Handing Back Angels’ Reins : Wathan Steps Down for Rodgers

He won’t miss the days--and there were many--when managing the Angels consumed him, or the nights when games gone wrong gnawed at his insides while worry about the next game began to nibble at the edge of his consciousness.

“The hardest part of managing is making the lineup out every day,” John Wathan said. “That’s a relief in itself, not having to write the lineup out.”

Wathan, named the club’s interim manager after Buck Rodgers was injured in the team’s May 21 bus crash, relinquishes his job today with no regrets. He also professes to have no “burning desire” to manage again, having experienced the frustrations of being the boss and only rarely--and recently--experienced the rewards.

For more than three months, while Rodgers recovered from surgery on his elbow and knee and progressed from wheelchair to crutches to cane and finally to independence, Wathan managed Rodgers’ team with as much of Rodgers’ aggressive strategy as he could muster.

Soft-spoken by nature, Wathan chose not to copy Rodgers’ natural ebullience; he might have wanted the same broad authority, but knew that couldn’t be his.

“Personnel moves were the one things I didn’t have say over,” Wathan said. “I didn’t really feel like I could say, ‘I don’t like that guy. I’d like to try something else,’ but I understand why that was because it really wasn’t my team.”

He made it clear he knew it wasn’t his permanent job. He refused to sit at Rodgers’ desk, dress at Rodgers’ locker or use Rodgers’ title. He had to guard against being perceived as too assertive, for fear of being accused of encroaching on Rodgers’ territory, while being strong enough to earn the players’ respect.

It was never an easy balancing act, and the painful slowness of Rodgers’ recovery made it the longest interim term since Mike Ferraro managed 74 games for the Royals in 1986 in place of the ailing Dick Howser. But tonight, when Rodgers returns to manage the Angels against the Boston Red Sox at Anaheim Stadium, Wathan can jump down from the tightrope he has walked through 36 victories and 49 losses and land in the safety net of a job as bench coach.

“Coaching is definitely an easier job. Coaching is not a 24-hour-a-day job,” said Wathan, who was the third base coach before Rodgers asked him to take over. “When you’re managing, I don’t think you ever get away from the game. As soon as the game is over, you’re thinking about the next day’s lineup and trying to get an idea who’s going to play. As a coach, you don’t have that much to think about and your duties are pretty evenly divided. You have to make sure it’s all coordinated.

“Obviously, as a coach, you have more time with the players and you don’t have to talk to the press. As a manager, you’re on the phone a lot and when you get to the park, you want to talk to the players and you have a lot of things to do. It’s just more time-consuming, thinking about how you can get better, thinking about the triple-A team and who you might want to call up, thinking about how to get a guy out of a slump, whether this guy needs a rest. . .

“I want to manage again but it would have to be the right opportunity. I’m very happy here doing what I’m doing. I like what I’m doing and I like the organization. But if the right situation came along, I’d have to consider it. Managing is not always fun, but it’s rewarding when you can do something to help somebody get better or help the team win. Everybody needs a challenge.”

Wathan got a huge challenge with the Angels. When he took over, the team was 4 1/2 games out of first place in the AL West, but a 2-7 slide dropped its record to 19-20. The team he hands back to Rodgers today is 58-70, 18 1/2 games out, and hoping a late rush can result in a fourth-place finish or match last season’s .500 record.

The team Wathan took over had a .255 batting average and 3.65 earned-run average; the team he returns to Rodgers has a league-low .245 batting average and 3.97 ERA. The team Wathan inherited had Von Hayes in right field, Hubie Brooks hitting cleanup, Alvin Davis as an occasional first baseman and Bryan Harvey as the closer; Brooks and Harvey were lost to injuries and Hayes and Davis have since been released.

Perhaps most important, the team Wathan inherited was more shaken by the bus accident than bruises and sprains would suggest. There’s no telling whether Rodgers would have pulled them out of their downward spiral if the bus had stayed on the road, but both Wathan and Rodgers now see the irreparable harm done by the crash.

“I thought he did a very good job,” Rodgers said. “The first month after I left was a very tough time for everybody. Who knows if anybody could have carried through that traumatic time? He’s done a very good job and that’s obvious in the way we’ve played the last month. After the accident, the trauma, everyone was shaken. That took us out of the race. Especially the first couple of weeks, there was a devastating effect.”

Said Wathan: “At first I said no (in denying the accident’s effects) because I didn’t want anybody to dwell on it. Looking back, it had more effect than I thought. Everybody was shook up. You go 0 for 4 or pitch a bad ballgame and maybe you say, ‘This is not that important,’ when you look around and see bus accidents or other things in the world around you. We were playing poorly when it happened, but I don’t think we would have played as bad for as long as we did if it hadn’t happened.”

From May 10 through June 10, the Angels lost 22 of 27 games. They rebounded for a bit before succumbing to an 11-game losing streak from June 28 through July 10. “If we could have played .400 ball, .300 ball during those streaks, we’d be all right,” Wathan said. “We just went through a long period where we didn’t hit and we didn’t pitch. During the streak we hit .190 and our ERA was over 5.”

Not even Rodgers, who worked miracles with some mediocre Montreal teams and had the Angels playing well in the early weeks this season, might have been able to do much with that mess.

“John did a great job,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “He had one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever seen anyone have. My hat’s off to him for the way he handled it.”

But . . .

“There’s no one else like Buck,” DiSarcina said. “He has his own energetic personality. He’s always upbeat and I’m sure he’s going to be extra upbeat because he realizes he got a second chance to manage and it was almost taken away from him. It’s going to be a big lift for us and for him.”

Rodgers will benefit from the youth movement begun while Wathan was managing--the promotions of right fielder Tim Salmon and third baseman Damion Easley. He’ll also get a healthier and more consistent Chuck Finley, an impressive new closer in starter-turned-reliever Joe Grahe, and a team that’s 23-18 since the All-Star break and optimistic about its prospects.

“We’ve had a lot more success the last six or seven weeks and that, coupled with the fact those kids have come up and performed well, gives us hope,” Wathan said. “If you’re losing with guys you don’t have much future with, it can be grim. But you see Easley and Salmon and the young pitchers and you feel there’s a bright spot ahead. It’s not that help is on the horizon, it’s that help is here. . . .

“I’d much rather finish the way we’re going now than the reverse (how they started). If we’d finished the way we started, I’d be feeling real bad right now.”