A Little Hocus Pocus Helps Abbott Pull Out a Victory

One look into the bottom of his locker stall Sunday morning and Jim Abbott knew. Things couldn’t get any lower than this.

It was worse than a one-way ticket and boarding pass, John Wayne to Salt Lake City to Edmonton.

It was worse than a scouting report on the Calgary Cannons.

It was worse than a sports section announcing the Angels’ $1.5 million signing of Fernando Valenzuela.

It was Joe Vu.

Who is Vu?

Need yu ask?

Joe Vu is the owner of the ugliest face in the Angel clubhouse, no small contest to win. He is an inanimate object--again, not a first in the Angel clubhouse--and he belongs to Luis Polonia, who asserts that Vu possesses magical powers.

“I believe in Joe Vu,” says Polonia, who bought the foot-high plastic troll during a road stop in Milwaukee. “Joe Vu has some luck. I put him in Jimmy’s locker last night. You need to do it a day in advance, to make sure the powers start working.”

For Abbott, 0-4 with a 6.00 earned-run average before Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, it had come to this. Polonia, who could use Joe Vu on certain fly balls directed toward left field, had designated Abbott as the Angels’ foremost charity case--a pitcher so desperate, voodoo gets consideration as a logical solution.

“We got to put The Vu in the locker of somebody who’s really struggling,” Polonia said. “You’re not going to give him to somebody who’s 5-0, 5-1, 7-2. Chuck Finley, he don’t need Joe Vu.”

Listening in, Junior Felix, the Angels’ .187-hitting center fielder, nodded and said, “Yeah, he’s going in my locker tomorrow.”

The only Angel to have a worse week than Abbott was Mike Port. Abbott began it last Sunday by losing for the fourth time in four starts, 7-3 to the Oakland Athletics, surrendering eight hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. Then, the deluge--radio talk shows and newspaper columns advocating the demotion of Abbott to the minors for a tuneup and replacing him with Joe Grahe, Mike Fetters, Floyd Bannister, Fernando, Bo Belinsky or Reid Ryan.

“It was like wildfire,” said a frowning Abbott. “It seemed to take on a life of its own. . . .

“I don’t want to knock anybody, but I think it’s an easy angle. You look at the stats and say, ‘Hmm, who’s not doing well? Abbott? OK, let’s send him to the minors.’ That’s just looking at stats. That’s easy. I don’t think that’s being very creative.”

Again, Sunday, the stats were not good for Abbott. He pitched 5 2/3 innings, he gave up eight hits and two walks, he allowed four runs, he committed a balk.

He also won, 6-4, the best stat he’s had all season.

Joe Vu to the rescue?

Well, some magic was involved.

Gary Gaetti hit a three-run home run--and when’s the last time anyone did that for Abbott?

The Angels put together a six-run inning for Abbott. Last year, the Angels scored six runs behind Abbott only four times in 33 starts.

Polonia, even, made a spectacular catch--running back to rob Tim Hulett, over the shoulder, of extra bases in the second inning.

“The guys were scoring runs and making plays,” Abbott said. “Today was my worst game of the year--I struggled all day, I threw the ball all over the place--and I won. It’s a strange game.”

For 3 1/2 innings, it was typical Abbott. He served up two runs in the first inning, placed eight runners on base and threw megaloads of pitches--17 during one at-bat by Chris Hoiles, 12 of them foul balls.

“I’d never seen an at-bat like that in my life,” Abbott said. “I saw about 10 beach balls come out while (Hoiles) was up there.”

Atypical Abbott: In the bottom of the fourth, Luis Sojo leads off with a single, Wally Joyner follows with a double and Gaetti tees off on the first pitch he sees, sending it 406 feet and over the center-field fence.

“John Orton was sitting next to me that inning and said, ‘We’re gonna get you 10 runs,’ ” Abbott said. “I told him I’d just about sell my soul for 10 runs. And just then, Gaetti hits his home run.”

Abbott can take his soul off the market. The Angels tailed off after six runs, but that one inning--plus 3 1/3 by the Angels’ bullpen--finally enabled him to re-experience the joy of winning. For now, Edmonton can wait.

“I don’t see any benefit at all,” Abbott said of his proposed pass through customs. “If I go down there and win a few games, all that’s going to prove is what I’ve thought all along. I’m a quality pitcher in this league and I think I can help this team win.”

Abbott’s young, and he’s sensitive, so when the free advice started flying, he approached Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, in quest of truth and inner peace.

“I went up to Lach and said, ‘Is it still there?’ ” Abbott said. “He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘It’s there.’ I told him about what I’d heard on the radio and he just turned and walked away. He said, ‘You don’t listen to those people.’ ”

Lachemann insists a demotion for Abbott was “never discussed. It was never brought up. . . . The things Jimmy needs to learn to pitch on the major league level have to be worked on at the major league level.

“I think if you look at the first three years in Chuck Finley’s major league career and you look at Jimmy’s two-plus years, you’ll see a lot of similarities. Jimmy’s just a kid learning how to pitch. He’s going to keep learning here. He’s going to win here.”

Polonia apparently feels the same way because seconds after the postgame media huddle formed around Abbott’s locker, Polonia sprinted over, crouched down, reached in and stole Joe Vu back.

“I don’t want to get into the habit of loaning him out,” Polonia said, taking precaution against any and all future slumps. “I don’t want to let it help everybody else and forget about me.”