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Angel on His Shoulder : To Many Major Leaguers, Speaking in Tongues Isn’t Normal Behavior in Clubhouse, but Gaetti Says It Won’t Affect His Play

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Once, the letters “B.Y.O.B.” were, to Gary Gaetti, an invitation to excess, an irresistible call to drink and party with the same passion that compelled him to throw himself in front of ground balls at third base for the Minnesota Twins.

But those letters have taken on a vastly different meaning.

As scrawled on the chalkboard in the Angels’ spring training clubhouse, those letters aren’t the traditional party invitation, “Bring Your Own Bottle.” They stand for “Bring Your Own Bible,” as Gaetti does to the weekly Bible study classes he attends with about a dozen of his new teammates.

Same letters, different meaning. A different life for Gaetti since 1988, when he became a born-again Christian.

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There are those who say Gaetti has also become a different ballplayer since his “rebirth,” that at 32, he has lost the fire that drove him to win four Gold Gloves and to exceed 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in both in 1986 and ’87.

His home run production dropped from 31 in the Twins’ 1987 championship season to 28 in ‘88, to 19 in ’89 and to 16 last season.

His batting average has also tumbled. He peaked at .301 in 1988, hit .251 in ’89 and fell to .229 last season. Noting that a typographical error in the Angels’ media guide listed his average as .299, he smiled. “I like that one,” he said.

Gaetti doesn’t like hearing the widespread contention that zeal for his new faith diverted his energy from playing to praying, and led to the Twins’ descent from World Series champions in 1987 to last in the American League West in 1990.

He cites physical problems--a knee operation three years ago and back and stomach ailments in 1989--as the cause of his problems, not his spiritual awakening. And while he says he will never again be the hard-living Gaetti of old, he believes he can again be the hard-hitting Gaetti of a few years ago, the one the Angels had in mind when they signed him as a new-look free agent for a guaranteed $11.4 million over four years.

“He’s not a .229 hitter. He’s .260, .270, what he’s supposed to be and what he always did,” said Angel batting instructor Deron Johnson, who began giving Gaetti intensive tutelage last weekend. “He’s still young, strong and quick. He has the bat speed. We’ve got three weeks to go, and he’ll be there opening time.”

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Time, for Gaetti, began when he became a born-again Christian.

“Basically, God was tired of my old way of life and put the skids on it. Basically, I yielded to that force,” said Gaetti, whose conversion was inspired by pamphlets he read while recovering from his knee operation.

“(During convalescence) I was separated from the thing that meant my entire life--baseball. I was injured. You hear something that makes you think what life really, really is. I got really, really (concerned) about my own well-being and my own relationship with God. I knew it was time to make a change and that was the only way to do it. . . .

“I wasn’t a vicious person or malicious. I wasn’t a drug smuggler. But there’s really no degree of sin. Sin is sin. You break man’s law, you go to jail. You break God’s law, you go to hell. . . . I’m the same person. God let me keep all the good things, but I’m free from all the dead weight that I had.”

Gaetti believes he can be an exemplary Christian and an exceptional baseball player. Angel catcher Lance Parrish, 12 years a Christian and eight times an All-Star, agrees that these pursuits can mesh.

“Just because you’re Christian doesn’t mean you’re less aggressive. You might not throw your helmet or swear, but

the intensity is still there,” Parrish said. “I don’t see he’s any different as a player. He’s still aggressive and he’s a competitor . . .

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“I believe the same things he believes. I haven’t been around him long enough to tell you if he’s a different person, but obviously if he says he’s a different person, he is. From my way of looking at it, it’s all for the better. If people have questions and doubts, maybe they ought to look into it. It’s wrong for people to point fingers without understanding him and his beliefs.”

But even his closest friend, Minnesota first baseman Kent Hrbek, found it difficult to understand the fervor of Gaetti’s new beliefs.

The two had been inseparable since they met at Class-A Elizabethton, Tenn., in 1977. They drank together, roomed together, hunted together during the off-season. That ended when Gaetti was born again. Hrbek said of the change in Gaetti, “It’s almost like he passed away.”

Gaetti said Hrbek’s words were taken out of context and weren’t as chilling or final as they sound. The two worked out once last winter, by Gaetti’s account, but Gaetti didn’t consult him before choosing the Angels’ offer over a bid by the Twins that had many incentive clauses but less guaranteed money.

“We talked a whole bunch,” Gaetti said. “We were real close and we always will be. Still, there has to be a separation at some point, not just from Kent, because of my beliefs.”

Those beliefs have led Gaetti to distribute leaflets at the 1989 All-Star game detailing his testimony. His transformation has inspired him to speak in tongues in the clubhouse, attaining a trance-like state that apparently frightened some of his teammates and alienated others.

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He knew his conversion would alter his relationship with his teammates, at least initially, and affect the chemistry created when the Twins matured and won together. So strong were his new convictions, he could act no other way, even when they drove a wedge between him and his wife, Debby. The two separated but later reconciled.

“I had to separate myself from the things I couldn’t do anymore. It was not like I couldn’t associate with them, but I had inside a burning desire to say things and live my life a certain way,” Gaetti said. “You could say the effect was adverse. It should have been a positive effect on the team, but it turned out to be, at the time, negative.”

If they didn’t understand him and what he was doing, Gaetti said, that was their loss.

“I wasn’t ever afraid to share what was going on (with regard to religion), but a lot of people didn’t want to hear it,” he said. “They’ll criticize, but not a handful of guys on that team sat down and asked me about it. Or maybe they didn’t want to get too close.

“I know a lot of my time was spent in different ways. I (used to) sit in front of my locker and watch TV, play cards, smoke cigarettes, drink coffee. (After being converted) I chose to sit in front of my locker and read. If I would have chosen to sit in front of my locker with Playboy or something stupid like that, it would have been accepted . . .

