COMMENTARY : Is This Mess Really Rader’s Fault?

Are the Angels as good as they think they are--or thought they were?

Can a justifiable case be made for firing Doug Rader, placing the blame for a disappointing season on the manager?

These are tough questions that resist easy answers just as the Angels refused to provide definitive ones Wednesday when there was rampant speculation that an 8-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins may have represented a last hurrah for Rader as the club’s manager.

Is Buck Rodgers--or Whitey Herzog or Gene Mauch--about to replace Rader?

Could it happen today, an off-day before the start of a weekend series against the Oakland Athletics at Anaheim Stadium?

No, Rader won’t be fired today, said Senior Vice President Dan O’Brien, who refused to go beyond today regarding Rader’s status.

At best, despite a contract extending through 1992, it seems tenuous.

Is he to blame for the Angels’ second-half collapse, their residence in the basement of the American League West, or would this be another change for the sake of change, an attempt by management to shift the responsibility?

Questions, again:

--Is it Rader’s fault that a team built on the home run ranks 12th in the league in that department, despite the three homers the Angels hit Wednesday?

--Is it Rader’s fault that management failed to aggressively pursue a fifth starter, the result being that the No. 5 starters have compiled a 1-11 record?

--Is it Rader’s fault that the Angels seem to have succumbed to an old adversary, the good life of Orange County?

As Reggie Jackson noted when he was a member of the Angels, the comfort level is such that there is no sense of the nitty-gritty in Anaheim, none of the “get ready to rumble” atmosphere that players tend to experience in the humid East, where fans are likely to punch each other, rather than a rainbow-colored beach ball.

Angel players, Jackson liked to say, constantly have to fight off the laid-back atmosphere to make sure they gear up through self-motivation, but it’s a fight that the 1991 Angels seem to have lost.

They are 25-31 at home, having scored three or fewer runs 30 times, losing 25 of those games.

This is a team that management has repeatedly said was good enough to win a pennant, but was it?

Jackie Autry, the wife of Angel owner Gene Autry and a power in the front office, seemed to put a new perspective on that when she said: “The club you see on the field was put together by (former general manager) Mike Port and by Mr. and Mrs. Autry. This is a joint effort. If there is to be blame, then the blame rests with us. And we missed something. What it is, I don’t know, but we missed something.”

And Rader’s role in the blame?

“I really can’t respond to that because I’m not down in the clubhouse,” she said. “I don’t know what Doug is saying to the guys. I know Doug is a very intense, competitive man. I may have on occasion second-guessed some of the moves he either made or didn’t make during a game . . . but nowhere in the world can you second-guess something as well as you can second-guess baseball.”

There are two areas where Rader might be vulnerable--areas that those firing him might cite in an attempt to justify their case:

--While his transformation from the short-tempered, fire-breathing, player-rapping manager of the Texas Rangers is to be applauded on a personal level, he may have gone too far the other way as the Angel manager.

Always supportive and protective of the Angels, he may have done too much coddling when, at times, a kick in the pants seemed in order.

As pitcher Jim Abbott noted Wednesday: “If anyone lays blame on Doug Rader, they’ve got a lot of problems. Doug has made it as easy as possible to play here. Sometimes I think he needs to jump on our butts a little more.”

--In waiting for the home run, Rader may have too often disdained the bunt.

It is true, of course, that Wally Joyner, Dave Winfield, Dave Parker, Gary Gaetti and Lance Parrish have seldom been forced to play that game and, to an extent, are station-to-station base-cloggers.

But there is something to be said for the element of surprise, and there is also a degree of speed in other areas of the lineup that hasn’t been frequently employed.

At one point in this 9-17 second half, the Angels went 11 games without a home run, often paying a price for their failure to advance or score a runner simply by making the right kind of out.

Is all of that Rader’s fault, or didn’t the front office, in the never-ending quest to win one for the Cowboy, build a lineup of power-hitters who have seldom been asked to adjust their approach.

If something was missing, as Jackie Autry suggested, it may have been an understanding of (1) the need for lineup chemistry, (2) the value and appeal of home-grown products coming up together, (3) the advantage in swallowing a year or two to build on youth rather than the annual influx of aging free agents and (4) the mental boost a second-half trade for a No. 5 starter might have provided.

If it all seems familiar, it should. The Angels have been here before: Faced with the prospect of another managerial firing in another lost August of another lost season.

Will it be deserved if it happens?

Another tough question without a clear answer.

The one certainty: Deserved may not have anything to do with it.

Fallen Angels

A week-by-week look at the Angels’ position in the American League West division: April 15 Record: 5-1 Games back: 0 April 22 Record: 8-5 Games back: .5 April 29 Record: 9-10 Games back: 3.5 May 6 Record: 12-12 Games back: 3 May 13 Record: 15-15 Games back: 3.5 May 20 Record: 20-17 Games back: 2.5 May 27 Record: 24-19 Games back: 2.5 June 3 Record: 28-21 Games back: 1 June 10 Record: 32-23 Games back: 1.5 June 17 Record: 33-28 Games back: 4 June 24 Record: 37-31 Games back: 4.5 July 1 Record: 41-33 Games back: 3 July 8 Record: 44-37 Games back: 2 July 15 Record: 45-40 Games back: 4 July 22 Record: 47-44 Games back: 7 July 29 Record: 50-47 Games back: 7 August 5 Record: 52-52 Games back: 10 August 8 Record: 53-54 Games back: 11