-successful year is minuscule. You can’t dwell on negatives.”

Such was the approach the Angels took before naming the man who would be their 13th manager in 29 years. Doug Rader may have had his negatives in Texas, but you can’t dwell on them.

In 1989, both manager and team will only be asking for a clean slate.

ANGEL MANAGERS

YEARS NAME W-L PCT BEST FINISH 1961-69 Bill Rigney 625-707 .469 3rd in 1962 1969-71 Lefty Phillips 222-225 .497 3rd in 1969, 1970 1972 Del Rice 75-80 .484 5th in 1972 1973-74 Bobby Winkles 109-127 .462 4th in 1973 1974-76 Dick Williams 147-194 .431 6th in 1974, 1975 1976-77 Norm Sherry 76-71 .517 (Tie) 4th in 1976 1977-78 Dave Garcia 60-67 .472 5th in 1977 1978-81 Jim Fregosi 237-248 .489 1st in 1979 1981-82 Gene Mauch 122-103 .522 1st in 1982 1983-84 John McNamara 151-173 .466 (Tie) 2nd in 1984 1985-87 Gene Mauch 257-229 .529 1st in 1986 1988 Cookie Rojas 75-79 .487

Note: Whitey Herzog was 2-2 as interim manager in 1974.

Moose Stubing was 0-8 as interim manager in 1988.

DOUG RADER’S RECORD AS MANAGER

YEAR TEAM LEAGUE POS W L PCT 1983 Texas American 3rd 77 85 .475 1984 Texas American 7th 69 92 .429 1985 Texas American 9 23 .281 1986 Chicago American 1 1 .500 Major League Totals 156 201 .437