Without Reserve, Gallagher Is His Own Angel : Baseball: Willful outfielder quit in minor leagues and still harbors a grudge from Chicago days.

Dave Gallagher, an Angel outfielder and one of the leaders of a group of spirited reserves, is too friendly to be a loner. But when he uncovers a reason, he will go his own way in a heartbeat.

Take 1987, when Gallagher left baseball, flying home to New Jersey from a triple-A game in Vancouver. It was August, and he was hitting .306 for the Calgary Cannons. But after almost eight seasons in the minors and four in triple A, he had decided that he would set a deadline and then face facts.

“I gave myself until mid-August,” said Gallagher, who had made his major league debut that season in a 15-game stint with the Cleveland Indians. “I didn’t want to finish the season and then have to decide. I flew home from Vancouver all the way to New Jersey on Aug. 15. It was really a great feeling. I tell people that and they say, ‘What! You were done!’ But it was the first time I felt like I was making the decision about my future.”

He found his way back into baseball the next season, when the Chicago White Sox invited him to spring training. He ended up hitting .303 in 101 games for the White Sox, finishing fifth in the voting for American League rookie of the year.

His will to do things a little differently is still with him.

You can see it in the way he plays center field, where he and Max Venable have been filling in for Junior Felix, who has played in only 43 of the Angels’ 87 games because of a calf injury.

Gallagher makes up for a lack of speed with meticulous positioning.

He has made himself a good outfielder by learning to read angles on fly balls and running to spots, rather than running with his eye on the ball the whole time. He wouldn’t teach it, but it works for him.

“If you know the hitter, you know the count and you know what pitch is being thrown, you have the best chance you can,” he said.

“I don’t have the speed of Gary Pettis or Devon White. If I’m positioned and placed in a spot, I become a very mediocre outfielder.”

Gallagher also has done well at the plate, batting .291 despite a two-for-18 slide.

With Felix, 23, batting .259 and Venable at .238, the argument can be made that Gallagher would serve the Angels well as the everyday center fielder. Gallagher, 30, doesn’t dwell on it.

“When I started the season, I knew my role,” Gallagher said. “I don’t think it’s changed.”

The biggest change in a career with its share of turns came in his time with Chicago.

Trouble started with contract negotiations after his first season there. The White Sox offered a four-year contract. Gallagher was uncomfortable that it was not guaranteed and would have taken away his first year of eligibility for arbitration.

Negotiations with the White Sox grew into a dispute, and Gallagher filed a grievance through the Major League Baseball Players Assn.

Gallagher played in all 161 games with the White Sox in 1989. The next season, he was injured, lost his position and was released while batting .280. The Baltimore Orioles claimed him Aug. 1 and traded him to the Angels last December.

Gallagher says the Chicago episode was damaging.

“I’ve always been very realistic about my abilities,” he said. “That was more frustrating than anything else--that what I’d worked to build up for so long was pretty much thrown away.

“(Still,) I’d do it all again. I teach my kids the same way--if it’s wrong, fight it.”