Triumvirate Rules Mound : Three Angel Left-Handers Had Record Success Last Season

A bone in Chuck Finley’s left big toe had shattered into enough pieces to make a bracelet, his surgeon later told him, but Finley never asked to skip a pitching turn.

When Jim Abbott was 0-4, critics said he would benefit from going to triple-A Edmonton. Abbott then won 18 of 25 decisions and compiled a 2.89 earned-run average, fourth best in the American League.

After praying for strength during a nightmarish 1990 season, Mark Langston carried into 1991 the burden of justifying his five-year, $16-million contract. Adjustments in his delivery and in his philosophy helped him become the 10th Angel to win 19 games in a season.

Three dissimilar personalities share a drive that made each successful last season.

In 1991, Abbott (18-11), Finley (18-9) and Langston (19-8) became the first three left-handers in major league history to win 17 or more games for a team during the same season. With a combined record of 55-28, they had more victories than any three teammates in the majors--one more than Jack Morris (18-12), Scott Erickson (20-8) and Kevin Tapani (16-9) of the World Series champion Minnesota Twins.

“They’re all competitors, very good competitors in different ways,” said Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, who had so much faith in Abbott that he vowed to accompany the young pitcher to Edmonton, if he was sent out.

“They’re all relatively quiet competitors. They don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves out there, but the opposition definitely knows they’re out there to win. We’re very fortunate to have that kind of ability.”

That’s obvious to Manager Buck Rodgers.

“You see good arms in this game. They come and go,” he said. “The guys that are here for a long time are the guys that can combine that gutsy, bulldog instinct with talent.

“If you’re a major league pitcher, you’re not going to feel good every time out. You’re going to have aches, maybe an elbow that hurts, but you’ve got to go out and keep your team in the game. They do. One thing they’ve got in common is they’re all competitive. All three of those guys will take responsibility. They know they’re the guts of the ballclub.”

Even though he suffered the broken toe in April, Finley gave the Angels 227 1/3 innings. One turn was delayed three days, but that was the team’s decision. Often laboring after altering his delivery to protect his toe, his ERA ballooned from 2.40 to 3.80. He persevered, because he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“If I’m capable of going out and pitching, I’m going to do it,” he said. “I’m not going to try and use injuries for an excuse. I’ve never been that way. I didn’t think it would be anything that was going to have me hooked up to a pacemaker or an oxygen tent. I felt in my mind I was good enough to compete. There were ways to work around it. . . .

“I had people tell me, ‘I hope you bounce back.’ They’re used to seeing me dominating. The bottom line was when I went out there, in 85-90% of my starts, I kept the team in the game. I didn’t care if I threw a shutout. I went out there with the idea that I had to keep the game close.”

Finley won 18 games for the second consecutive season and earned his manager’s respect.

“It’s very unusual, in these days of long-term contracts and low thresholds for pain and extended days on the DL, that a guy would go out and pitch with that,” Rodgers said.

Finley, whose slow recovery from surgery on his toe in December might delay his first regular-season start, signed a four-year, $18.5-million contract days after his operation.

To his teammates, his attitude is as formidable as his ability.

“Chuck goes right at people,” Langston said. “He’s a driven guy. It’s fun to see him pitch because he has a style I think I have or want to have.”

Langston’s style was to overpower hitters with his fastball, which enabled him to lead the American League in strikeouts three times while with the Seattle Mariners. When he began lifting his back foot off the pitching rubber, he lost his effectiveness, his confidence and 10 of 11 games through the spring and summer of 1990. He was booed at Anaheim Stadium.

“Expectations, that’s the most dangerous word in baseball--to live up to people’s expectations,” Abbott said of Langston’s trials. “It’s a testimony to the person Mark is how he handled it, that he never blamed anybody.”

With Lachemann’s help and tapes from his best seasons in Seattle, Langston won five of his last seven 1990 decisions. After rediscovering the premise that staying ahead in the count is essential, he carried his success over to 1991.

