11 Innings Later, Angels Don’t Fare Any Better

Fair or foul?

The question that vexed the Angels in their Saturday night sleep and greeted them when they reconvened at Memorial Stadium Sunday morning was still ringing in their ears at the end of another controversial loss to the Baltimore Orioles, this a 3-2 defeat in 11 innings.

This time, only the names and the foul lines changed. Saturday, it was Mike Devereaux and his hooking drive down the left-field line. Sunday, it was Mickey Tettleton and his drive down the right-field line.

Tettleton’s ball, ruled fair by first base umpire Larry Young, was a sharply hit one-hopper that veered beyond the reach of a diving Wally Joyner, the Angel first baseman. The baseball landed in foul territory, but that fact is pointless, provided the baseball first passed over the first-base bag.

Young contended it did, which resulted in a game-ending double, enabling Oriole runner Cal Ripken to score from first base.

Joyner wasn’t so sure.

“It bounced right by home plate, took a big hop and landed three feet foul,” Joyner said. “It landed past the bag foul--and it landed past the bag pretty good.

“I was diving for it, so I don’t know if it went over the bag at all. It could’ve gone either way.”

The Angels have heard that one before. In the tumultuous end of Saturday night’s game, the Angels were dealt an 11-9 defeat when Baltimore outfielder Devereaux hooked a drive deep down the left-field line that was ruled a home run by third-base umpire Jim Joyce.

The Angels cried foul on that one, too--so long and so loudly that Manager Doug Rader was ejected before Sunday’s first pitch was thrown.

Still fuming over Joyce’s call, Rader canceled Joyner’s customary pregame trip to home plate for the exchange of lineup cards, preferring to deliver the Angels’ batting order--and a certain message--himself.

Within moments, Rader had earned his departure from the dugout, courtesy of home plate umpire Ken Kaiser.

“Yes, it was premeditated,” Rader said 11 innings later. “I had a good idea when I went up there that I was not going to see all of this game.”

He had seen enough the night before. Was Devereaux’s home run actually not a home run? “I’d bet my life that ball was foul,” Rader said.

You could describe Rader’s mood Sunday morning in much the same terms. He had seen all the replays and all the angles on Devereaux’s fly ball--if you watched television in Baltimore this weekend, you couldn’t miss it--and to Rader, they only served to fuel his argument.

But then, the Memorial Stadium scoreboard ran slow-motion footage of the shot, zooming in on the ball and the foul pole frame-by-frame before concluding in caption: “After close analysis, the ball was fair.”

By whose analysis? Rader wanted to know.

“What a joke,” he snapped. “That’s enough to make you puke. Last night, 47,000 people left this stadium knowing it was a foul ball. Then, to try to sell that bill of goods?

“Give me a bucket.”

Rader’s anger spilled over into an indictment of the entire umpiring crew. With the exception of Joyce, this was the same crew that last week drew the wrath of Baltimore Manager Frank Robinson, who charged that he wasn’t receiving fair treatment from the umpires. Specifically, Robinson said he wasn’t being taken as seriously as his colleagues when he attempted to debate an umpire’s decision.

Out of protest, Robinson threatened to resign.

The resultant controversy--national headlines, a hearing with American League president Bobby Brown--was enough, in Rader’s view, to prejudice the crew. Rader said Sunday that those umpires--Kaiser, Young and Jim McKean--should have been disqualified from working a series involving Robinson and the Orioles.

“They shouldn’t be here,” Rader said. “(The league) had time to prepare for this. They had time to shift a different crew here.

“For them not to do anything, I don’t think it’s right. They knew going in, full-on, there was going to be a problem.”

Around the Angel clubhouse, the manager’s sentiments were echoed by his players.

“It wouldn’t surprise me (if the umpiring crew had been intimidated),” catcher Lance Parrish said. “I suppose Frank Robinson has a right to say anything he wants to say and to claim anything he wants to claim. But I don’t think that should sway the way the umpires go about doing their job.

“They shouldn’t be fearful of another uprising if they don’t give Frank what he wants. I’d hate to say that’s the case.”

Added Joyner, who was fined $100 by Joyce for disputing a strike call in Friday night’s game: “There were a lot of coincidences the last couple of games. It’s hard to think about what happened last week and what went on in these games.

“It would really be a shame if a meeting was held and people decided to consciously make an effort to correct a problem that wasn’t there in the first place.”

Then Joyner took a verbal jab at Robinson, suggesting that the Oriole manager may have been guilty of protesting too much.

“Everybody feels like the world is falling on top of them sometimes,” Joyner said. “There’s not any room in this game for somebody feeling like he’s being picked on or used as an example.

“You can’t (try to) control the game.”

Robinson’s response to the Angel furor was terse.

“That’s B.S.,” he said, declining further comment.

Meanwhile, Rader, unable to observe Sunday’s first pitch, was intent on getting the last word.

“We played four games here, won the first and were in position to win the last three,” he said. “We were in position to win.”

And why weren’t they able to win any of them?

Depends upon your position.

Angel Notes

Mike Port, Angel general manager, called American League president Bobby Brown Sunday morning to lodge a complaint over the umpiring in Baltimore and is planning to follow up with a visit to Brown’s New York office some time this week. “I just wanted to brief him first-hand about our perspective and he listened very constructively to what I had to say,” Port said. “If a ballgame is going to be lost, leave it to the players to decide it. I realize umpiring is a tough job, but certain select individuals make it tougher. It may be due to a (lack) of intensity or attention to detail. This whole season, the quality of umpiring has not been up to the standards you would expect, in my opinion.” Port spoke with Angel Manager Doug Rader after Saturday’s disputed outcome and said he supported Rader’s contention that Jim McKean’s crew should have been replaced before the series. “If this is one of the crews Frank (Robinson) was concerned about, that concern, apparently, has been broadened,” Port said.

About the game: After a rain delay of more than an hour, the Angels took a 1-0 lead on a sixth-inning home run by Wally Joyner, his third of the season. But the Orioles rallied for two runs in the seventh inning against Mike Witt, with Mickey Tettleton and Mike Devereaux again having a hand in matters. Tettleton singled and scored Baltimore’s first run, coming home on another single by Devereaux. A pinch-single by Jim Traber broke the 1-1 tie, scoring Brady Anderson from second base. Baltimore’s 2-1 advantage lasted until the ninth when, with two outs, Jack Howell cued an opposite-field bloop single to left field, driving in Brian Downing from second base. That run forced extra innings, and the Angels’ eventual downfall.

By failing to protect his team’s ninth-inning lead, Oriole reliever Gregg Olson failed to convert a save opportunity for the first time this season. Before Sunday, Olson had saved 15 games in 15 chances. . . . The victory went to Mike Smith, Baltimore’s third relief pitcher, who faced two hitters in the top of the 11th. Smith first walked Dick Schofield to load the bases for Max Venable, who hit into an inning-ending fielder’s choice. . . . Willie Fraser (2-5) was the losing pitcher for the Angels. He worked a perfect 10th inning in relief of Witt, but walked Cal Ripken to open the 11th. And Fraser’s view of Tettleton’s ensuing double? “I can’t say. From the pitcher’s mound, I didn’t have a good vantage point,” he said. “Lance (Parrish) thought it was foul but, really, I shouldn’t have been in that situation. I shouldn’t have walked Ripken.”

BIRDS OF PARADISE

Oriole Manager Frank Robinson complains of umpire bias and suddenly, everything is going Baltimore’s way. Mike Downey’s column, Page 3.