BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Phillies, Rodgers Show Top to Bottom Is a Short Trip

Lee Thomas doesn’t have to be reminded. The general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies knows humility. He knows how quickly the game and its landscape can change.

The glory and satisfaction he experienced only a few months ago when his rebuilt team went from last to first in the National League has become a faded memory as the Phillies threaten to fall to last again.

Thomas has already used the disabled list 10 times for eight players. Danny Jackson is the only member of the season-opening rotation not to have missed a start. Shortstop Kevin Stocker, first baseman John Kruk and pitchers Curt Schilling and Ben Rivera are on the DL.

No, Thomas doesn’t need the reminders, but they come in different ways every day, and he was among many dealt a shocker Tuesday when longtime friend and former teammate from the early years of the Angels, Buck Rodgers, was fired as Angel manager.

“I’m not out there. I don’t know everything that’s going on, but I was as shocked as anyone,” Thomas said. “Buck is a hell of a manager. He knows how to handle players and knows how to handle the game. . . . I was totally surprised.”

Thomas rebounded from his shock to be among the first to call Rodgers and let him know he could have a job.

“I told him that when he gets bored to call me. I’ve got some things he could do for me out there,” Thomas said. “I don’t mean managing. I’ve got my manager (in Jim Fregosi, another longtime friend and former teammate). But he could scout the American League for us, things like that.

“He won’t be out of work long, if that’s what he wants to do. I just hope this doesn’t leave a bad taste with him.”

Bitter? Rodgers maintained at his Wednesday news conference that he isn’t, saying he still enjoys managing and would consider returning to it, but not this year. He added that he never attempted to become both the field and general manager of the Angels, thereby usurping Bill Bavasi’s authority.

The reasons for his firing remain murky, which is unfortunate. Rodgers and the public deserve better.

This much seems clear: A personality conflict between Rodgers and club President Richard Brown compounded a festering dissatisfaction on the part of Brown and Bavasi regarding Rodgers’ disparaging comments about his pitching staff. They had warned him to cease making such statements, according to sources, who also said there was an in-house perception that Rodgers had become more biting and caustic since the bus accident in 1992 that almost claimed his life. And there was a significant desire on the part of Bavasi, they added, to put his own man in the job.

That is Marcel Lachemann, with whom he had worked as farm director when Lachemann was the Angel pitching coach, first at the minor league level. Bavasi said Rodgers would still be managing if Lachemann had chosen to remain as the Florida Marlins’ pitching coach.

“It’s tough for a general manager to come in and not have his guy as the manager,” said Fregosi, reluctant to discuss the Angel situation despite his familiarity with it. “The only thing I’ll say is that I talked to Buck a lot, and he always told me that he thought Billy was doing a great job. I was really surprised by the firing.”

According to Judi Rodgers, Buck’s wife, owner Gene Autry called to say he knew nothing about the decision, a plea he has copped with other fired managers and released or traded players. Whether he did or didn’t know, a 34-year pattern of instability suggests that there has been a leadership vacuum, indeed.

LACHEMANN DIVIDEND?

The hiring of Lachemann as manager could pave the way for Jim Abbott’s return to the Angels as a free agent at the end of the season, although the New York Yankees’ left-hander said: “I’m not even thinking about that. I want to get to the playoffs with the Yankees. I’ve had as good a time in the last month (as the Yankees won 10 consecutive games at one point) as I’ve ever had in the major leagues. The speculation is just that, and it’s wrong.”

Perhaps, but Abbott, like former Angel teammates Chuck Finley and Mark Langston, is definitely a Lachemann admirer.

FIRESTORM?

Will the firing of Rodgers lead to other dismissals? Larry Himes, general manager of the struggling Chicago Cubs, reflected on the question and said he has no intention of removing Tom Trebelhorn, his man on the bubble.

“I know how things work. One goes and it’s a domino effect, but never ever did I consider a change,” Himes said. “He’s gone through the adjustment phase that all managers go through and he’s long term.” This is a bold statement for a general manager who has only one year left on his contract and could be in trouble himself.

PADRES’ SALE

It has been learned that Malcolm I. Glazer, president of First Allied Corp. of Boynton Beach, Fla., is the man with whom owner Tom Werner has been negotiating the possible sale of the San Diego Padres.

Glazer, 66, owns TV stations, real estate and stocks. He was recently an unsuccessful bidder for an NFL expansion franchise, promoting the unique idea of having a team rotate its home games among several cities. Sources said a Padre sale would be approved only if the team remains in San Diego and that no deal has been completed between Werner and Glazer.

The Padres’ 1994 pace projects to 120 losses, 10 more than in their first year of 1969, a damning indictment of Werner’s ownership. Tony Gwynn accused some players of giving up the other day, and Manager Jim Riggleman had a team meeting in which he reportedly said: “Who’s going to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourselves? You guys are mad about people saying how awful you are, but they’re right. You are awful.”

Riggleman clearly senses the end is near. He is expected to be replaced by Tim Flannery or Bruce Bochy.

SUGAR CONE

Kansas City Royal pitcher David Cone faces the Angels today with a 7-1 record and a 2.83 earned-run average. Opponents are batting .207 against him. He has given up only 44 hits and 19 walks in 60 1/3 innings, striking out 44.

He is a different pitcher from the heat-throwing right-hander who struck out 200 or more batters in four of his seasons with the New York Mets, twice leading the National League. He is different, too, from the pitcher who went 11-14 last year upon returning to the hometown Royals, his original team, after signing a three-year, $18-million contract.

One reason for the difference is support. The Royals averaged an American League-low three runs in his 1993 starts. They are now averaging more than 5.5 runs when he pitches. An even larger difference is his approach.

New pitching coach Bruce Kison, a former Angel, has persuaded Cone to be more economical and efficient and to allow the Royals’ very good defense to work for him by simply getting outs instead of strikeouts. “The Mets never designed a defense to protect the pitcher,” Cone said. “I felt the need to be a strikeout pitcher. . . . I’ve reversed that now. I’ll take the nine-inning, 90-pitch, no-strikeout game over the 19-strikeout game I had a few years ago.”

Cone is pitching more innings with better results by delivering fewer pitches. He is no longer among the strikeout leaders, but he has lost no velocity. He had 10 strikeouts in a four-hit 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, stretching his scoreless streak to 19 innings.

“I’ve never felt better,” he said. “It’s a mind-set. I’ve picked up my pace in a total sense. You’ll see me sprint to the mound between innings. I throw three warm-up pitches before the other team is off the field. Everyone picks up on it--my team, the other team, the umpires. An atmosphere of aggressiveness is so important to a pitcher, and I’ve never felt more aggressive. Of course, that’s easier to say when you’re getting a lot of runs.”