“Mentally I just had to get back to my style and be aggressive, go right at people,” he said. “I got whacked around a little bit, and I started becoming a defensive pitcher. You don’t even realize it’s happening. You think you’re aggressive, but when you look back, you say, ‘I wasn’t.’ . . .

“(Fans) had the right to boo. They were paying their money and it’s their prerogative. They had no reason to cheer or get excited. I never got disappointed about that as much as with the way things were going.”

Rodgers saw little that disappointed him after replacing Doug Rader as manager late in the season.

“He’s got a little less on his fastball than early in his career, but he’s a better pitcher now,” said Rodgers, who managed Langston briefly in Montreal in 1989. “He uses all four of his pitches, and he’s a more mature pitcher than when he was younger.”

Lachemann, whose philosophy with an established pitcher is “basically to leave him alone to do what he does best,” agreed that Langston has proved his mettle.

“Mark’s always been a competitor,” he said. “He showed that as much the year he was 10-17 as the year he was 19-8. This game is very easy to play when you’re doing well and having a great year. He took all his starts and pitched all his innings. He probably showed himself and his teammates as much in 1990 as last year.”

After a 12-12 rookie season and a 10-14 record in 1990, Abbott joined the league’s elite. Until Rodgers became the Angels’ manager, he had watched Abbott only from afar. But up close, his respect for Abbott has grown.

“He’s a tremendous competitor, and he has no handicap when it comes to baseball,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, last year was a real turning point. He learned a lot, and he learned it at the major league level, which is pretty tough to do.

“Probably the low point was last year when there was considerable thought given to sending him to the minor leagues. When Lach came up with the idea of not sending him, it was a tremendous idea. . . . A year later, he’s considered one of the top pitchers in the American League, (whereas) he could have been coming in here trying to be the fourth or fifth pitcher.”

It never occurred to Abbott that he needed seasoning in Edmonton, even after he was 0-4 with a 6.00 ERA.

“I feel I had had a good spring, and a lot of positive things had happened,” he said. “In the first four games, I had two bad games, but in the other two I threw pretty well.”

His season reversed course with a day-off workout at Anaheim Stadium after his April 28 loss at Oakland.

“Rick Turner (bullpen catcher) and Lach came to the park,” Abbott said. “Lach really voiced his support and told me I had the ability. I just had to go out there and start throwing, use my ability, be myself. Once I got going, my confidence built.

“I won’t say (the 0-4 record) was a case of not getting the breaks, but I felt (the ability) was there and I had the support of my teammates. The people who were questioning me didn’t know what they were talking about.”

His teammates questioned only why anyone would question him.

“He’s always had the ability to overpower people with his cut fastball and fastball, inside to right-handers and away to left-handers,” catcher Lance Parrish said. “But he had a little problem being consistent on the outside part of the plate. In his first two years, it was something he was working on, and last year he really got over the hump and was able to hit that part of the plate consistently.”

That showed in his personal-best 158 strikeouts in 243 innings. His ERA in his last 17 starts was 2.38, and opponents batted .222 against him during that stretch. He probably led the league in inducing broken-bat outs, so often did he get the ball in on batters’ hands.

Abbott gently jibed reporters after one of his victories: “Still think I should go to Edmonton?”

Said Abbott: “It was satisfying. I was real happy to back up the support I got from Lach and Doug (Rader) and the people who were there for me. It was nice to be able to prove them right.”

Proud of his success and content as a newlywed--he married Dana Douty of Fountain Valley in December--Abbott is enjoying a blissful time. With strong outings in spring training, 20 victories are a reasonable goal. He might have reached that last season, had relievers not blown four leads he left them.

“You can pitch very well and not get good results and get discouraged if you don’t win,” Abbott said. “And if you’re throwing poorly and get good results, you can say, ‘I’m OK,’ and run into trouble later. Every pitcher would love to win 20, but it takes a lot of luck.”