Joyner’s Move Will Help Make His Career

Wally Joyner could have had $16 million. He took $4.2 million instead.

Wally Joyner could have had a four-year contract. He took one year instead.

Wally Joyner could have stayed at home, in Yorba Linda, in the Land of Gracious Living, where his young family already has roots and his office is but a quick commute down the 57 Freeway. He took Kansas City instead.

Wally Joyner just made the smartest decision of his professional life.

Monday was Joyner’s emancipation proclamation. Free at last, free at last, thanks to Herk Robinson and Hal McRae, he’s free at last. After six years on the treadmill to oblivion, Joyner now will get to sample what any player worth his salt wants out of the Angels.

Which is, out of the Angels.

Nolan Ryan left and became an American icon, leaving behind past comparisons with Walter Johnson and Sandy Koufax for a more suitable group: Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln.

Don Baylor left and played in three World Series.

Devon White left and made the playoffs within a year.

Chili Davis left and won a diamond ring within a year.

Two kinds of baseball players pass through here, hexed Angels and ex-Angels, and Joyner knows his history. Six seasons, the last five with Octobers off, give a guy ample time to study. The pot-of-gold potential to such a move was learned by watching Davis, White and the others. The route was learned by watching Bob Boone.

By the end of the 1988 season, Boone was a highly valuable member of the Angels, a highly popular name with the fans and highly annoyed with his treatment by Angel management. One year, Boone won a Gold Glove and was told to take a pay cut; he had to drag the Angels into arbitration to keep his salary at its previous level.

Boone was the first to find sanctuary in Kansas City--and the first to flee in economy class. Boone jumped the Angels for $1. Boone became a Royal for a $1 raise; Joyner becomes a Royal for a one-year contract. One might be the loneliest number, but it’s gaining popularity among fed-up Angels searching for the only way out.

Mike Port took the blame for Boone, a framing device that led to his firing 2 1/2 years later. At the time, Gene Autry claimed to be outraged.

This time, Autry has no one to blame. Gene and Jackie, this was an Autry production from here to Missouri. As late as Sunday, Joyner said he wanted to sign with the Angels. Whitey Herzog wanted Joyner to sign with the Angels. Buck Rodgers wanted Joyner to sign with the Angels. The dissenting vote was cast by the Autrys, who have fallen out of affection for Joyner for several reasons, some real and some downright bizarre.

The real: Yes, Joyner doesn’t run out enough ground balls in September and, yes, his image is often too clean--right down to the smudgeless, stainless gleam of his uniform top and pants. Too frequently, Joyner saved his charisma for his commercial TV spots and failed to spread it around a starving clubhouse. Tutored well by Reggie Jackson, Joyner became a me-first player, which didn’t make him unique among Angels, yet the Autrys chose him to hold it against.

The bizarre: According to Herzog, the Autrys believe Joyner failed to fulfill his role as team leader by failing to play hurt. Their evidence: The last four games of the 1986 playoffs. Joyner didn’t play in any of those games--and where was he? Flat on his back in a hospital bed, with doctors scratching their heads over a leg infection that hurt only when he walked and drained him of his strength, rendering Joyner as useful to the Angels as a broken bat.

You call that an excuse?

Someone should have wheeled Wally up to home plate, IV hanging out of his arm, so he could have hit one out for The Cowboy.

Who says this franchise continues to be obsessed by the specter of ‘86? Let it go, Gene, let it go.

Instead, Gene let Joyner go.

Thus, a stellar off-season continues for the Angels’ revamped and refocused front-office team. A glance at the scoreboard so far:

Losses

1. Dave Winfield, who led the team in home runs last season, who finished second in RBIs and slugging percentage, who wasn’t re-signed after the season because he was considered expendable.

2. Bobby Bonilla, the free-agent outfielder Dennis Gilbert dangled in front of the Angels so he could drive up the price he knew the Mets would eventually pay.

3. Any working relationship Herzog might have had with Gilbert, who also represents Danny Tartabull, the silver medalist on the Angels’ right-field wish list.

