BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Lach, Stop Apologizing for Angels’ Sorry Play

No matter how it plays out, a few thoughts while suffering vertigo watching the Angels’ free fall:

--Marcel Lachemann should stop his public apologies for moves he made or should have made, things he did or didn’t do. The manager may be only trying to deflect heat from his players, but Lachemann is undermining his own leadership. The apologies are adding up.

--Wasn’t it only yesterday that Tony Phillips was considered the team catalyst as leadoff hitter and clubhouse leader? Few players have ever had a season turn around with such devastating quickness. Controlled emotion and intensity are one thing, but uncontrolled they are another. That and his .200 average since Aug. 1, his ongoing struggles at third base and his possible free-agency status have clouded Phillips’ future with the team. Tightly wound at 36, Phillips should have received regular days off.

--The reacquisition of Jim Abbott might still prove to be the right move for the future, but it’s clearer than ever that what the Angels needed most in 1995 was a dominant right-handed starter unafraid to pitch inside, which at the trade deadline translated to David Cone. The Toronto Blue Jays, with several other suitors at the door, asked a high price of the Angels, but it was all part of a ticking showdown, and Bill Bavasi and Tim Mead might have shown their inexperience by backing off and pulling a quick trigger on Abbott. Call it a move made with the heart instead of the head--if winning in 1995 was the goal.

--The 11-game lead was deceiving. The Angels were never that good. Thus, the loss of one key player, all-star shortstop Gary DiSarcina, carried serious consequences. It weakened the Angels defensively at two pivotal positions--shortstop and second base--but had even greater impact on offense. The absence of a .317 hitter in the No. 9 spot meant the lineup didn’t turn over as frequently and the Angels often played only six innings on offense because of three comparatively easy outs at the bottom of the order: the catcher, second baseman and substitute shortstop. Hitting is contagious. The rest of the lineup inherited the pressure and basically failed to pick up the slack.

--Beyond a hitting and pitching slump, the Angels have been battling serious breakdowns in fundamentals: hitting cutoff men, running the bases, making the right kind of out at the right time. Pressure? Inexperience? Trying to do too much? It probably has been a combination of factors, but the virus has been deadly, with no one immune.

--Yes, there will be sorrow and regret for Gene Autry if the Angels blow it. The Cowboy carries responsibility for 35 years of ever-changing philosophy and direction, but he deserved his World Series this time. One more victory in ’82. One more strike in ’86. That almost pales compared to the loss of an 11-game lead, and not even all of Disney’s magic may ease Autry’s pain and memory.

BAY BLUES

The Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants were hammered by strike fallout. The A’s attendance average of 16,540 was their lowest since 1986. The Giants, with an average of 17,064, have suffered the biggest attendance drop-off in baseball. Each club estimates losses of more than $20 million and probably will undergo major economic shake-ups--both in player and organization cutbacks.

The A’s will do it under the new ownership of Bay Area developers Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman. General Manager Sandy Alderson is expected to stay through 1996, when his contract expires. Manager Tony La Russa has two years left but could leave now under an escape provision if the club is sold.

Rumors have tied La Russa to the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks, but a meeting with Schott on Tuesday led to the feeling among club officials that La Russa will probably stay, although La Russa didn’t say that.

“I came out of the day with a much clearer idea of what the A’s are and what they expect and what they will be,” he said. “Do I have a much clearer idea whether I’m going to be here? No.”

He also said: “I personally want to do the right thing, and he wants to do the right thing for the A’s. If the two things come together. . . .”

Despite baseball’s problems, there is a long line of people anxious to buy in, willing to pay the price. Hoffman/Schott bought the club for an estimated $85 million. Walter A. Haas and family paid $12.7 million when Charlie Finley sold in 1980.

Haas died of cancer Wednesday. There have been few owners more loved by the people who worked for him and the Bay Area community to which he contributed generously.

In a meaningful tribute, every A’s player and front office employee has pledged at least 15 hours of community service in his honor.