“I was speaking in tongues and doing things every Christian is supposed to do. If it’s in the Bible, I believe it. If you’re presented with knowledge about something that’s new to you, you can accept or reject it. OK. If you accept it as the truth and it means you have to change something in your life, it’s better than rejecting it.

“I don’t really speak from anything except experience and the word of God. I can stand on God’s word. I can go on record that I am spirit-filled. I speak with tongues as God’s utterance. God says I can and should. Because somebody doesn’t understand, because he doesn’t know the Lord, it’s hypocrisy, but that’s OK. I know what I’m saying.”

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Gaetti has not hidden his beliefs, nor has he proselytized in the Angels’ clubhouse. The most overt evidence of his faith surfaced early in spring training. During a drill, one of the coaches, in exasperation, muttered, “Oh, Jesus,” and Gaetti scolded him for being blasphemous.

Parrish understood Gaetti’s motivation, but has himself chosen to be less publicly demonstrative.

“When you come to understand what the Bible teaches, it clearly says in the Book you’re not supposed to take the Lord’s name in vain, and people will take exception,” Parrish said. “Of course, you need to be flexible. This is not your ordinary environment.”

The environment in Minnesota was perfect for Gaetti until the team went sour after 1987, and he was genuinely torn about departing. The Angels’ willingness to guarantee his money, while the Twins loaded their offer with performance bonuses, plus the chance to start anew swayed him to uproot his wife and two young sons from their suburban Twin Cities home.

The verve and camaraderie that distinguished the Twins disappeared so quickly for a group that had been together for so long. Money had much to do with it, as pitcher Frank Viola’s contract demands led to him being traded to the New York Mets, and debatable trades also broke up the gang. Bert Blyleven won 50 games from August 1985 through ‘88, but none of the three players Minnesota got in his trade to the Angels is still on the Twins’ roster.

Injuries to Hrbek and others helped kill the Twins’ hopes of repeating in ‘88, but Gaetti believes he has gotten more than his share of the blame for the club’s failures, from those who can’t or won’t understand the depth of his convictions.

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“I’m sure it’s happened with other teams,” Gaetti said of the Twins’ collapse. “We had some injuries--my knee injury was pretty key, and then I came back in as a new person. Everybody had to regroup and start over. The best thing was that I move on and the Twins move on . . .

“They can all say what they want. I was the one out there in pain after I came back, a week and a half after my stupid knee operation (in 1988). They look at my numbers as a drop-off in performance, but I never hit for a high average. I did the one year but I don’t go up there to walk--I go up to hack. That’s the way it’s always going to be with me.

“In 1989, for most of the winter, I didn’t do much and didn’t get into the kind of solid condition I needed to be in. We were pretty brutal all year long, 15 games out, and I’ve got an ankle that throbs all the time and a knee that’s really sore. Plus, all the changes that were going on in my personal life, the new relationships.

“We sat and talked. I said, ‘Hey, we’re not going to catch Oakland. Let’s get some kids in the lineup.’ I would have played. I had 19 homers and I willfully went on the (disabled list) so I could get ready for next year. Do I have to prove myself to an organization I’d been in 12 years?

“I came in the next year--last year--and we’re doing fine. We’re four games out in May, and nobody’s complaining. We go from 4 1/2 out to 10, 11 out. Oakland keeps winning, and we’re 15, 20 games back. Everybody’s going (choke). We had young guys on the mound and everybody was trying to win 20 games. Kirby (Puckett), Kent and I are trying to drive in three, four runs every time up. You can’t play with that kind of pressure. “

The pressure strained his relationship with Manager Tom Kelly. The two had some sessions Gaetti described as “not personal to him or to me, (but) it got to the point where I needed to get some things off my chest.” However, Gaetti refused to call those discussions a falling out.

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“We all felt a lot of pressure after winning the World Series,” Gaetti said. “Maybe we didn’t know how to handle it just right. He’s matured as a manager. Hopefully, we’re all changing every day for the better. He was a great manager to play for. I respect his baseball knowledge and intelligence, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to play for him.”

Playing for Angel Manager Doug Rader, like Gaetti a third baseman with a deft glove and a fiery nature in his playing days, has eased Gaetti’s way during an occasionally difficult transition. There was as much anger as humor in Gaetti’s declaration, “I was brutal,” after he committed two errors in an exhibition game against the Cleveland Indians last weekend, but Rader has been supportive.

“It’s spring training, but you still don’t like to do those things,” Gaetti said. “I expect better than that from myself.

“Doug Rader has been a great help to me because he played the position and because he’s understanding. Actually, the entire coaching staff has helped. Doug can motivate his people and he don’t take no crap. He commands respect from his players and he gets it, and rightly so. I can enjoy a good laugh with him--but if you miss a sign, you’re going to hear about it.”

Rader has nothing but praise for Gaetti’s attitude and work ethic.

“He’s a terrific guy and he’s working very hard. He’s going to have a real good year,” Rader said. “He has a very competitive nature. People who can accept failure easily aren’t very productive. I’d think something was wrong if he just laughed at it.”

Gaetti has had mixed success this spring. His work with Johnson has lifted his batting average above .200, and the Angels’ acquisition of Dave Parker eased the pressure on him to drive in runs.

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“I’m getting there,” he said. “I don’t have the numbers some guys here have. I’ve made some mistakes, made some errors, but I’ve done some things right. My timing is off. It’s not super-great, but not super-bad.

“I’m not looking forward to October yet, if you know what I mean, but I hope to be able to say something positive about the changes experience-wise and organization-wise . . .

“I’m optimistic, to say the least. I just want to pull my weight here.”

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