Go for Choke : As Time Runs Out on Baseball’s Pennant Races, Some Teams Withstand the Pressure While Others Lose Their Grip

Angel third baseman Tony Phillips sat in the Anaheim Stadium dugout last week and mocked his way of dealing with the mounting pressure in the American League West race.

At the time, the Angels still had the luxury of a six-game lead over the Seattle Mariners. A lead that soon became three, then two, then one.

And then none.

“What, me uptight?” said Phillips, who played on Oakland’s World Series teams in 1988 and ’89. “I know what this is like, and yeah, I’m uptight.”

Phillips’ sweaty palms and tight collar are typical for athletes under pressure. And how they deal with it, sports psychologists say, decides which teams maintain their double-digit leads and which ones don’t.

The 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers felt the pressure when they blew a 13 1/2-game lead over the New York Giants. The 1969 Chicago Cubs felt it losing a 9 1/2-game lead to Tom Seaver and the New York Mets in the final six weeks of the season.

So did Gene Mauch’s 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, who lost a 6 1/2-game lead to St. Louis with 12 remaining. And so did the 1978 Boston Red Sox, who blew a 14 1/2-game lead in the AL East, then lost a one-game playoff to the New York Yankees.

“Everybody chokes,” said Dr. Richard Lister, a Costa Mesa sports psychologist. “Everybody does, but champions choke less. I don’t care how good a money player you are, you’re capable of it.”

The Angels led the division by 11 games on Aug. 10 but have lost 25 of their last 33, including seven in a row, while the Mariners have won eight of 10 and moved into a first-place tie. The Angels play at Texas tonight.

If the Angels lose the division, they will have blown the third-largest lead in baseball history, according to the National Baseball Library and Archives in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 1978 Red Sox’s 14 1/2-game lead on July 19 was the largest, followed by the 1951 Dodgers’ 13 1/2-game lead Aug. 11.

Other stretch-drive nose dives:

* The 1993 San Francisco Giants, who lost a 10-game lead in mid-July to the Atlanta Braves.

* The 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers, who went 104-50 under Leo Durocher, but blew a 10-game lead to the St. Louis Cardinals, who won 43 of their final 51.

Disappointing down the stretch. Is it par for the course with the Angels, who lost the 1986 AL Championship Series after building a 3-1 lead over the Boston Red Sox? What about their late-season collapses during stretch drives in 1989, 1985, 1984, 1982 and 1979?

Mauch, Angel manager in 1982 and ’86 and now a bench coach with the Kansas City Royals, says it’s unfair to label teams that choke down the stretch.

“Everyone, at some point in a season, has one real terrible losing streak,” Mauch said. “But it all depends on when it happens.

“The media labels them. If it happens early in the season, you get off to a bad start. If it happens in the middle of the season, you’ve fallen into a slump. If it happens at the end of the season, then it’s because you’re feeling the pressure. But that’s a bunch of bull.”

Still, the images remain in baseball lore. The ground ball rolling between Boston first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs in the ’86 World Series. Donnie Moore giving up a home run to Dave Henderson in the ’86 AL Championship Series. Ralph Branca serving up the home run to the Giants’ Bobby Thomson in the 1951 Dodgers-Giants playoff.

“Some people feel the pressure much more than others,” Lister said. “Some personalities are calmer, some highly charged. The highly charged players are more likely to drop into the depths when things go badly.

“You can’t take on the cause solely. You have to hang in there on your own responsibilities. But what happens is that someone panics and tries to overcome for the entire organization.”

Lister sees a common thread among Manager Chuck Dressen’s 1951 Dodgers, Mauch’s Phillies, Durocher’s 1969 Cubs and Don Zimmer’s 1978 Red Sox. Most were bottom-line managers who overworked their pitching staffs down the stretch.

“This is the time of year when a manager really earns his money,” Lister said. “Mauch is super knowledgeable, probably the greatest manager who never won a pennant.

