BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Rodgers’ Degree From Hard Knocks Pays

It has taken some time, but 35 years later, Angel Manager Buck Rodgers believes that his mother finally has forgiven him for not pursuing a college degree.

Rodgers was offered a basketball/baseball scholarship to Ohio State in 1956, and his mother, Winnie, tried to persuade her oldest son to attend college. Instead, Rodgers signed a minor league contract from the Detroit Tigers.

“I went to school for three years in the off-season, but she always wanted me to go back and complete my degree,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers, 54, whose parents drove two hours from their hometown of Marion, Ohio, to Cleveland for the two-game series, says that he’s starting to convince them that he made the right decision.

Rodgers, said there still are days, however, when he wonders how his life might have changed if he attended college.

“Who knows, if I had gone to Ohio State, you probably wouldn’t have ever heard of (John) Havlick or (Jerry) Lucas,” Rodgers said, grinning. “There was another (juncture) in my career. I had a poor year and broke my hand in double A, the year the Tigers signed Bill Freehan. So I had pretty much decided to quit ball and . . . enroll at college full time in the fall and be a coach.

“Well, the Angels drafted me (in the expansion pool). I decided to give it one more year, and it turns out I was in the big leagues 28 out of the next 30 years.”