Rodgers Passes Buck to Bavasi : Angels: Four months after his firing, he blames general manager, not Brown, for decision.

Buck Rodgers strolled to the bar after the round of golf, dug into his pocket and abruptly waved off the visitor pulling out his wallet.

“No, no, I got it,” he said. “Hey, I might be out of work, but I’m still getting paid.”

Rodgers laughed, a growling roar. He took a swig of beer, peered over his glass and delighted in the response.

Few men who ever wore an Angel uniform have been more popular than Rodgers. He was an original Angel. He survived the horrifying 1992 bus crash. He believed he’d be an Angel for life.

“I thought the owner was happy with me,” Rodgers said. “I thought the general manager was happy with me. I thought everything was going just like we planned.

“That’s how stupid I was.”

Rodgers was fired as manager May 17 with his team only two games out of first place. Never was he more surprised in his life.

It took one month for Rodgers to realize what had happened.

It took two months for him to be convinced that General Manager Bill Bavasi, and not President Richard Brown, fired him.

It took four months to publicly talk about the firing, revealing his feelings for the first time since his May 18 news conference.

“I’m thankful Gene Autry gave me the chance to manage the California Angels, but I didn’t realize the California Angels were as screwed up as they were,” Rodgers said.

“There’s so much ignorance, lack of communication, and intimidation going on there, it’s a shame. Everybody is scared.

“You’ve got to want people who know what they’re doing. You can’t be intimidated by everybody that second-guesses you. If you know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t care less about second-guessing.

“The only way you can be intimidated is by lack of knowledge.

“And believe me, we were intimidated.”

Could that change?

“Not until the club is sold,” Rodgers said.

Angel owner Jackie Autry has put the club on the market for $130 million, although only a minority share will be sold while Gene Autry is living.

It’s too late for Rodgers. His dream of becoming the first manager to lead the Angels to the World Series, and then moving into the front office, has been ruined.

“Eventually, I’d really like to be a general manager,” said Rodgers, who has received several exploratory calls from other clubs. “I always thought it was something I’d like to do when I got burned out on the field, but that hasn’t happened yet.

“I wasn’t ready to leave managing.”

Instead, Bavasi made the decision for Rodgers, replacing him with Marcel Lachemann.

“I was never more surprised in my life,” Rodgers said. “I thought I had been a pretty good soldier. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of boosting him.

“It took a long time for me to realize just what happened.”

Rodgers initially blamed Brown for the situation. He ridiculed Brown at his news conference, saying Bavasi merely was following orders.

Today, Rodgers acknowledges he was wrong.

“I’ve since learned it was just another case of a young general manager being intimidated by a veteran manager,” Rodgers said. “The guy is young, and he’s not that knowledgeable of the game, and I think I intimidated him.

“Bavasi is a paper man. He’s bright and organized, but that’s all you can say about those type of guys. It’s unfortunate.

“The only thing that still bothers me about Rich Brown is that he had always told me, ‘You’re my man. You’re my guy. You’ll always be with us.’

“Then he turns around and takes the word of a 34-year-old guy (actually 36), who’s been a general manager for a month and a half.

“I felt like I was double-crossed.”

Bavasi actually contemplated firing Rodgers as early as late March. It became obvious to Bavasi that it was not going to work between them, but he waited as long as he could before asking to make a change.

Said Brown: “Billy made every attempt for it to work with Buck, and when it was time to make a decision, he did it. I was going to stand behind him in whatever decision he made.”

Rodgers was summoned to his office the morning of May 17 and was fired. He was not given any reasons for the firing, but then, he never asked for any, either.

He would have been told that the team lacked fundamentals. He would have been told that he needed to be on the field working with the players instead of entertaining reporters. He would have been told that he was too openly opinionated.

“It wouldn’t have mattered because what you see is what you get,” Rodgers said. “I’m not a phony. I wasn’t going to change.

“People say I’m too honest. Well, if you start (snowing) people, your ballplayers are going to see right through it. It catches up to you.”

The meeting between Rodgers and Bavasi lasted fewer than 10 minutes. When it ended, Bavasi held a news conference at Anaheim Stadium. Rodgers waited until the next day and then told reporters he did not wish to be bothered.

Rodgers went into seclusion for nearly a month. He wanted nothing to do with baseball. He spent time at his beach house, still trying to contemplate what happened.

“He felt he had gotten the team and players to the point to win the division,” said Judi Rodgers, Buck’s wife of 36 years. “That’s what was so hard about it. That was his team, and he believed in them.

“Nothing caught him by surprise more than this. It was a total shock. It knocked our socks off.”

Rodgers eventually took a part-time scouting job from his close friend Lee Thomas, general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. It would at least keep him occupied. Rodgers would scout major league teams in the area, although he refused to set foot inside Anaheim Stadium.

“I have a lot of respect for Marcel Lachemann, and I didn’t want to make things tough for him,” Rodgers said. “It wouldn’t have been fair.

“That’s why I shut up for the rest of the season.

“As much as I agreed or disagreed with things that went on with the organization, I did not want Marcel Lachemann looking over his shoulder.

“Looking back, I thought we could have won it, but it’s all hypothetical now. Nobody got a chance to find out what they could do. The strike took care of that.”

Rodgers, who will continue to earn his $600,000 annual salary through the 1995 season, believes that baseball will survive this tumultuous time. The fans will come back, he says. The owners and players eventually will become partners.

And who knows, maybe that’s when he will also return.

“I’m pro-player, but you have to look at the economic climate,” Rodgers said. “This is the first time the players will have to give something up, and that’s hard for them to understand.

“It shouldn’t be considered a weakness. I think (Players Assn. chief Donald) Fehr can give in without weakening the union. Really, I think he has no choice.”

In the meantime, Rodgers will wait, hoping that the right opportunity comes along. There are two managerial vacancies, with four other possible openings before Christmas. Who knows, maybe one day he can be reunited with Whitey Herzog.

“I think Whitey got a bad reputation,” Rodgers said. “He kick-started this farm system. OK, maybe there were a few signings he wishes he could take back, but he did a pretty good job around here.

“I hate to hear some of the things I hear because most of those people couldn’t hold Whitey Herzog’s jockstrap. He did a good job, and there was no doubt in my mind we were going to turn this thing around.

“Now, I’m afraid the organization is back to square one.”