Relaxed Port Is Generally Managing OK : Baseball: He still roots for the Angels, but he isn’t ready to talk about his firing yet.

It’s slightly past noon on a game day, and Mike Port is looking forward to an Angel victory.

In that respect, nothing has changed.

But Port’s car is in the driveway of his home in San Clemente and not in the space once reserved for him at Anaheim Stadium. He is wearing a plaid shirt and jeans instead of a business suit, and his chair is a yellow upholstered swivel rocker next to the fireplace in his living room. In front of him is a coffee table, not a desk piled with scouting reports.

If it feels strange to him to be unemployed after more than six years as the Angels’ general manager, if it feels odd to be sitting on a plush chair instead of the hot seat, he won’t say so.

“There are worse places in the world to be sitting,” Port said, smiling.

Port has been sitting silently since last Tuesday, when Angel President Richard Brown announced that he had fired Port, among other reasons, because of Port’s failure to communicate with him. Port wouldn’t respond to Brown’s contentions then and declined to comment again Monday, but repeated his intention of stating his case once additional time has passed.

Not commenting is his choice, he said, and not a condition imposed on him when he was dismissed.

“Right now, I’m not inclined to say anything,” he said. “I’m just interested in seeing the Angels win. Perhaps at some point I’ll comment.”

He did say he “hadn’t studied or given any thought” to the possibility that his dismissal was destined to happen once Brown was elevated to the club presidency and became Port’s superior last November. “I’m always looking forward and I’m 150% for Gene Autry and the Angels and the fans,” he said.

Autry, the Angels’ owner, was among the many callers he has heard from since last Tuesday. Not that he has been waiting by the phone for calls or job offers, he said. After tending to some personal business last week, he has been doing “general maintenance projects” around his house, things that didn’t get done when he put in long hours at the stadium or on the road.

“Gene has always been very gracious and will always be the No. 1 person in my book,” Port said. “There are a lot of very, very nice and gracious people in the world and an awful lot in baseball, and I’ve heard from the media, from agents, from quite a few players. One of the great things about baseball is the people who are involved in the game. Since last Tuesday, nothing has changed that.

“The players (who expressed regrets over his firing), they’re all good friends. It’s been extremely gratifying to hear what they’ve had to say, yes. Probably something a lot of people don’t realize is that the group we--well, not we, the Angels--have on the field are very capable in terms of performance and extremely good people. That includes the manager, the coaching staff and the players.

“There’s an old adage, you can’t hit, run and throw for them,” Port said. “They can do that very capably and for fine tuning, Dan O’Brien is there and we worked very closely. We’ve gotten the players there and they’re in capable hands under Doug (Rader) and the coaches. If they perform to their capability, people will have baseball involvement in the Anaheim area further into October this year.”

Notable by omission from Port’s list was Brown. And when asked if he felt he had been treated fairly, Port hedged.

“Again, Gene Autry, people have said he’s a legend in his own time and I will always consider it one of my greatest privileges to have worked for him,” Port said. “But I would not be able to pursue the question beyond that.”

Port said he’s not in a position to comment on whether he’s pursuing another job or whether he will look into opportunities afforded by impending National League expansion.

“Anything is possible,” he said.

He also pointed out that his home “is halfway between Anaheim and San Diego. They play baseball there, too, in that other league.”

His immediate plans don’t include brooding.

“My next endeavor will be purchasing a little flower that squirts water,” he joked, referring to criticism of the serious demeanor he displayed during much of his tenure, a manner that masked his humor and wit.

“One of the easiest things in life is the old adage of whether you look at something as being the glass half full or the glass half empty. I think it’s half full. I think that’s the perspective to hold.”