Darkest Hour Getting Darker for the Angels

I am sitting here trying to imagine the sales pitch for the Angels’ 1993 season ticket campaign.

“Come On Out To The Big AAA.”

Or maybe:

“Learn To Love Us All Over Again. We’ll Put Names On The Backs Of The Uniforms And Everything.”

Or:

“We Still Have Langston!”

Or:

“Come And See Our Brash Young Guns . . . Before They Start Making More Than The Major League Minimum And We Have To Trade Them Away.”

Then again, maybe the Angels won’t even bother.

With the possible exception of Jack Snow, I see very few potential season ticket buyers out there now, in the wake of the Jim Abbott fiasco, which qualifies as the franchise’s darkest hour since the Bryan Harvey fiasco, which qualified as the franchise’s darkest hour since the Kyle Abbott fiasco, which qualified as the franchise’s darkest hour since the Wally Joyner fiasco.

And the only way I see that changing is the day two million former Angel fans pick up their morning newspaper to read the headline that will herald the liberation of Orange County:

Autrys Announce Plans To Sell Angels

From Brea to San Clemente, they’re counting down the days--as they sadly cross out the face of another favorite player from the Angels’ team photo.

In Gene and Jackie Autry, the Angels have a pair of owners who no longer wish to own. Not in the early-’90s sense of paying outfielders as if they were Michael Keaton--$7 million for six months on location--and living with the reality of arbitration and competing for the ever-tightening entertainment dollar from a more sophisticated (read: less gullible) sports fans.

Changing your uniform just doesn’t get it done anymore, Gene.

It used to be fun. Gene would invite Richard Nixon or Pat Buttram up to the owner’s box, slap Jim Fregosi on the back and tell old baseball stories in the dugout. The good old days.

But then came John D’Acquisto and Bill Travers. And 1982 and 1986. The fans became jaded. The players became entrepreneurs. The player agents became royal pains in the saddle sores.

Fed up and tired, Gene handed the reins over to Jackie and Richard Brown in the fall of 1990. Then he settled back, strangely detached, to watch the fall of the 1990s.

Longtime buddy Whitey Herzog, enlisted by Autry 15 months ago to clean up this here mess, has instead become part of the problem, one more megabucks bust. Since assuming the title of Senior Vice President, Player Personnel, Herzog has presided mainly over the departure of his key personnel--Joyner, Dave Winfield, Kirk McCaskill, Harvey, Junior Felix, one Abbott and, now, two Abbotts.

What did Jim Abbott mean to the Angels?

The Angels, as always, didn’t even have a clue.

Here was the embodiment of what Gene Autry once wanted his Angels to be--bright, talented, personable, charismatic and home-grown. Unlike many of his teammates, he overcame a handicap rather than inventing one. Unlike more of his teammates, he contributed to the community, rather than skimming the cream from it.

Almost by himself, Abbott restored pride and dignity to the notion of “being an Angel.” He was easily Autry’s most popular player since Nolan Ryan--Wally World was essentially a two-year wonder--and, because of his inspirational life story, he was among the top five most valuable commodities in the game.

And Herzog let him go for three minor leaguers.

You keep looking at the Angels’ side of the trade and you keep asking yourself, “Where are the players to be named later?”

Where is Bernie Williams?

Where is Gerald Williams?

Where is any Williams, or any center fielder by any other name--Herzog’s stated linchpin to any deal involving Abbott?

This is what the Angels got in exchange for one of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball, and the best one-handed pitcher of all-time:

First baseman J.T. Snow, best known for being Jack Snow’s son.

Right-handed pitcher Russ Springer, best known for being Ben McDonald’s college teammate.

Left-handed pitcher Jerry Nielsen, best known for not being Jim Abbott.

Right now, the Angels are looking at a starting rotation of Mark Langston, Chuck Finley, Julio Valera, Springer and Bert Blyleven. Kyle Abbott might have made a better fourth starter, but Herzog traded him for Von Hayes. Joe Grahe might make a better fifth starter, but Buck Rodgers needs him in the bullpen because the Angels left Harvey unprotected in the expansion draft.

And that lineup?

Read it and weep:

1B--Snow.

2B--Luis Sojo.

3B--Damion Easley.

SS-Gary DiSarcina.

C--John Orton.

LF--Chad Curtis.

CF--Kevin Flora.

RF--Tim Salmon.

DH-Luis Polonia.

Jaywalker’s Row.

The Autry front office, however, looks at the same lineup and sees it entirely differently. What it sees:

1B--$109,000 (the major-league minimum).

2B--$180,000 in ’92.

3B--$109,000 in ’92.

SS--$117,500 in ’92.

C--$130,000 in ’92.

LF--$109,000 in ’92.

CF--$109,000 in ’93.

RF--$109,000 in ’93.

DH--$1.6 million in ’92.

What it thinks:

“Gee, we better do something about designated hitter.”

If Angel fans are up on their current events, they have seen this kind of thing before. And it is encouraging.

Houston, 1990-91: Owner John McMullen guts his payroll by trading away every Astro anyone has ever heard of, thus lowering overhead for an eventual sale of the team to Drayton McClane Jr.

Houston, late 1992: McClane doles out free-agent contracts to Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell and the Astros are contenders again in the National League West.

The Angels are halfway there. Already, the Autrys have sold out the franchise. From there, selling it altogether ought to be a very small jump.

Until then, the Angels have season ticket slogans to devise. So herewith is another suggestion, offered entirely free of charge:

We Finally Found A Way To Get Jim Abbott Some Runs.