Bob Boone Will Play for Royals : Ex-Angel Catcher Goes Where He’s Wanted for $883,001

Unfettered by arbitrator George Nicolau’s Collusion II decision and unsettled by the Angels’ Lance Parrish decision, Bob Boone made a decision of his own Wednesday and agreed to a 1-year contract with the Kansas City Royals.

For one more dollar than he earned with the Angels in 1988.

Boone, 41, will be paid the grand sum of $883,001 by the Royals next season. How badly did Boone want to leave the Angels? All it took was some team willing to match his $883,000 salary and then, just to make sure the point hit home, slap on another dollar for good measure.

Of course, that one dollar represents Boone’s first pay raise since 1986. And as a result, Boone has ended a 7-year association with the Angels that included three Gold Glove Awards and one club most-valuable-player award. Boone shared Angel MVP honors with Johnny Ray last season after batting a career-high .295.

“I’m real excited,” Boone said from his hotel room in Hawaii, where he is vacationing. “I have the opportunity to go to a team where I can have an impact for basically the same money I made last year.

“They really wanted me. That was my biggest concern.”

And that has been Boone’s concern since Oct. 3, the day the Angels acquired Parrish, the former Philadelphia Phillies catcher, and signed him to a contract worth $1.4 million, including incentive bonuses.

Angel General Manager Mike Port then described the Parrish signing as a strengthening of the team’s catching depth.

Boone, however, viewed it as the first step toward a platoon situation in 1989 and a not-so-subtle nudge closer to retirement.

If he had re-signed with the Angels, Boone said, “After this year, I have to figure my career is over. I’m in a situation where I have to think of my best interests and my family’s best interests. I really want to play--and I want to play as long as I can.

“I was very concerned about not having the opportunity to play this year and beyond it.”

Boone also cited the lucrative contract tendered Parrish and weighed it against the contract fights he had waged with Port the previous 2 years.

He came away not liking the comparison.

In the winter of 1986-87, Boone failed to re-sign with the Angels before the Jan. 8 deadline, thus becoming a free agent. He eventually agreed to terms with the Angels, but not before testing the frigid free-agent waters and receiving no offers--and then sitting out spring training and the first month of the season.

Boone wound up signing for $747,153, pro-rated from the $883,000 he earned in 1986.

In 1987, Boone won his second consecutive Gold Glove--and was asked to take a pay cut. Boone had to take the Angels to arbitration to keep his salary for 1988 at its 1986 level of $883,000.

“When you hear figures like $1.4 million (for Parrish) and you go through what I’ve gone through the last couple of years, you have to figure they’re not interested,” Boone said of the Angels.

Then, last month, Nicolau awarded Boone and 12 other players limited free agency because of that restrictive winter of 1986-87, the case known as Collusion II. Given until Dec. 16 to sign with another club, Boone went searching again and this time received proposals from two of the Angels’ American League West rivals, the Minnesota Twins and the Royals.

Minnesota, which already has an All-Star catcher in Tim Laudner, offered Boone a 2-year contract worth $1.4 million--$700,000 for 1989 and a $700,000 option for 1990, with a club buyout for $100,000.

The Royals, whose 1988 catchers included Jamie Quirk, Mike Macfarlane and Larry Owen, offered Boone 1 year and a $1 raise.

Boone liked the Royals’ pay, as well as the chance to play.

“I jumped at it,” Boone said.

And Boone’s great leap forward, apparently, caught both the Royals and Angels off-balance.

John Schuerholz, Royal general manager, admitted Wednesday that he originally expected negotiations with Boone to require 2 more weeks, pushing the Dec. 16 deadline.

“I didn’t have any reason to expect an early response,” Schuerholz said. “Obviously, we made him an offer, but it was more than just the offer. . . . I think he was very excited we showed so much interest in him.”

Port declined to return reporters’ phone calls Wednesday. An Angel spokesman claimed Port was concentrating on negotiations with two other free agents, Bruce Hurst and Nolan Ryan, and “was tied up with that.” The Angels have made Hurst a formal 3-year offer, believed to be in the $4.8-million range.

But, according to one club source, “Mike was very surprised (by Boone’s decision), especially in light of the recent discussions he’s had with Bob Boone.”

Recent discussions? According to Boone, he and Port had spoken only twice since September--once during the Angels’ final trip of the season and again 2 weeks ago before Boone left to conduct a baseball clinic in Japan. On neither occasion, Boone said, was a new contract discussed.

“Mike made the last trip of the season with us and he told me he wanted me back,” Boone said. “Then, before I left for Japan, I went to the stadium to pick up my uniform and Mike called me in to his office. He told me he’d hired Doug Rader (as manager) and that he was still interested in me, but he never said anything in way of a contract--as if he didn’t realize I was a free agent. I had to assume what I had to assume.”

And he made that assumption with Parrish looking over his shoulder.

Alluding again to the Parrish trade, Boone said: “It tells me they’re not interested or they’re worried about me for some reason. The only way to cover-up that worry was by negotiating a new contract--and they didn’t do that.

“I understand their thinking (in regard to the trade). As long as I’ve been here, my durability has covered up a lack of catching depth. I’ve always felt they’ve needed more catching.

“I’m not bitter--it’s probably a good business decision.”

With Boone’s departure, the Angels are left with the sore-backed Parrish--coming off a .215, 60-RBI season--as their starting catcher and the limited Darrell Miller as their only experienced reserve. Miller batted .221 in 70 games last season, committing 3 errors and 8 passed balls.

Boone’s departure also benefits a division rival, correcting the Royals’ most glaring weakness. Of last season’s catchers, utility man Quirk batted .240, Owen .210 and Macfarlane was demoted to triple-A after the All-Star break.

Kansas City still were 84-77 to place third in the AL West, 9 1/2 games ahead of the fourth-place Angels.

At the same time, Boone enjoyed one of his finest seasons. His .295 batting average was 45 points above his career average and 9 points higher than his previous season best (.286 with Philadelphia in 1979). He struck out only 26 times in 392 plate appearances, led AL catchers in assists (66) and committed just 8 errors in 580 chances.

He also had 39 RBIs--14 more than any Royal catcher--and hit 5 home runs.

“He’s not only a proven catcher,” Schuerholz said, “but he can be a real leader on this ballclub. He’s got a great reputation, and deservedly so.

“He’ll be a great force for our pitching staff also. They should benefit from his experience. He’s as good as anyone there is in the game.”

Boone is also baseball’s all-time leader in games caught with 2,056. He surpassed Al Lopez’s previous record of 1,918 in September of 1987--in a game at Royals Stadium.

Now, he returns to that site, full-time, where he hopes to add to that record in 1989--and beyond.