Gaetti Should Fit Right Into Angel Lineup : Baseball: Rader expects the signing of third baseman to solidify offense.

He studied his reflection in the mirror, tugging on the bill of his cap and finger-combing the hair that spilled down his neck to make it look just right.

“It’s a good fit,” Gary Gaetti said as he tried on his new Angel uniform.

Conversations with club owner Gene Autry and other Angel officials convinced Gaetti that the Angels would be a perfect fit for himself and his family. He signed his four-year, $11.4-million contract Friday, moments before his introductory news conference at a restaurant near Anaheim Stadium.

“We panicked three or four times every day,” Gaetti said of the difficulty he, his wife, Debby, and two sons faced in choosing between staying with the Minnesota Twins or signing with the Angels.

“There are so many emotional ties to people, places, things. The (Twins) won the World Series (in 1987) and gradually started declining, but the emotional ties were there and that made it difficult to leave. I haven’t had a real good cry about it. I can feel it welling up in me.”

But Friday was a day of joy for the Gaettis. Gaetti smiled for TV cameras and joked with his onetime Twin teammate and partner in pranks, Angel pitcher Bert Blyleven, while Debby Gaetti chatted with Blyleven’s wife, Patti.

“Every time I get choked up about leaving Minnesota, I look at Bert and laugh,” Gaetti said. “Really, Bert was comforting. He was able to tell me some things about living here in Southern California that helped.”

Angel Manager Doug Rader expects Gaetti to help fortify the offense and solidify a starting lineup that was rarely the same from day to day. Rader hasn’t decided where the third baseman will hit in the batting order, but merely learning that he will have Gaetti in the lineup was enough to make Rader wish the season would start today.

“The nice thing right now is we can have as close to a set lineup as possible and we can bring a little creativity to it,” Rader said from his Florida home. “There are so many interchangeable parts. There’s Wally (Joyner), Lance (Parrish), Chili Davis, David Winfield--all those players have hit in the 3-4-5 spots and that’s outstanding.

“We’ll be able to piece together a lineup based on the competition or if a guy’s not doing well. If a guy’s slumping, we can protect him. The entire lineup is solid. . . . Gary’s had production on more than one occasion and he’s been with some very good ballclubs. I’m very happy that he’s with us.”

Gaetti’s production has declined the last few seasons, a trend that has been tied by some to his religious rebirth. Gaetti hit .287 with 34 home runs and 108 runs batted in in 1986 and hit .257 with 31 home runs and 109 RBIs in the Twins’ triumphant 1987 season. Although plagued by injuries in 1988, he hit .301 with 28 homers and 88 RBIs, figures that dropped to .251 with 19 homers and 75 RBIs in 1989.

Gaetti led the Twins in RBIs last season with 85, but he hit only .229 and struck out a club-leading 101 times as the Twins spiraled from the top of the American League West in May to the bottom. A once closely knit team splintered, with Gaetti getting criticism from Manager Tom Kelly for his lack of production and from teammates for supposedly pouring the zeal he once carried onto the field into his religious rebirth.

Gaetti said he has been hurt by those accusations. He attributes his statistical decline to injuries, rather than to a change in his attitude toward the game.

“Circumstances do change in peoples’ lives and I had to learn, because of my beliefs, some humility and self-control,” he said. “It’s a process. I don’t think a lot of the criticism was true. I had to live my life the only way I know how.

“I don’t think I every really lost my desire to play, but I had more of a desire to find God. I’m not saying I did everything right. I did what I had to do. It wasn’t met with a lot of understanding. I know the desire was there to play. A lot of things were said early on, that if you ask people now, you’ll find they’ve changed their minds.”