Security Is Playing Every Day : McLemore Has With Orioles What He Didn’t With Angels

Baltimore second baseman Mark McLemore returned to Anaheim Stadium last week with the kind of job security he wanted with the Angels.

Secure with the job as the Orioles’ everyday second baseman.

Secure with a one-year $1 million contract and the luxury of knowing he can test free agency after this season.

And secure playing for a team in the thick of the AL East race.

This is where McLemore is after a breakthrough season in 1993, in which he hit .284 with 72 runs batted in in 148 games.

“I can’t complain,” he said sitting in the visitors’ dugout at Anaheim Stadium recently.

It has been four seasons since McLemore was sitting in the other dugout. But now he plays without the pain in his wrist, elbow and right throwing arm that plagued him in three of his five seasons with the Angels.

Until last season, McLemore had not been a regular in the major leagues since early 1988, when he was the Angels’ second baseman for 43 of the first 44 games.

But injuries weakened his right arm, and when he failed to live up to the Angels’ expectations in 1990, they assigned him outright from Palm Springs to Cleveland.

It was the start of a pattern of setbacks for McLemore, who was released by the Indians and the Houston Astros within the next year. All told, he played with nine teams in four organizations in an 18-month span, including five minor league rehabilitation assignments.

“Looking back, I didn’t really play for that many teams, considering that many of them were rehabilitation assignments,” he said. “There were guys who were in the league a lot less time and had played for six or seven teams. I only played with three (major league) teams in that period.”

The fourth was Baltimore, which bought his contract on July 5, 1991, shortly after Houston released him. The Orioles sent him to the minors, then re-signed him for the 1992 season as a non-roster player in spring training.

McLemore played in 101 games that season, hitting .246 with a league-leading six runs batted in as a pinch hitter.

But when spring training began in 1993, McLemore, a lifetime .229 hitter, again had to make the team as a non-roster player. Again, he made it, and for the first time he could remember, he was playing everyday--in the outfield.

The Orioles were set at second base with Harold Reynolds, so Manager Johnny Oates moved McLemore to right field. With the help of former Dodger Davey Lopes, who coaches the Oriole outfielders, McLemore became a solid defensive player, and his offensive marks were by far his career bests.

“Davey not only talks mechanics,” McLemore said, “but he also helps me with the mental part of the game, developing the right attitude as an infielder, an outfielder and as a hitter. That’s a big part of this game.”

McLemore’s performance last season was enough to earn a one-year deal worth more than $1 million, four times his 1993 salary. He becomes a free agent at the end of the season. Is the well-traveled McLemore ready to test the free-agent market?

“I really like Baltimore,” he said. “I like playing there, and I love playing at Camden Yards. But we’ll see what happens in the next two or three months.”

This season, McLemore returned to the infield during spring training. With outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds back from a neck injury this season, the Orioles moved McLemore back to the infield and let Reynolds leave via free agency.

“I made it clear who I wanted,” Oates said.

McLemore was an enthusiastic volunteer.

“I like second base a lot more,” he said. “More action.”

McLemore said the work in the outfield last season helped strengthen his throwing arm. The knock on him as a second baseman is that he struggles turning the double play, a notion he’s trying to dispel.

“I still don’t know where that came from,” he said.

His offensive numbers have decreased somewhat this season. Batting mainly in the ninth spot, he was hitting .267 entering Saturday night’s game.

Still, he has been particularly tough at the plate against his former team--the Angels. Entering this season, he was batting .321 lifetime against them, and was two for four in Thursday night’s game at Anaheim Stadium.

Bitter feelings, perhaps? McLemore says no.

“I don’t think about it much anymore because I’ve been through here a few times since I left,” he said. “It was weird at first. A lot of people say I play harder against the Angels than I do against other teams. That’s not true. I play hard against everybody.”

McLemore arrived in Anaheim last Wednesday to some bad news--he learned of the death of Jimmie Reese, the Angels’ longtime conditioning coach and one of the most popular figures in baseball.

McLemore attended Reese’s memorial service Friday along with several other former Angels, including Nolan Ryan, Jim Abbott and Reggie Jackson.

“There were many, many days when Jimmie got me out of a bad mood,” McLemore said. “It wasn’t just something he said or did. It was just being Jimmie.

“My best memory of Jimmie will always be the first thing he said to me, because I’ll always remember how funny it was.”

It was McLemore’s first day with the Angels in 1986. Reese watched intently as McLemore took batting practice, then pulled the rookie aside as he headed to the dugout.

“First thing he said was: “Hey Mo, come here. You know what? You look just like horse crap out there.’ ”

Reese turned and walked away. McLemore was stunned. Here was Reese, one of the nicest people in the game, ripping him on his first day at the office.

Then came the punch line.

“Jimmie took a few steps,” McLemore said. “Then turned around and said, ‘But you know what? You’re all right.’ ”

McLemore looked toward the outfield fence at the stadium. Somebody asked him if Reese’s jersey No. 50 should hang on the wall, along with Ryan’s No. 30, Rod Carew’s 29 and owner Gene Autry’s 26, for being the team’s 26th man.

“I’m expecting it,” McLemore said.