With Schofield Gone, Angels’ Infield of Future Is Out

U nconventional wisdom for a Monday morning . . .

Dick Schofield: The Angels’ infield of the ‘90s is now completely eradicated--and what does the home team have to show for it? Shawn Abner (traded for Jack Howell), Ron Tingley (traded for Mark McLemore) and now, Julio Valera. Schofield will help New York; he can catch the ball, which makes him a minority among Mets. As for Who-lio? Well, he’s younger than Schofield (23 to 29) and he’s a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher (117 strikeouts at Tidewater last year) and at this point, how can he hurt?

Those Angels: True, as Richard Brown says, the newspapers have been tough on the ’92 Angels--”as tough as I’ve seen in the past 12 years.” There are reasons for this. 1) The newspapers finally woke up. 2) No other Angel team in the past 12 years has had this kind of chance at 100 losses. 3) Wally Joyner. 4) Dave Winfield. 5) Von Hayes for Kyle Abbott. 6) This homestand. You’d have to be blind, clueless or on the take to look at this Angel team and call it a good one. The best Brown and the Angels can do between now and October is suck it up until the next round of free agents, play the kids and give daily thanks they aren’t conducting business in Philadelphia, New York or Boston. There, the newspapers slice up 100-game winners . The Autrys: Should they sell? Basic economic philosophy says no--one is supposed to sell high, not low--but who can put a price on peace of mind?

Pro hockey: Did you miss it? The answer to that question had to have opened some eyes around the NHL. L.A. has Gretzky, Pittsburgh has Lemieux, but the NHL’s relationship with the average American sports fan still doesn’t rank much higher than fragile. Strike during February and maybe someone would notice. Strike during the Final Four and the first week of the baseball season and it’s out of sight, out of mind, out of business. These were the first set of sports labor negotiations to be conducted with both sides’ backs to the wall.

Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers: Two more reasons for the NHL to settle. The league’s two biggest markets have good-to-excellent chances of reaching the Stanley Cup finals, assuming there are Stanley Cup playoffs. Throw away that once-in-75-years opportunity and they might as well move the league to Greenland.

Tom Webster: Perhaps the only man in the NHL sorry to see the strike end. In Algonquin, the name “Webster” means, “Gee, do I have to coach?”

Duke: The experts who have already assigned the 1993 Final Four to Michigan, Indiana, Seton Hall and Kansas forget two things: Duke always goes, and Duke returns Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill and Thomas Hill, Antonio Lang and media-star-in-the-making Cherokee Parks. If the ’92 Blue Devils began and ended with Christian Laettner, they’d have never made it out of the semifinals.

Christian Laettner: As a pro, he’ll settle in somewhere between Danny Manning and Danny Ferry. No franchise player, but no franchise breaker, either.

NCAA tournament pools: Next year, go with the coaches. I did and, I humbly must report, I won. I had Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight in the Final Four, Randy Ayers and Rick Pitino in the final eight. Ever-successful side corollary: Go with the coach when he coaches against Jim Harrick.

Steve Fisher: Great piece of trivia making its way throughout the Metrodome press room before Monday night’s championship tipoff: If Fisher wins this one, he’ll have as many NCAA titles as Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski combined. As it stands, Fisher still has one more title than Bill Frieder, Lute Olson, Dale Brown and Nolan Richardson combined.

Rollie Massimino: The Big East keeps moving west--Rod Baker to UC Irvine one year, Massimino to Nevada Las Vegas the next. Who’s on deck? Jim Boeheim? He can recruit in Orange County (LeRon Ellis, Mike Hopkins), which certainly should have appealed to Cal State Fullerton, except Fullerton just got rid of a coach whose teams knew how to underachieve.

Brad Holland: He inherits a center (Sean Williams), a small forward (Bruce Bowen), a point guard (Aaron Sunderland), a team impressed by his 1980 NBA championship ring and a date on the schedule with UCLA. Ironically, the biggest need for Holland the coach is Holland the player. Finding the old shooting guard a new one will be the crux of Holland’s first recruiting campaign at Fullerton.

“White Men Can’t Jump”: Tell it to Dwight Stones.

“The Babe”: John Goodman had to lose weight to play the title role. The working definition of Out Of Shape.

Nolan Ryan: The legs are the first things to go, obviously.

The Expos: Montreal today, Buffalo tomorrow? And if the moving vans head that way, how does that solve Expo Problem No. 1--all the best players flying south for the summer? Never mind the Bisons. You can call them the Buffalo Wings.

The Rams: They keep talking about trading down, but the list of instant-impact defensive players ends at four (Washington defensive tackle Steve Emtman, Pittsburgh defensive end Sean Gilbert, Texas A&M; linebacker Quentin Coryatt and Wisconsin cornerback Troy Vincent). Picking third guarantees you one. Picking sixth guarantees you none.

Shaquille O’Neal: During a recent interview on radio station XTRA, the Lottery King was asked, “What kind of NBA team would you like to play for?” Replied Shaq: “A Los Angeles Laker kind of team.” If that happens, if the Lakers land Ping Pong Ball No. 1, you can launch the investigation yesterday. Send the next Chamberlain where he’s needed most, to someplace truly destitute, and they’ll name the city after him. Say, Shaqramento.