LANCE PARRISH : He’d Like to See Philadelphia Story Play One More Time in Anaheim

In Philadelphia, they’d had their fill of the veteran catcher.

A former Gold Glove winner, he could no longer throw out base-stealers, they said.

A former All-Star game starter, he could no longer play every day, they said.

A former World Series champion, his batting average had plunged into the .210s, and the Phillies had plunged to the depths of the National League East.

A welcome had been worn out and a change had to be made. By the time the booing had subsided at Veterans Stadium, the Phillies had shipped their veteran catcher to the Angels, who were trying to recover from a dismal season of their own.

The catcher’s name?

Bob Boone.

Or Lance Parrish.

Yes, even in baseball, history repeats itself.

This is one Philadelphia story the Angels would like to reprise. The basic plot line: Washed-up Phillie catcher finds second wind in Anaheim, regains All-Star form and wins many more Gold Gloves. Seven years pass, and they still can’t pry him from the starting lineup.

In 1982, at 34, Bob Boone made his debut for the Angels. Two years removed from a World Series title, he was one year removed from a .211 batting average, which prompted his removal from Philadelphia.

In 1982, Boone helped the Angels reach the American League playoffs and won another Gold Glove, his first of four as an Angel.

Flash ahead to 1989 and you’ll find Lance Parrish, at 32, trying to follow in Boone’s footsteps. He, too, is a few years removed from a World Series championship, with the Detroit Tigers in 1984. He, too, is coming off a poor offensive season, having hit .215 in his final year as a Phillie.

Following Boone the rest of the way, of course, is the great if for Parrish.

Who can realistically expect lightning to strike twice behind home plate?

In Anaheim?

As it was, Parrish may have followed Boone a little too closely last winter. The two catchers happen to be good friends--”We’ve worked out together the last few years,” Parrish says--but two catchers on the same team means one has to sit while the other squats.

And Boone, having batted a career-high .295 en route to winning his third consecutive Gold Glove, believed he had squatter’s rights. When the Angels traded minor league pitcher David Holdridge for Parrish last October, and were willing to pay Parrish about $500,000 more a season than Boone, the incumbent took the hint and high-tailed it to Kansas City.

Parrish didn’t blame him.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Parrish said. “I don’t think Bob really appreciated the way the ballclub had dealt with him, at least as far as his contract was concerned.

“He caught a majority of the games for them and did a good job at it and always had to fight in the wintertime to get the kind of contract he wanted.

” . . . He looked at it with a realistic approach. The Angels had kind of been taking the hard line in their dealings with him and then they sign me the day after the season. He’s just had his most productive offensive season and won a Gold Glove--and they sign me for more than he was making.”

So this is how Parrish comes to the Angels. The man who drove Bob Boone out of Anaheim.

Now, if Parrish can drive in a few runs . . .

Parrish hated Philadelphia. That was probably because the feeling was fairly mutual.

Beware the supposed savior who shows up in burgundy pinstripes, doesn’t provide immediate deliverance and still expects a show of brotherly love. Especially if he made his reputation in the sub-par circuit, the American League.

Von Hayes. Glenn Wilson. Phil Bradley. All have crossed league lines in recent years, all have faltered, all have felt the infamous Veterans Stadium fallout.

But few Phillies have been booed as loudly, and as roundly, as Parrish. For one thing, at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, he was a big target. For another, he was an easy one, a six-time All-Star catcher with Detroit who averaged 28 home runs and 92 runs batted in from 1982-1986--and then proceeded to hit .245 and .215 after signing for free-agent millions with Philadelphia in 1987.

“The Philly fans were on me the whole time,” Parrish said. “Everybody expected me to be the missing ingredient to make us a championship ballclub.”

And to make matters worse, Parrish said, his family was drawn into the issue.

“What really got me upset was some guy mouthing off to my wife in front of our kids (at a game). And this was one week into the season, my first season. There’s no call for that.”

As big league catchers go, Parrish is uncommonly sensitive, quiet in the clubhouse and introspective in interviews. After years of adulation in Tiger-crazy Detroit, such fan abuse was emotionally crushing.

“Lance is pretty much family-oriented,” said Angel pitcher Dan Petry, a former Detroit teammate of Parrish. “When he struggled a little, it wasn’t real easy on his family. And I know that bothered him.”

Parrish tried to strike back on the field, viewing every at-bat and every throw to second base as potential redemption.

“Right out of the gate, people were getting on me, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to get them off my back,” he said. “Instead, it got worse and worse.

“I never felt comfortable there. I could never relax.”

In 1987, Parrish’s batting average slipped from .257 to .245 and his home run total dropped from 22 to 17. He drove in just 67 runs and struck out a whopping 104 times.