“[Baltimore’s] Earl Weaver was just as intense. He was a terrific manager, but he could be very volatile when things went bad.”

Dressen, Mauch and Durocher were all intense managers who felt the pressure themselves, said baseball historian Marty Adler.

“Dressen was a knowledgeable, sharp manager who took credit for everything,” said Adler, president of the Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Fame. “No matter what happened, he took credit for it, whether they won or lost.”

So far, Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann has remained low-key, except for getting tossed along with Phillips from an 8-1 loss at Boston Sept. 4 for arguing a called third strike. The Angels had lost 15 of 18 games.

“There’s no question that some of the Angels are panicking even though they say they aren’t,” Lister said. “But Marcel has kept a calm presence, and you need that.”

Adler spotted another common characteristic among teams blowing leads--overworked pitching staffs. For example, Mauch rushed pitchers Jim Bunning and Chris Short on two days’ rest, wearing them down as they reached the stretch drive.

It happened again in 1982, when he guided the Angels to the AL Championship Series against Milwaukee. He rushed Tommy John on three days’ rest after the Angels built a 2-1 series lead in a best-of-five series. The Angels lost the next two games and the series.

“All those teams had overworked pitching staffs,” Adler said. “Mauch did it, and Durocher later admitted doing it with the ’69 Cubs. And the Red Sox used up their best pitchers on the big games and lost a lot of little ones along the way.”

Times staff writer John Weyler contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

How the West Will Be Won

The standings and the remaining schedule for the American League West: *--*

W L Pct. GB Angels 72 63 .533 -- Seattle 72 63 .533 -- Texas 68 67 .504 4 Oakland 67 68 .496 5

*--*

Tonight through Sunday

Angels at Texas; Oakland at Seattle.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Angels at Seattle; Oakland at Texas.

Sept. 28-Oct. 1

Oakland at Angels; Seattle at Texas.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Gashouse Gangs

Chokers. Cursed. Collapsed. All are ugly labels applied to teams that have blown big leads in major league baseball division races. Are the Angels next in line? Their 11-game lead over the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 10 has evaporated; the teams are now tied.

Here are some teams that have blown big leads:

1951 BROOKLYN DODGERS

* Games ahead: They led the New York Giants by 13 1/2 games in August.

* Finish: The teams tied for the National League pennant and met in a three-game playoff.

* How it happened: The hitting of catcher Roy Campanella and first baseman Gil Hodges kept Chuck Dressen’s Dodgers ahead for most of the season, but it all ended with the “Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff.” In the third game of the playoff, the Giants’ Bobby Thomson hit “the Shot Heard ‘Round the World”--a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth that won it.

1964 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

* Games ahead: They led by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play.

* Finish: They tied for second with Cincinnati, one game behind St. Louis.

* How it happened: Two newcomers--pitcher Jim Bunning from Detroit and rookie infielder Dick Allen--helped Gene Mauch’s Phillies surge to the NL lead. But the Phillies lost 10 in a row in late September while Cincinnati won nine in a row and St. Louis eight in a row. Victories in the Phillies’ final two games forced the tie with the Reds.

1969 CHICAGO CUBS

* Games ahead: They led the New York Mets in the NL East by 9 1/2 games on Aug. 16.

* Finish: They lost the division title to the Mets by eight games.

* How it happened: Leo Durocher’s Cubs got off to a fast start behind the offense of Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Billy Williams. But they lost eight in a row in September and the Mets won 10 straight.

1978 BOSTON RED SOX

* Games ahead: They led the New York Yankees in the AL East by 14 1/2 games on July 19 and by 8 1/2 games on Aug. 27.

* Finish: They tied the Yankees for the division title.

* How it happened: Don Zimmer’s team fell 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees in mid-September but won the final eight to force the tie. They lost a one-game playoff when Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent hit a three-run pop-fly homer over Fenway Park’s left-field wall.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Teams, Baseball Encyclopedia, Total Baseball