Finally DeCinces Not Feeling He’s Disenfranchised : Baseball: Former Angel third baseman has put behind him the sour taste he had in his mouth after he was cut loose by the team.

There was a time when Doug DeCinces could barely talk about it.

Few things in his professional life wounded him so deeply. Few others might have the same sting.

But the scars have pretty much healed. DeCinces can mention the Angels without disdain. He can discuss them, even root for them, because their front office bears little resemblance to the outfit he loathed.

“I’m happy for their success,” DeCinces said. “I had felt for a long time that they needed to have a change in direction because there was not a forward focus there.”

Or, in DeCinces’ eyes, credibility. At least not in 1987, when the Angels released him with only 11 days of the season remaining so they could save $141,667 by waiving him before it was over. DeCinces accused Mike Port, the team’s general manager at the time, of bad-faith contract negotiations and blamed him for the shabby treatment.

“To be treated the way I was. . . . It was probably the toughest year I’ve had in baseball,” DeCinces said then.

The detente between DeCinces, who will turn 45 on Aug. 29, and the Angels began when Richard Brown became club president five years ago. The former Monroe High and Pierce College standout, now an Orange County businessman, occasionally attends Angel games and likes what he sees. These Angels are young and exciting to watch, and they are the first serious pennant contenders in Anaheim since DeCinces played there.

Those were the teams of Rod Carew and Brian Downing and Reggie Jackson and Bobby Grich, teams that came as close to giving Gene Autry a World Series ring as any others in Angel history, but DeCinces says they had few similarities with today’s club.

“They have the ability to score runs like we did, but they have an extremely thorough pitching staff,” DeCinces said. “We had decent starters but we didn’t have anybody to back them up in the bullpen.”

Well, times have changed. And DeCinces, for one, is glad they have.

Those old problems with the Angels aside, life has been kind to DeCinces. He has operated his own property management company for years and is trying to develop a 27-hole public golf course in Irvine, on land leased from the city and the county. DeCinces said he has been consumed the past two years by the project and its many headaches.

“Sports has taught me to survive this,” he said, “because you have to have the perseverance.”

DeCinces first learned that kind of tenacity as a baseball and basketball player at Monroe in the mid-1960s, where he was a solid shortstop but was not considered a pro candidate.

“He was a good ballplayer but didn’t attract the attention of the scouts,” said Denny Holt, the former Viking coach who is a building contractor in Hawaii. “He wasn’t one of those guys who attracted a lot of bees but he was very important to our success.”

Most likely, the scouts were busy elsewhere. The Valley was ripe in those days with high school players who later reached the major leagues, guys such as Gary Matthews at San Fernando, Dwight Evans at Chatsworth, Rick Dempsey at Crespi and Tim Foli at Notre Dame. DeCinces wasn’t a hot commodity but he soon became one.

“The one thing I look back on is the tremendous talent that I played against in high school that I ended up playing with and against in pro baseball,” DeCinces said.

After Monroe, DeCinces played two seasons at Pierce, where he became an all-state pick, and signed with Baltimore after the 1970 season. He had short stints with the Orioles in 1973-75 before becoming the team’s regular third baseman in 1977.

That year, DeCinces replaced legendary Brooks Robinson, a 16-time Gold Glove winner who was destined for the Hall of Fame. Many, especially Oriole fans, considered Robinson the finest third baseman ever and were not prepared to lose him even when his skills deteriorated beyond repair. DeCinces was under constant scrutiny from those bent on drawing comparisons.

“It was not an easy task, but what made it good was that it was a challenge and made me a better player,” DeCinces said. “But it almost cost me my career because of the undue pressure. . . . Even until the day I was traded [to the Angels in 1982] I was being compared to him.”

Although Robinson’s shadow engulfed him, DeCinces carved a respectable career with the Orioles, leading league third basemen in assists with 330 in 1977 and 340 in 1980. He was also instrumental in Baltimore’s 3-1 championship series victory over the Angels in 1979, batting .308 and throwing some heavy leather at the Angels.

