BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Perez Learns There’s a New Boss

While the idea of playing for a new manager is just starting to sink in, perhaps no Angel player may be more affected than Eduardo Perez.

He has gone from being the Angels’ everyday first baseman to platooning with Jim Edmonds, and for the first time he can remember, was removed Friday for a pinch-hitter by Marcel Lachemann.

“I may not be too crazy about it,” Perez said, “but I can’t take it hard. You can’t be selfish in this game. My dad (Tony Perez) taught me that.

“(Lachemann is) the manager. He’s the one who makes the decisions. And you have to respect his decision.

“It’s not like I’ve been lighting the world on fire.”

Perez, who has not started in three of the last four games, is batting .216, with five homers and 15 runs batted in. He has been bothered by torn cartilage in his left hand but refuses to use that as an excuse.

“I wasn’t swinging good before the injury, and I haven’t swung good since the injury,” he said.

“I’ve been trying everything. I even changed to the same model of bats as my dad. Hey, something’s got to give. I know I’m better than this.”

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Lachemann, who was on the third day of his new job, said that perhaps the most difficult aspect of it is being separated from his brother, Rene Lachemann, manager of the Florida Marlins. The two spoke on the telephone twice before Saturday’s game.

“It’s an empty feeling not having him here,” Rene Lachemann said of his brother, who was the Marlin pitching coach. “We used to come to the ballpark together. Now he’s not here. It’s a feeling I’ll have to overcome.

“The job that he did was unbelievable. Not to say that Frank (Reberger, who replaced Marcel with the Marlins) won’t do a good job. But when you have your brother, well, that’s special.”

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Rene Lachemann on the difference between him and Marcel: “I’m a lot more outgoing than he is. A lot louder. He keeps a lot more inside him. My family is mostly like that.

“That’s probably why a lot of people thought I was adopted.”

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Marcel Lachemann, when asked what closer Bryan Harvey said to him when he left the Marlins: “I always thought I’d be leaving town before you.”

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Angel starter Joe Magrane, who is 0-2 with an 8.53 earned-run average in four starts, worked with pitching coach Chuck Hernandez before Saturday’s game to correct a flaw in his delivery. Hernandez and Lachemann compared game films of Magrane now and of a year ago, and noticed that he wasn’t getting the proper extension on his delivery. “He’s still in the starting rotation,” Lachemann said, “but we’ll see what happens from here.” . . . Second baseman Rex Hudler’s start Saturday was his first against a right-handed pitcher this season.