Angels Needed to Let Go

Devon White, an Angel no more, has gone to that big Skydome in the sky.

White will play for the Toronto Blue Jays next season in that combination baseball stadium/amusement park/galleria/office complex/adult motel of theirs, the indoor Disneyland.

This Skydome, you may recall, is the billion-dollar ballyard where the biggest thrills are provided not by the Blue Jays but by the registered guests at the connecting hotel who neglect to shut their drapes.

And you thought the Blue Jays no longer played in Exhibition Stadium.

Anyhow, such are the distractions Devon White must face if he is to return to the form that won him outfield Gold Gloves two years running. I mean, when Willie Mays went back for Vic Wertz’s fly ball, all he had to worry about was losing the ball in the sun, not losing the ball in the hotel.

Besides being a fun house, the Skydome also is something of a haunted house. White’s new teammates will include pitcher David Wells, the man who puts his fist through windows while sleepwalking, and outfielder Glenallen Hill, the man who jumps out of bed and runs into walls trying to escape imaginary spiders.

Nevertheless, Toronto provides White an opportunity to start over, to prove himself anew, to return to the form of his 1987 rookie season, when White appeared to be another Rickey Henderson in the making.

He hit 24 home runs, stole 32 bases, knocked in 87 runs, batted 639 times, legged out 38 doubles and triples, gunned down 16 baserunners from the outfield and appeared to be created by some manufacturer of new, improved Gary Pettises.

And fast?

Angel White had wings, man. His stride was longer than Secretariat’s. He got from the batter’s box to first base in three steps. You know that character on television, the Flash? White made him look like Mike Scioscia. He could turn grounders through the box into doubles. Had Devon White been a better bunter, he could have turned those into doubles.

OK, so he struck out 135 times that season. At least he was up there swinging. White took a cut with that bat of his like that weirdo in Texas with the chain saw. When he made contact, he ripped the cover off the ball. He could have ripped the cover off a basketball.

But, now he’s history. The Angels couldn’t wait on him anymore. White never did hit any better than .263. Last season, he dipped to .217, and continued to commit a speedster’s cardinal sin: striking out. Nobody can outrun Strike 3. Your legs don’t do you any good if all you’re doing with them is walking back to the bench.

The Angels tried patience and then impatience. They sent White to Edmonton, temporarily. Didn’t work. So now, they have sent him to Ontario, permanently. They tried sending him down. Now they’re sending him up.

In return, the Angels get Junior Felix, a man about whom we know very little, including whether or not there is a Senior Felix, and whether or not the Angels might be interested in one of those Ken Griffey deals.

Felix evidently will play center field for the Angels and possibly bat third, which could end up giving the batting order a 3-4 punch of Junior-Joyner.

One confusing element of the deal is that the Angels continue to stockpile outfielders. In fact, they are turning into Outfielders R Us. Last season, they picked up Dave Winfield and Luis Polonia when they already had White, Chili Davis, Dante Bichette, Max Venable, Lee Stevens and Brian Downing, which is fine if baseball permitted a team to use four or five designated hitters.

Gene and Jackie Autry and their advisers, Chief Executive Officer President Chairman of the Board Richard Brown, Executive Assistant Brigadier General Manager Mike Port, Special Deputy Associate Vice President Director of Player Personnel Dan O’Brien and all the others, are willing to do whatever it takes to bring a World Series to Anaheim sometime before one comes to Tokyo or a NASA space platform.

There is a hot-stove rumor afoot that the Angels also are interested in signing Dave Henderson, who plays--hold onto your cap--the outfield. Who knows where Henderson would fit in out there with Felix, Winfield, Polonia, Bichette, Davis and Senior Felix?

If I might put in my worthless two cents here for a second, I might suggest that this club take a second look at Bichette, followed by a third look. Maybe it’s just dumb old me, but I believe this guy could be a very big star.

The key to the Toronto deal apparently was one Luis Sojo, who will play second and bat second. I am happy the Angels are solving their problems at second base. Now all they need do is solve their problems at shortstop and third base.

Dick Schofield is a good major leaguer, not a great one. And he is forever hurt. He is the kind of guy who would miss two weeks with a broken bat. As for Jack Howell, that experiment is over and the time has come to try something else. Forget outfielders. Somebody find this team a third baseman.

Devon White? He scares you. Any season now, this guy will go out there and become Barry Bonds. But the Angels were right to let him go, because fast as he was, he was going nowhere fast. And so were they.