Mauch’s Indecision Forced Autry to Settle for Rader

Congratulations, Doug Rader, on your recent appointment as Angel manager. So far, we know you have a sense of humor, a temper, an admirer in the front office, a losing record and an Angel team short on wins, depth and attitude. Good luck and God speed.

What you should know--and please don’t take this personally--is that you weren’t the Angels’ first choice. That would have been John McGraw, but since John couldn’t make it, the Angels, wacky nostalgics that they are, approached their second choice, none other than Gene Mauch.

It happened long before the Angels whittled their list of managerial candidates down to you, Doug. It happened because owner Gene Autry admires everything about Mauch, except his indecision. It happened because the Little General, for all his quirks and faults, understands and feels the game better than anyone.

The conversation, direct and to the point, said Autry, went like this:

“How do you feel about coming back?” Autry said.

“There’s days I say, ‘Yes, I’d like to,’ ” Mauch said. “Then there’s days I say, ‘I’d like to take a couple of seasons off and play golf.’ ”

What Autry wanted to hear was unrestrained enthusiasm, unquestionable commitment. Instead, he got a lot of possibilities, perhapses and maybes. Autry wanted ways to turn his ailing franchise around. All Mauch could give him was intrigue and mystery.

So, as much as it pained Autry to do it, Mauch’s name was deleted from the master sheet. The Angels would look elsewhere, a decision that officially ended the Mauch Era and gave life to you, Doug, you big, feisty lug.

Said Autry: “Yes, I considered bringing back Gene Mauch. He’s a fine man, a great guy. But I couldn’t make up my mind if he wanted to come back or not. But when you have somebody who’s on the fringe like that, who knows? The same thing might happen like last spring,” when Mauch, citing health and personal reasons, “retired” shortly before the start of the 1988 season. “I was not quite sure. I don’t think (Angel General Manager) Mike Port was, either.”

But ask Autry if he would have rehired Mauch had the commitment been there and he quickly says, “I probably would have, yes.”

So much for that what-if. Mauch is busy making starting times on Palm Springs courses and you, Doug, are stuck with a team that folded faster than an accordion last season.

Don’t get Autry wrong--he thinks you’re the cat’s meow. He wanted someone with major league playing experience. He got it. He wanted someone with minor league managing experience. He got it. He wanted someone with major league managing experience. He got it. He wanted someone with a winning record as a major league manager. Yes, well, you can’t have everything.

“We felt like Doug had been through the stages of being a rookie manager,” Autry said. “He managed a ballclub in Texas that was not a contender or anything, but he went through that and is a little more wise than he was then. Maybe he’s learned a lot.

“And he’s a hard-nosed ballplayer,” Autry said. “I like that.”

I’ll say you’re hard-nosed, Doug. Hey, in the interview with Autry, did you tell him about your postgame tirade in Kansas City? Remember? You were managing the awful Texas Rangers (That’s redundant, isn’t it?) in 1983 and you were upset about Royal infielder U.L. Washington yelling at the Ranger dugout after Danny Darwin threw one a little too close to U.L.’s head. Boy, were you steamed. I’m pretty sure you were hoping for a get-together on the field so you could thank U.L. personally for his spicy vocabulary.

But nothing happened. No reprisals. No knockdown pitches from the Royals. No nothing. Into the Ranger clubhouse you came. You walked into your office and began throwing your street clothes in the air. You punched a door and then a wall. It was scary.

And who can forget how you yelled at Dave Stewart, then with the Rangers, during the middle of a spring training game in 1985. Stewart, projected to be the Ranger short relief man, was experimenting with a new pitch, a forkball, the same one he used to nearly win a Cy Young Award this past year with the Oakland A’s which, by the way, was the same team he helped lead to the World Series.

Anyway, you were mad because Stewart gave up a home run to the light-hitting Kelly Paris of the Baltimore Orioles. Paris hit that forkball out of the park, which caused you to hit the roof.

You told Stewart he should stick to his fastball--that was his best pitch, not some fancy-schmancy forkball. That was for guys whose mothers cut the crust from the sandwiches.

You did the same sort of thing to former Ranger pitcher Tom Henke. Henke threw to the wrong base during a spring game and you were all over him like peanut butter on jelly. You got rid of Henke, though. Now he is the Toronto Blue Jays’ No. 1 reliever.

Maybe you’ve changed. Maybe you’ve learned to channel that enormous desire to win and combined it with a desire to teach, to listen, to exercise control and patience. Maybe.

And hey, there are those who say you’re not such a bad guy, after all, that this ogre image has gotten way out of hand. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Help may be on the way. Autry wants Nolan Ryan back in an Angel uniform. You could live with that, couldn’t you, Doug? Ryan, Mike Witt, Bert Blyleven, Dan Petry and Kirk McCaskill (if he’s healthy) as your starting rotation. I thought so.

According to Autry, the Angels hope to know something from Ryan and his agent, Dick Moss, by midweek. The way Autry figures it, if Ryan, a free agent, doesn’t re-sign with the Houston Astros, the Angels will get him.

“If he goes anywhere, I think we have a good chance of bringing him back to Anaheim,” Autry said. “He told me he was very happy when he lived in California. He made that plain to me, that if he was going to come anyplace, he would prefer to come back to California.”

Hear that, Doug? The great Nolan Ryan . . . possibly on your team. Cross your fingers. Pull out that rosary if you’ve got one. Hope for the best. You’re going to need it.