4. Kyle Abbott, the team’s No. 1 draft choice in 1989 and the organization’s top pitching prospect.

5. Ruben Amaro Jr., another prospect who batted .326 while playing in Edmonton’s outfield last season.

6. Joyner, the best position player ever developed by the Angels’ farm system and the best all-around player the 1991 Angels had, to a division rival.

Gains

1. Von Hayes, who batted .225 with no home runs in 1991, who hasn’t batted better than .261 since 1988, who will turn 34 in 1992.

Mike Port, all is forgiven.

Once, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Joyner would leave the Angels just as soon as his six years of conscription were up. The contract wars of ’87 and ’88 had inflicted too many casualties for any post-’91 armistice--that was the long-running assumption.

But Joyner and Port developed a weird, grudging admiration through their annual arm-wrestling--at least they knew what to expect--to the point where Joyner criticized the Angels for their dismissal of Port and refused to negotiate with his successor, Dan O’Brien.

With Herzog as point man, Joyner was as good as re-signed twice in the past two weeks. Both times, ownership vetoed the agreement. Old memories came rushing back, old wounds were re-opened, and if the Autrys enacted the first step toward separation, Joyner was sharp enough to take the second.

Joyner spent six seasons with the Angels and was nothing less than outstanding in half of them, 1991 included, which is about three seasons more than most Angels. Never mind the near-miss in ‘86; Joyner was the reason the Angels got to the door. He became a hero when the Angels were losing all of theirs to old age, and if he couldn’t sustain the promise of his breakthrough, he remained an asset on a team generally overwhelmed by its debits.

Joyner cried as he said his goodbys to the Angels Monday, but no one should spend one second feeling sorry for him. If history holds, Joyner’s career is about to take off.

Wally World Is Kansas City-Bound

When Wally Joyner signed a $4.2 million free-agent contract Monday with the Kansas City Royals, it ended a six-year love affair between the first baseman and Anaheim Stadium fans and the annual salary hassle between Joyner and Angel management.

Year Club Avg. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB 1983 Peoria .328 192 25 63 16 2 3 33 19 1984 Waterbury .317 467 81 148 24 7 12 72 67 1985 Edmonton .283 477 68 135 29 5 12 73 60 1986 Angels .290 593 82 172 27 3 22 100 57 1987 Angels .285 564 100 161 33 1 34 117 72 1988 Angels .295 597 81 176 31 2 13 85 55 1989 Angels .282 593 78 167 30 2 16 79 46 1990 Angels .268 310 35 83 15 0 8 41 41 1991 Angels .301 551 79 166 34 3 21 96 52 Minor Totals .305 1136 174 346 69 14 27 178 146 Major Totals .288 3208 455 925 170 11 114 518 323

Year SO 1983 25 1984 60 1985 64 1986 58 1987 64 1988 51 1989 58 1990 34 1991 66 Minor Totals 149 Major Totals 331

July, 1983--Selected in third round of the free-agent draft and assigned to Peoria in Class-A Midwest League.

Spring, 1986--After three minor league seasons in which he averaged .305, was promoted to the Angels’ roster at the major league minimum $65,000 salary.

March 5, 1987--After .290, 100 RBI rookie season and a threat to walk out of spring training camp, signed $165,000 contract.

March 10, 1988--Angels renewed his contract at $340,000--highest figure offered by club--after the principals couldn’t agree on his worth.

Feb. 4, 1989--Signed one-year contract for $920,000, three days before dispute was to be heard by arbitrator.

Feb. 6, 1990--Arbitrator Donald Sears ruled in favor of Joyner and awarded him one-year contract of $1.75 million. Club’s offer was $1.225 million.

Feb. 9, 1991--Arbitrator Gil Vernon ruled in favor of Joyner and awarded him one-year contract of $2.1 million. Club’s offer was $1.65 million.

Dec. 9, 1991--As a free agent, signed one-year contract for $4.2 million with Kansas City Royals.