Langston Finds the Local Area Attractive

A whirlwind trip to Los Angeles this week only seemed to confirm Mark Langston’s feelings that he would like to make Southern California a more permanent stop when he leaves the Montreal Expos soon as a free-agent pitcher.

An amateur musician who plays a number of instruments--”and is master of none”--Langston satisfied those interests Wednesday by jamming with a good friend, pop star Bruce Hornsby, in the garage of Hornsby’s Encino home.

And that night, Langston watched the Kings play the New York Islanders at the Forum, then met Wayne Gretzky, who brightened the moment for Langston by telling the pitcher that he was one of the first players Gretzky picked for his rotisserie league team.

Gretzky didn’t say how his team did, but he could soon be rooting for Langston on a home-team basis.

“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Langston said Thursday when asked about the possibility of pitching for Gretzky’s hometown Dodgers. “He would be a great guy to pal around with.”

A budding friendship isn’t the only attraction for Langston in Los Angeles, but neither is he closing the door on other possibilities.

Eligible to file for free agency on the day after the World Series and having already rejected a three-year, $9-million offer from the Expos, Langston said he has eight teams in mind.

They are the five California teams plus the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees.

Langston said it is too early to rank the eight or pinpoint preferences, but he does favor Southern California, meaning the Dodgers, Angels or San Diego Padres.

Agent Arn Tellem said he expects Langston to emerge as baseball’s highest-paid pitcher and player--if only on the basis of competitive bidding and economic appreciation since Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers signed his three-year, $7.9-million contract last winter, and Frank Viola of the Minnesota Twins matched it in April before his trade to the New York Mets.

Asked, however, if the threat of a labor lockout or strike might not depress a market in which Langston looms as the most attractive commodity, Tellem shook his head and said: “For Mark and the other top free agents, I think it will be a very active market. I think the clubs will look on it as a window of opportunity, a chance to grab the top players before the labor problems develop next spring.”

Langston, who made $1.3 million this season, said his decision will be based on baseball and financial considerations, the most important aspect being the competitiveness of the club. The Dodgers, Angels and Padres satisfy that criterion, he said.

“I want to be on a contending club, a club that has a chance to win,” he said. “I really feel that if the Expos had won, it would have left a different taste with me.

“That’s not to say I’ve ruled out the possibility of re-signing with the Expos, but I would have definitely been more interested if we had won.”

Langston, a 29-year-old left-hander who led the American League in strikeouts in three of his five seasons with the Seattle Mariners, was traded to the Expos on May 25 and compiled an overall record of 16-14, winning 10 of his first 13 decisions with Montreal before losing six of his last eight, thanks in large part to illness, injury and lack of support.

His earned-run average of 2.39 was the National League’s third best, and his overall strikeout total of 235 in 250 innings was second in the majors to Nolan Ryan’s 301.

Langston has pitched 225 innings or more in each of his six seasons except 1985, when he had an elbow injury. And while pitching for the hapless Mariners in the confining Kingdome, he won 19 of his team’s 78 games in 1987 and 15 of his team’s 68 in 1988. His 17 wins in 1984 were the most by a rookie left-hander since Gary Peters won 19 for the 1963 Chicago White Sox.

The Expos, pursuing a “win now” philosophy, traded three young pitchers for Langston, knowing he might leave at the end of the season. Langston said he was treated well by Montreal fans and looked at his future in that city with an open mind--at least until the final six weeks of a season in which he thought the Expos were rolling toward a division title.

“It was as if someone pulled the plug,” he said. “Everything crumbled and I don’t know why. We lost seven in a row to the Cubs and Mets and I still had an open mind, but I wanted to see how we rebounded and we never did. The situation kept getting worse.”

The Expos could be devastated now by the departure of several free agents, including Langston and Hubie Brooks.

Both are Californians who want to return, although Langston, who grew up in Santa Clara, said he will maintain his winter home in Seattle, no matter where he signs.

“Being from California, there would be a nice sense of coming home,” he said. “And I’ve always felt that when you step on the field in Anaheim or at Dodger Stadium, there’s a feeling that this is what the big leagues are all about. Plus, you don’t hear a lot of negative things from the stands like you do in other parks. The fans come to be entertained, and generally are. The quality of the organizations speaks for itself.”

Langston’s wife, Michelle, has studied acting, and Langston said he has relatives in the San Diego area with whom he gets together two or three times a winter to attend basketball and hockey games in Los Angeles.

“We’ve always had fun here. We’ve always felt very comfortable here,” he said.

Does he have a preference to leagues?

“I really enjoyed the National League because I like to participate,” he said. “I like to bat and run the bases. It brought back some boyhood memories. I even broke up a double play against the Cardinals. Jose Oquendo asked if I was all right, and I just laughed. It was fun again.

“But I could also make an easy adjustment to the American League. I spent five years there. I know the league very well. I really don’t think the question of leagues will be a major issue.”

There is speculation that it will be, that aside from participating more in the National League, Langston likes the idea of pitching to a lineup devoid of a designated hitter in a league where pitchers work fewer innings because they are apt to give way to pinch hitters.

Fred Claire, executive vice president of the Dodgers, refused to discuss Langston because of tampering restrictions. Sources close to the club believe Claire will pursue Langston as he did Dave Righetti and Gary Gaetti.

Signing Langston would allow Claire to trade a young pitcher--John Wetteland, perhaps--for a center fielder.

The Angels view Langston in a similar manner. “When you consider what we were prepared to pay Bruce Hurst and Nolan Ryan last winter, I’m confident we will be in the bidding for Langston,” a club executive said. “We had a surprisingly good season but realize we have to build on it. We can’t stand pat, particularly when you consider the quality of the opposition.”