Angels : Competition at Second Isn’t the First Thing on Ray’s Mind

Spring training has never been high on Johnny Ray’s list of fun things to do. Too long, Ray says. Too boring.

“Three weeks, 3 1/2 weeks--that’d be long enough,” Ray says. “If you keep yourself in shape during the off-season, you don’t need six weeks to get yourself ready.”

Ray’s trade from Pittsburgh to the Angels in August 1987 didn’t help his outlook any, Ray being a 30ish, slow-footed second baseman joining the same roster as 25ish, quick-footed second baseman Mark McLemore.

For most of the prospects and rehabilitating veterans here, spring is a time for first glimpses, second chances and fresh starts.

For Ray, however, this is where they try to take your job away.

In the month he spent with the Angels in 1987, Ray batted .346 and drove in 15 runs in 30 games.

The next spring, the Angels told Ray to move to the outfield. McLemore was going to play second base.

That lasted for less than two months. By May, McLemore was sidelined with phlebitis in his throwing arm, and Ray was rushed back to second, where he wound up batting .306 with 83 RBIs. He also wound up representing the Angels in the 1988 All-Star game and being voted the club’s co-most valuable player, along with catcher Bob Boone, by his teammates.

The thanks Ray got?

He came to his second Angel trading camp as trade bait. McLemore is healed after off-season surgery, and new Manager Doug Rader likes the offensive speed and defensive range offered by the youngster.

For the record, Rader has declared second base up for grabs, but if the Angels could realize their fondest wishes, McLemore would be in the everyday lineup and Ray would be traded for a quality pitcher or two.

Ray, dumped by Pittsburgh in favor of Jose Lind, also a younger, swifter second baseman, in 1987, knows this feeling, but doesn’t particularly revel in it.

Asked what he thinks about his impending showdown with McLemore, Ray bristled.

“I don’t think about nothing,” he snapped. “The competition is something that’s talked about by the media and the coaching staff.

“I have confidence in my ability. All I’m worried about is myself.”

And the trade rumors?

“They don’t bother me,” he said. “Once you get accustomed to a ballclub, you don’t want to leave, and I think this club is going to be competitive this year. I’d like to be a part of it.

Ray knows that the best-drawn blueprints of February can become smudged by April. If McLemore isn’t fit--or isn’t hitting--the Angels could be left with worse options than Ray, a career .291 hitter who has hit at least 30 doubles in each of the past seven seasons.

So, Ray has that going for him.

And better than that, he says, no one yet has handed him an outfielder’s glove and started hitting him fungoes.

“I am an infielder ,” Ray said pointedly. “Most definitely. I am not an outfielder.”

That was borne out fairly well by the five outfield errors he committed in April and the arm injury he suffered making relays from left field to shortstop.

Ray batted .438 in April--and might have not once cracked a smile. He wasn’t right for left. “I wasn’t really into it,” Ray admitted. “To be honest, with something like that, asking you to go out there and go head-over-heels about it is tough. I never felt comfortable there.”

That’s all in the past now for Ray, which is about the best thing he can say for the present. As for the future, Ray doesn’t care to wager a bet.

“I don’t set any goals,” he said. “I just make it happen.”

Still to be determined is where, precisely, it will happen.

Angel Notes

Rookie outfielder Marcus Lawton agreed to terms, reducing the Angels’ unsigned total to 10. Lawton, left unprotected by the New York Mets and drafted by the Angels last winter, is a Gary Pettis type who stole 25 bases but batted just .233 in 94 games with triple-A Tidewater. Still to be signed to 1989 contracts: outfielders Devon White and Lee Stevens, second baseman Mark McLemore, third baseman Jeff Manto and pitchers Willie Fraser, Chuck Finley, Terry Clark, Jack Lazorko, Urbano Lugo and Vinicio Cedeno. . . . Jim Abbott threw his first round of batting practice Thursday, drawing an audience of more than 50 onlookers pressed against the diamond’s chain-link fences. Abbott has been equally popular with the media, averaging about four interviews a day.