1992: THE YEAR IN REVIEW : From Eisner and His Bucks to Rodgers, 20 Who Mattered in ’92

Time again for the Orange County 20--the local sports figures who mattered the most, for better or worse, during the last 12 months. . . .

1. Michael Eisner. His mighty bucks made the NHL sit and roll over and gladly welcome a third round of expansion in as many years. Now, for the first time, Anaheim has a major sports professional franchise that didn’t have to be carjacked in Los Angeles and driven down the freeway. And what shall we call them? Anything but “Mighty Ducks,” right? Montreal Gazette columnist Michael Farber suggests a compromise: “Mighty Ducks L’Orange County.”

2. Jim Abbott. The Angels attempted to portray him as greedy, but the offer he declined (four years, $16 million) was substantially less than the contracts awarded John Smiley (four years, $18.5 million), Jimmy Key (four years, $17 million) and David Cone (three years, $18 million)--all awarded after Abbott was traded. Scott Boras, Abbott’s agent, knew what he was doing--and in those closed-door sessions with the Angels’ brass, he was the only one.

3. Jackie Autry. To the Scrooge-like financial policy-maker goes the heat. As far as all-time local opinion polls go, Dieter Brock is off the hook.

4. Whitey Herzog. From Baseball Genius to Jackie Autry’s hatchet man, it has been a sorry 15-month decline. Players lost under Herzog: Abbott, Bryan Harvey, Wally Joyner, Dave Winfield, Junior Felix, Kirk McCaskill, Mike Fetters, Kyle Abbott. Players gained under Herzog: Von Hayes, Hubie Brooks, Alvin Davis, Julio Valera, Kelly Gruber, Chili Davis and three maybes from the Yankees. Mike Port continues to look better by the week.

5. Chuck Knox. He doubled the Rams’ victory total in one year, from 3-13 and 6-10. Now, Chuck, one small request for 1993: Double it again.

6. Phil Nevin. Big West triple-crown winner, College World Series MVP, Golden Spikes Award winner, No. 1 draft choice, U.S. Olympian. It was quite a career, last year.

7. Buck Rodgers. His recovery and ebullient spirit were an inspiration during an Angel season in which everything else went wrong, including and especially bus trips.

8. Gene Murphy. If Division I-A football couldn’t make it with him, it wasn’t going to make it with anyone. Murphy achieved the unthinkable at Cal State Fullerton--a 12-0 season in 1984--but by October, 1992, he could no longer bear the red handwriting on the wall. And when he said, “Enough’s enough,” Fullerton football followed suit within weeks.

9. Janet Evans. So it wasn’t the windfall of Seoul ’88. It was still a gold medal, the only one that made it all the way back to Orange County. After Evans, the county’s main Olympic moment was Steve Timmons getting his haircut cut.

10. Bryan Harvey. Even if he doesn’t save a game for the Florida Marlins, his departure devastated the Angels. When Abbott saw Harvey cut loose--the team’s all-time save leader, left unprotected in the expansion draft--he began to wonder, and rightly so: Is this the place where I want to waste my youth?

11. Tiger Woods. He missed the cut at the L.A. Open, shooting 72 and 75, but the numbers that mattered were Tiger’s age--16 years two months. The tour could be in trouble when he gets out of high school.

12. Tim Carey. Orange County’s latest prep pass master, he led Los Alamitos to a rousing victory over archrival Esperanza in the mud, then oversaw a lackluster 14-14 tie on a dry field in the rematch. Bill Walsh, leave those sprinklers running.

13. Reggie Geary. His soaring rebounds and drives through the lane were the stuff that led Mater Dei High to the State championship game at 34-1. Then came Jason Kidd.

14. Cleveland Gary. The fumbles remain mightier than the 1,100 yards. He had a career season--and it might just be enough for him to lose his job to David Lang.

15. Jim Everett. He wasn’t as bad as he was in ‘91, he wasn’t as good as he was in ’89. Can the Rams live with the compromise? Knox says yes, but when did compromising ever win anyone a Super Bowl?

16. Jim Huffman. He fought what he considered the good fight and gained a partial victory--the restoration of his axed volleyball program at Cal State Fullerton. Now, he goes for it all, slapping the school with a $1.2 million wrongful termination suit, which figures to make Athletic Director Bill Shumard’s new year not altogether happy.

17. Brad Holland. Winning and grinning. They said it couldn’t be done under John Sneed, which is why John Sneed no longer coaches basketball at Cal State Fullerton. But Holland has brought both of them back, at the same time, at least for a month. Whatever could be next? Forebodingly, January.

18. Ken Swearingen. From wire to wire atop J.C. Grid-Wire, his Saddleback College Gauchos were to their level what the Miami Hurricanes were to theirs. The national championship was Swearingen’s second, and with one more victory, he becomes community college football’s all-time leader.

19. Hal Sherbeck. The Head Hornet retired after 31 seasons of community college football, 241 victories and three national titles. Was he missed? In the first year of the post-Sherbeck era, Fullerton College went 1-9.

20. Greg Patton. Why did the outrageous, outlandish UC Irvine tennis coach cross the road? To get to Boise State, where the financial ink is black and the athletic future is . . . brighter than it is in the center of affluent Orange County? Funny, but this parting punch line of Patton’s left no one laughing. Idaho, however, still doesn’t know what’s hit it.