Angels Fire Buck Rodgers as Manager

The Angels, who seemingly pull off a caper each season that leaves the baseball world dumbfounded, came up with another Tuesday.

In a highly surprising move, the club fired Manager Buck Rodgers and hired former Angels pitching coach Marcel Lachemann from the Florida Marlins to replace him beginning Thursday. First base coach Bobby Knoop handled the team Tuesday in a 10-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox and will do so again tonight.

“We made the change because as an organization we feel we need to take a different direction,” said Bill Bavasi, the Angels’ first-year general manager. “I don’t want to get into why we made the move, because saying anything would be negative.

“I don’t want to be critical of the guy. I’ve probably done enough damage already. My actions speak loud enough.”

But Rodgers, 55, an original Angels player who was instrumental in turning around the image of the organization . . . who refused to bash his bosses for trading away popular stars such as Jim Abbott and allowing others to get away while receiving little or nothing in return . . . who was nearly killed during a 1992 crash of the Angels’ team bus . . . was whisked away for one major reason:

He talked too much.

Rodgers, according to a highly placed source in the organization, was fired as much as anything because he was outspoken.

He was much too candid in his opinions that appeared in newspapers, which irritated his players, and too opinionated in private meetings, which enraged his bosses.

The front office, according to sources, was infuriated when Rodgers was quoted after Sunday’s 9-5 defeat at Seattle as saying of his pitching staff: “You have to realize John Dopson has been released (by another team). Mark Leiter has been released. Joe Magrane has been released. And we’re trying to find spots for them on our club. . . .

“You’ve got to look at what we’ve got to start with.”

Said a club official: “Come on, you just can’t say those things. It wasn’t like that was the first time. It just kept happening.”

There was also the underlying belief that the club had one too many general managers. Bavasi was hired on Jan. 12, replacing Whitey Herzog, but several front-office officials say Rodgers behaved as if he also had the job.

Team President Richard Brown and Bavasi told Rodgers several times of personnel decisions they wanted made, but Rodgers often steadfastly refused. This was his team, and he was running it the way he wanted.

The relationship basically dissolved Monday during a private meeting that included Rodgers, the coaching staff and front office personnel. Rodgers accused the front office of being more concerned about budgetary restraints than winning, and there were several disputes over personnel, mostly which players were to be brought up from the minor leagues to fill holes in the roster.

The front office wanted young pitcher Russ Springer to take a place in the starting rotation; Rodgers wanted veteran John Farrell. The front office thought first baseman J.T. Snow should be recalled if Eduardo Perez were placed on the disabled list. Rodgers wanted utility man Mark Dalesandro.

It was no coincidence that on the day Rodgers was fired, the lineup was overhauled. Rookie Jim Edmonds was playing left field instead of Dwight Smith or Bo Jackson; third baseman Damion Easley was dropped from leadoff to seventh in the batting order, and Chad Curtis was moved up from sixth to second. And while Farrell will indeed replace Mark Leiter in the starting rotation, it was also decided that Springer will be up later in the week.

Bavasi said the Angels’ 16-23 record before Tuesday’s game had no bearing on his decision to fire Rodgers: The team was only two games out of first place in the American League West, baseball’s weakest division.

“I would have done it if we were in first place,” Bavasi said.

Rodgers, informed by Bavasi of the decision in a meeting about noon Tuesday, spent the rest of the day with a close friend who recently had a heart attack. He was unavailable for comment but will hold his own press conference today at 2 p.m. and perhaps give some insight into his firing.

“We had no idea something like this would happen,” said Judi Rodgers, his wife. “I don’t even know what happened. He just called me and said, ‘Well, I got the ax.’ ”

Bavasi, who had been contemplating the decision for about a week, telephoned Marlins General Manager Dave Dombrowski in about the seventh inning of their game Monday night against the New York Mets and asked permission to hire Lachemann.

“We’re going to make a decision and offer the job to Marcel,” Bavasi told Dombrowski. “The job’s his if he wants it.”

Dombrowski, who coincidentally fired Rodgers from the Montreal Expos on June 3, 1991, told Lachemann after the game. Marlins Manager Rene Lachemann, Marcel’s brother, hitting coach Doug Rader and Marcel stayed up until 4:30 in the morning discussing whether he should take the job. Rader was fired by the Angels on Aug. 26, 1991, when Rodgers took over.

“I can’t say I even had my mind made up when I woke up,” Marcel Lachemann said, “because I’m not sure I even fell asleep. . . . My emotions have kind of run the gamut. There is sadness about leaving the Marlins and my brother, and all the good things happening there, to the elation of coming back to California. . . .

“At one time (managing) was a big goal, then it went to a period where it was not. This is probably the only place I’d think of doing that.

“My next goal is to manage against my brother, and the only way for that to happen is in late October (at the World Series). That’s our next dream.”

Marcel Lachemann, who spent nine years as Angels pitching coach before joining the Marlins in the same capacity for the 1993 season, joins Rene to form the first brother tandem to manage simultaneously in the big leagues since 1879, when George Wright managed Providence and Harry Wright managed Boston. The Lachemanns are the fourth set of brothers to manage.

“Damn it, I can’t believe it,” said Herzog, the former Angels general manager. “How the hell can you fire a manager who didn’t have his No. 1 pitcher (Mark Langston), didn’t have his No. 3 pitcher (Joe Magrane), and his No. 2 and No. 4 pitchers (Chuck Finley and Phil Leftwich) are pitching (badly)?

“That ain’t too damn fair.

“Now, Marcel will do a good job, and he’s a very good baseball man, but I managed against Buck, and that’s a pretty damn good manager.

“Believe me, firing Buck Rodgers is not the answer.”

The Angels will be responsible for the remainder of Rodgers’ contract, which expires after the 1995 season. He is to be paid $600,000 for each of the two years.

* RELATED STORIES: C1, C10

Here They Go Again

In a surprise announcement, Marcel Lachemann was named Angels manager on Tuesday. He replaces Buck Rodgers who managed the team for 312 games over four seasons.

“I don’t want to get into why we made the move because saying anything would be negative. I don’t want to be critical of the guy. I’ve probably done enough damage already. My actions speak loud enough.”

--Bill Bavasi, Angels general manager

HE’S IN

Marcel Lachemann

Age: 52

Angels managing record: 3-1

Career managing record: 3-1

Florida Marlins pitching coach; previously coached nine seasons with Angels and filled in as manager for four games in 1992 while Rodgers was recovering from bus accident. He had a 7-4 record as big-league pitcher.

HE’S OUT

Buck Rodgers

Age: 55

Angels managing record: 140-172

Career managing record: 784-755

He was in his 13th season managing in big leagues with Milwaukee, Montreal and the Angels. One of the original 1961 Los Angeles Angels as a catcher; had nine-year major league playing career and .232 batting average.