Downing Decides to Rely on Reflexes

Brian Downing showed up in the Angels’ Mesa, Ariz., training facility this spring looking a lot like a Romanian weightlifter wearing double knits, the effects of his Rocky-like off-season training regimen bulging out of the sleeves of his jersey.

The Angel designated hitter spent the winter days rearranging the landscaping in his backyard and helping with the expansion of his weight room. He spent the evenings in the new addition, lifting weights until the wee hours. So it’s no wonder he’s beginning to look a lot like his hero, who, by the way, is Arnold Schwarzenegger not Sylvester Stallone.

Downing is not exactly the quintessential leadoff hitter--the only way he’s going to steal a base is by ripping it out of the ground and taking it home--but he’s in the No. 1 spot for the Angels again this season and has decided to take a new approach after hitting .242 with 25 homers and 64 runs batted in last season.

“I’m changing my style,” he said early in the spring. “I’m going to be more aggressive. My intention is to attack.”

Downing exhibited his new style Wednesday night, lashing out at Eric King’s first pitch of the game and sending a high drive into the seats in left-center field to get the Angels started on a 6-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Anaheim Stadium.

It was the 18th time in his 16-year major league career that Downing has led off a game with a homer. And almost the second time in as many games.

“Actually, that’s the second (day) in a row he’s started the game off with a home run,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said, referring to the rocket Downing sent up into the swirling Santa Ana winds on Tuesday that ended up a 380-foot out. “That sort of thing really gives a team a big lift.”

When it comes to big lifts--in the weight room or on the field--Downing’s your man. A somewhat-mysterious rib-cage injury slowed him last season and flared up again near the end of spring training, so he’s been laying off the weight training a bit.

“I haven’t done anything for a couple of weeks,” he said. “I’m just letting it rest and see how it goes.”

But he’s still pumped up about his new, aggressive approach.

“I don’t think I can afford to lay back and take as many pitches as I did last year,” he said. “I thought we needed that last year, but I’m not a good enough hitter to spot anybody a couple of strikes.

“It’s not that I wanted to play the patience game, it’s just that I felt we needed a high on-base-percentage guy.”

Downing’s on-base percentage (.362) was high enough to lead the team, but despite the 25 homers, Downing realized all that waiting around was turning him into a defensive swinger.

“My bread and butter is pulling the ball,” Downing said, “but I was getting behind (in the count) a lot and that takes away my pull/power-type swing.”

So he’s up there hacking these days, and although he’s only 1 for 8 this season, he’s been hitting the ball hard.

Just ask Eric King.

“I just figured I’d swing at the first pitch, whatever it was, just to break the ice,” Downing said. “I got a high fastball. I feel really good up there now, but that doesn’t always necessarily translate into results.”

Rader, however, likes what he sees and figures that if the 38-year-old Downing keeps hitting line drives, everything will fall in place for baseball’s oddest--and oldest-leadoff hitter.

Who knows, maybe this will be a banner season for Downing. But then he’s already reached the pinnacle.

Downing, who averaged 90 RBIs a season for the Angels in 1984, ’85 and ‘86, holds the major league record for consecutive errorless games (244) and has played in more than 1,000 games as an Angel. But one of the highlights of his life came last year when he posed for a picture with Schwarzenegger, who was clad in an Angel uniform and holding a broken bat. The picture hangs in the media dining room at Anaheim Stadium.

“That was a thrill,” Downing said. “It’s not everyday a guy gets to meet his hero.”