In the decisive game of the series, on a Saturday at Anaheim Stadium, DeCinces made a remarkable play that perhaps took the fight out of the Angels. With Baltimore leading, 3-0, the Angels loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning and Jim Anderson ripped a one-hopper down the line that DeCinces backhanded and turned into a third-to-first double play. End of threat and end of series, for that matter. Baltimore won, 8-0.

“If he doesn’t make the play,” Angel Manager Jim Fregosi said afterward, “it’s a whole different situation.”

Two years later, in the strike-shortened 1981 season, DeCinces found himself in another critical spot. As the American League player representative in labor talks with the negotiator for the owners, DeCinces was vocal and tirelessly active, and spent 41 consecutive days during one stretch traveling or sitting in meetings. The union work, DeCinces said, earned him a ticket out of Baltimore.

After nine years with the Orioles, DeCinces was traded to the Angels with minor league pitcher Jeff Schneider for outfielder Dan Ford. DeCinces said the deal was fueled by two factors.

“I got traded because I was the player rep and my owner [Edward Bennett Williams] didn’t want me anymore, and the other thing was Cal Ripken Jr. was coming up and the organization wanted him to play third,” DeCinces said. “[Manager] Earl Weaver said absolutely not, so the organization traded me so Earl wouldn’t have a choice.”

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The move did wonders for DeCinces. It was a fresh start and the climate was good for his chronic bad back, which he first injured when someone low-bridged him in a high school basketball game.

“When I came out here, I felt relieved,” DeCinces said. “It’s hard when someone is always doubting you. I felt more accepted here for who I was as a player.”

The results proved it. In 1982, DeCinces batted .301 with 30 home runs and 97 RBIs, and led American League third basemen with 399 assists. He had 77 extra-base hits, still a team single-season record, and helped the Angels to their best record ever, 93-69, and the West Division title but could not prevent one of the biggest flops in playoff history. In any sport.

The Angels were ahead, 2-0, in the best-of-five series against Milwaukee, but the Brewers swept the next three games at County Stadium and went on to push the St. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the World Series. DeCinces batted .316 against Milwaukee but it wasn’t enough as the Angels suffered an embarrassing setback they still haven’t lived down. But they topped it four years later.

In 1986, the Angels were one out from beating Boston in the playoffs when calamity struck. Again.

DeCinces hit a solo home run off Roger Clemens to spark a three-run rally in the ninth inning of Game 4 at Fenway Park and the Angels won, 4-3, in 11 innings to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Then everything unraveled.

The Angels led, 5-2, with two out in the top of the ninth inning in Game 5 when pinch-hitter Dave Henderson capped a four-run outburst with a two-strike, two-run home run against reliever Donnie Moore to keep the Red Sox alive. The Angels tied the game, 6-6, but Henderson’s fly ball produced what proved to be the winning run in the 11th.

It was the beginning of the end for the Angels. The Red Sox won the next two at home and the Angels were left to sulk in their misfortune.

By the following fall, DeCinces didn’t fit into the Angels’ plans. He played 749 games, nearly 200 more than any other third baseman in club history, and ranked among Angel career leaders in several offensive categories, including home runs (130) and RBIs (481), but Port cut him loose.

DeCinces finished the year with the St. Louis Cardinals, who were on their way to the National League East pennant, and signed the next season with the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese League for about $1.05 million. He played one season and retired.

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Back in Orange County, DeCinces launched several profitable business ventures that afford him some luxuries. One of those is the time to watch his son, Tim, play baseball at UCLA and his daughter, Amy, play volleyball and basketball at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana. His son’s games, DeCinces said, are particularly important to him.

“Because of all [Tim’s] Little League games I missed, I just don’t want to miss those [at UCLA],” DeCinces said. “It’s been fun to watch him. He’s a real student of the game.”

Both father and son share the same feelings about their relationship.

“I love it,” said Tim, a junior catcher for the Bruins who has been playing this summer in the Cape Cod baseball league. “He was always on the road and never got much of a chance to go to my games. We are making up for it now. It’s a neat feeling to have him root for me.”

When DeCinces is not cheering for the Angels, that is.