The next season, bothered by the chronic back problems that had limited him to 91 games during his final year in Detroit, Parrish’s play continued to deteriorate.

The .215 batting average was his lowest as a major leaguer, more than 40 points below his career average. Excluding the strike-shortened season of 1981, his 15 home runs and 60 RBIs were his lowest numbers since 1978. He committed 12 passed balls--most in the National League--and threw out just 50 of 176 base stealers.

Parrish doesn’t alibi for the batting statistics but puts the finger the Philadelphia pitchers as accomplices in his failures against baserunners.

“The pitching staff never listened to what I said,” Parrish said, referring to holding on runners. “A lot of catchers in Philadelphia, from Bob Boone on down, got bad raps for not throwing out runners, but that’s because the pitchers don’t hold anybody on.

“In my opinion, I threw as well as I had my whole career, but I couldn’t throw anybody out. I never had a chance. The runners were getting so big a jump, they were already there by the time I could throw. It was really frustrating. I take a lot of pride in my defense--and I wasn’t able to show it in Philadelphia.”

By the end of 1988, with Parrish’s two-year contract about to expire, Phillie General Manager Lee Thomas began to shop the catcher around, figuring he would lose him to free agency if he didn’t trade him.

Thomas found a buyer in Angel Vice President Mike Port, who was even willing to part with a prime prospect in Holdridge. Holdridge, who has just turned 20, went 6-12 last season for Class-A Quad City, but had a relatively respectable 3.87 earned-run average plus 110 strikeouts in 154 innings. His fastball had been regarded as one of the best in the Angel organization.

“We had outstanding reports on Holdridge, and I was told we’d never get him,” Thomas said. “But I think Mike knew that there would be a lot of interest in Parrish (as a free agent) and he didn’t want to get into a bidding war.”

So, the Angels traded away part of their future in the hope that Parrish might be able to reclaim part of his past.

Thomas doesn’t rule out the idea.

“I know we didn’t see the real Lance Parrish,” he said. “I know he’s still a player. I just think he got so mixed up mentally. I don’t know if he can still do what he did in Detroit, because Detroit is such a great park to hit in. But I do think he’ll do much better with the Angels.”

That, in the case of the Angels, would be 120 games, a .260 batting average, 20 home runs and 80 RBIs. And the key number is the 120 games, the number Boone used to guarantee them, a number Parrish will approach only if his back allows.

“It’d be nice to think he could give us 120 games,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “You don’t want to abuse a guy, but I’d sure be happy if he could go out there that many times. If he does that, that means he’ll be our catcher five, six days a week.”

Parrish has some heavy incentive clauses in his contract that kick in at the 140-game mark, so he says he’s shooting for no fewer than 120.

“Oh, definitely,” he said. “Right now, the back’s not a factor. I’m trying not to let it be. I try not to let it affect my thinking, do what I have to do and deal with it if I have to.”

Parrish said he has adopted a new exercise program to strengthen his back and abdominal muscles, but, still, a catcher with “chronic” back problems figures to be a chronic concern.

Thus, the Angels acquired some insurance in Bill Schroeder, a 30-year-old catcher who appeared in 75 games one season for the Milwaukee Brewers. That year, 1987, Schroeder batted .332 with 14 home runs in 250 at-bats.

And, this spring, Rader has eased Parrish gradually into the program. In Arizona, Parrish was allowed to miss a 3 1/2-hour bus ride from Mesa to Yuma. Also, Parrish is usually replaced in exhibition games after four or five innings.

As long as he stays in the lineup, the Angels can occupy themselves with bold visions.

“Lance Parrish is a hell of a lot better player than he’s being given credit for,” Angel designated hitter Brian Downing said. “It’s always tough to replace a popular player like Bob Boone, but (Parrish) has definitely shown in the past that he’s a top-notch player. I mean, he can put up some major league numbers.”

Downing, a neighbor of Parrish and a former catcher, also points out that Parrish will be playing home games near his home in Yorba Linda.

“You can’t overestimate how much coming to your hometown means as a player,” said Downing, who broke in with the Chicago White Sox.

Parrish is eager to give it a try.

“My first few years with the Tigers, I’d come to Anaheim for a few games and wished I could drop anchor and stay here,” he said. “I always wondered what it would be like to play for theAngels.

“I live 15, 20 minutes from the ballpark, my kids are enrolled in school and play Little League here. I’m settled in. I can have a stable life style for a change.”

And, he comes to Anaheim minus the great expectations of Philadelphia. No outbreak of pennant fever is forecast in Orange County any time soon.

“It’s nice coming to a club that hasn’t been to a World Series before,” Parrish said. “I’d like to help them get there. I hope we can pull things together and achieve that here.”

He has no illusions of making Angel fans forget Bob Boone.

His only goal is to make them remember Lance Parrish.