Joyner Feels a Warming Trend Approaching

Angel Manager Doug Rader was watching Wally Joyner take batting practice the other day when someone asked if he had detected the struggling first baseman’s problem.

“He’s in a slump,” Rader deadpanned.

Could he be more specific?

“OK. A bad slump,” Rader said.

But seriously, was he expecting Joyner, a career .290 hitter, to catch fire at any moment.

“I’m just hoping he’ll catch warm ,” Rader said.

And that, folks, was serious.

Joyner, who was in a four-for-31 deep freeze going into Thursday night’s game against Detroit, finally might be in a thawing trend.

If nothing else, Joyner ended speculation on how long his eight-month home run drought would last, slamming a two-run shot into the seats in right field in the fourth inning of the Angels’ 10-3 victory over the Tigers at Anaheim Stadium. The homer tied the score, 3-3, after the Tigers had taken a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

Joyner’s most recent home run was Sept. 1, 1988 and--counting spring training--he had gone to the plate 256 times without hitting one out of the park since then. Rader has said all along that he isn’t overly concerned, but those Wally World fans who watched Joyner belt 20 homers before the All-Star break in 1986 have to be wondering about the power outage.

“The most pleasing thing was to see Wally really turn on the ball and get the home run,” Rader said. “That’s one burden he no longer has to carry. The next one will come a lot easier.”

Joyner said he hadn’t thought much about his lack of homers--”I wasn’t counting at-bats,” he says--but some of those feeble waves of the bat that were passing as his hitting stroke were beginning to weigh on his mind.

“It wears on you,” Joyner admitted. “When you’re in a slump, you just don’t have a good approach to hitting. I was very uncomfortable up there and I was swinging at some bad pitches. When you can lay off the pitcher’s pitches, the balls and the borderline strikes, then your pitches will come. That’s what happened tonight.”

Joyner, who has had a hit in each of the last four games, says he feels as if he’s breaking out. He’s certainly worked at it, watching old videotapes of when he was in a groove (Remember that week in April of 1987 when he hit .480 with five home runs and 13 RBIs in seven games?) and taking extra batting practice.

“Actually, I’m one-for-four in fast starts,” said Joyner, whose lifetime batting average in April is .274. “I got off to a slow start last year. Hopefully, what we’ve done this week will get things going.

“I think we’ve finally got my swing corrected. I’ve been hitting the ball with a lot more authority the last few games.”

Rader, however, thinks slumps are more a matter of the mind than the mechanical.

“Slumps are mostly mental,” Rader said. “If you think you can hit, you usually can. If you have any doubts, you generally don’t. When you’re going bad, every negative emotion runs through your head. You just don’t want to be embarrassed.

“You may try to be outwardly aggressive, but something inside holds you back, makes you tentative. But one thing about Wally, he wasn’t fighting himself that much, which most guys do when they’re in a slump. He was dealing with it pretty well.”

Monday night, Joyner was booed by the once-adoring Big A fans after striking out with a particularly sorry swing. He admitted that he “recognized” their displeasure and managed to rationalize . . . even joke about his momentary fall from grace.

“They can do what they want and I have to continue to come out here and work hard,” he said. “Anyway, I didn’t think they were booing me. I thought Donnie Moore had walked in somewhere.”