Angels Need Only One Piece to Solve Puzzle

Any starting pitching staff held together with chewing gum and white paste is going to fall apart sooner or later, usually as soon as July and no later than August, when the heat can turn a patchwork rotation into a gooey mess.

It was bound to happen to the Angels, held together for so long by Shawn (Chewing Gum) Boskie and Mike (White Paste) Bielecki. But not this way. With Boskie and Bielecki, the earned-run averages were supposed to blow up, not various body parts. Now both stop gaps are on the disabled list, Marcel Lachemann is trying to win a division title with a three-man rotation and Bill Bavasi has hit the phones, his speed dial set for a 27-general-manager rotation.

Maybe a telethon would be a better approach. So far, Bavasi’s patch-the-patchwork program has yielded Russ Springer, via call-up from Vancouver, and Mike Harkey, via waiver claim from Oakland. From nickels and dimes to pennies and IOUs. From chewing gum and paste to kite string and paper clips.

The phraseology, I believe, is “bolstering for the pennant stretch.”

The idea, for the Angels, is to bolster the Angels for the pennant stretch, not the Texas Rangers.

No one should be fooled by the Angels’ three-game lead in the American League West. It’s still July, three brutal trips loom in August and September, and once Chuck Finley and Mark Langston take their turns in the rotation, a three-game lead can become a no-game lead in three days.

The time has come for the Angels to put away the Scotch tape, make a trade before the July 31 deadline, (ahem) spend the money and bring in a big-league starting pitcher worthy of the name and capable of winning games after Labor Day.

David Cone, Bret Saberhagen, Kevin Tapani, Ken Hill, Mike Morgan, Jeff Fassero--the same names have been out there for weeks. All the contenders are jostling for them, driving the price up as they push and shove, and the Angels are in no position to give up Garret Anderson or Troy Percival or both, just to rent a big name through October.

The Angels need a pitcher who’s cost-efficient, could be had for a couple second-level prospects, could be re-signed after this season and could make the fans--current, former and reluctant--much happier than Mike Harkey ever will.

One name and one name only comes to mind.

Jim Abbott.

This is not pie in the sky. The Angels and the White Sox have been talking. The White Sox, reportedly, are asking for two minor leaguers--two pitchers or a pitcher and an outfielder. The Angels have those. Abbott’s base salary ($2 million) is half of what he turned down when he negotiated himself out the door after the 1992 season. The Angels, soon to be propped up by Disney, can afford it.

If ever a baseball player was perfect for a Disney-owned baseball team, it’s Abbott, and I mean that in the best possible way. Abbott’s life is a Disney movie in pre-production--inspirational human-interest story, All-American looks and personality, local hero who never should have been banished from the tragic kingdom and now wants to come back, ride to the rescue and help the long-downtrodden home team fly the pennant.

What are the Angels waiting for?

How would a rotation of Finley-Langston-Abbott-Brian Anderson look as the Angels head into the last two months? Certainly better than anything Texas, Oakland or Seattle can scrape together--or Cleveland for that matter. The Indians’ first four are Dennis Martinez, Charles Nagy, Orel Hershiser and Mark Clark. With Abbott, the Angels would more than measure up.

Abbott is 5-4 with a 3.42 ERA for Chicago in 16 starts, midway through his best season since leaving Anaheim. But Abbott was never better than when he pitched for Lachemann, then the Angels’ pitching coach, from 1989 through 1992. In ‘89, he was 12-12, 3.92, and a rookie-of-the-year candidate. In ‘91, he won 18 games. In ‘92, he finished with a 2.77 ERA, the lowest of his career. Lachemann now manages the Angels. Can there be a better time than today for a reunion?

If those aren’t reasons enough, there’s always the bottom line, and that has to perk up some Disney corporate ears. Abbott would bring fans back. Not all of them--some post-strike damage is irreparable--but enough to make his signing worth it.

Trading for Abbott would be a show of good faith to the fans--showing them that the Angels, finally, are committed to winning; that the Whitey Herzog reign of error, finally, is behind us; that the Angels, finally, care about the people who buy their tickets, who buy tickets to see their favorite players, which Abbott was once upon a time.

Winning alone hasn’t cranked the turnstiles at Anaheim Stadium any faster. But perhaps winning with the right players--popular players--would. Bringing back Abbott would help the Angels atone for past sins while avoiding another: Failing to fortify the rotation with the playoffs, and maybe a pennant, on the line.

Short of re-signing Nolan Ryan, I can’t think of a smarter move the Angels can make.