The Giants are headed for a last-place finish in the National League West with a $35-million payroll. The ax is going to fall, but it won’t be easy. The club owes almost $20 million to three players next year: Barry Bonds goes from $7.75 million to $8 million, Matt Williams from $5.5 million to $6.25 million, and Robby Thompson, an oft-injured bust since signing a three-year, $11.6-million contract after the 1993 season, goes from $3 million to $4.6 million.

Closer Rod Beck, already making $2.2 million, 10-game winner Mark Leiter and right fielder Glenallen Hill, who has 23 homers and 84 runs batted in, might not be tendered contracts because they are eligible for arbitration. The Giants are giving lip service to retaining Deion Sanders, but eligible for arbitration at $2.25 million and the object of Bay Area scorn since jilting the 49ers (one sign at Candlestick this weekend read “Slime Time”), the man once known as Prime Time has lost appeal.

HONOR ROLL

Tony Gwynn is about to win his sixth National League batting title. Only Honus Wagner, with eight, and Stan Musial and Rogers Hornsby, seven each, won more. He is about to join Musial as the only National League players to hit .300 or better for 13 consecutive seasons. He is in a decimal-point battle with Wade Boggs for the highest career batting average among active players at about .335.

“I’m a grinder,” Gwynn said at his locker in San Diego last week. “I like being out there every day. I like trying to beat the system [by producing the type averages he has].

“I just wonder sometimes if people really realize and appreciate how hard it is to do what I’ve done, but I don’t think we’ll get a handle on that until I’ve been retired for a while and we have an opportunity to see if anyone comes along to do what I’ve done.”

In other words, it’s almost as if Gwynn is taken for granted--a compliment in itself.

“No question about it,” Gwynn said of being taken for granted. “It’s like I’ve dug a hole for myself. If I’m not fighting for a batting title, I’ve had a bad year.

“I’ve never finished lower than sixth, but it’s always a question of ‘What have you done lately?’ It can drive you up a wall sometimes, but it comes with the territory.”

Gwynn, 35, has been particularly remarkable in the last three years. His cumulative batting average for that span was .371 through Thursday. He batted .358 in 1993, was in the process of challenging .400 at .394 when the strike began last year and was on a pace through Thursday to produce a career-high 221 hits if this were a 162-game season.

“If someone had said three years ago that I was going to do what I’ve done in that time I would have said, ‘No way, you’re crazy,’ ” Gwynn said.

“I’ve surprised myself and dug that hole even deeper, but it pushes you to be the best you can be. It’s a source of motivation.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Of the 131 home runs that the Colorado Rockies’ Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla, Larry Walker and Andres Galarraga have hit, 93 have been at Coors Field. When shortstop Walt Weiss broke his streak of 750 at-bats without a homer on Wednesday, Walker said: “Now we’re the 30, 30, 30, 30, 1 club.”

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The Cincinnati Reds will start Pete Schourek in Game 1 of the division playoff, no matter if it’s in Dodger Stadium or Coors Field. Schourek is 4-5 on the road and 13-2 at Riverfront Stadium, but by pitching the opener he can come back in Game 5 at Riverfront if necessary.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates played their final home game Wednesday, after which Manager Jim Leyland broke down in tears, concerned he had managed his last game for the Pirates and/or the club had played its last game in Pittsburgh. Leyland has another year on his contract but is certain to be romanced by other teams. After drying the tears, Leyland declared himself a longshot player and was betting that media magnate Kevin McClatchy’s bid for the team will be consummated and it will stay in Pittsburgh with an influx of new money, enhancing the future.

“I’m a guy who believes in miracles,” Leyland said. “I believe I’m going to be managing the Pittsburgh Pirates in Three Rivers Stadium next year--somehow, some way.”

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Cal Ripken Jr. had three hits against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday after getting only three in the 44 previous at-bats after breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games record. Ripken had reacted to the slump by whacking balls off a tee he carried to the plate after each of the first three games in Detroit, picking up the dozens of balls scattered around the park when he was done.

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The division title assures an executive-of-the-year award for General Manager Dan Duquette of the Boston Red Sox, who won while slicing the payroll from $42 million to $28 million and eliciting remarkable productivity from reclamation projects such as Tim Wakefield, Erik Hanson, Stan Belinda, Troy O’Leary, Willie McGee and, down the stretch, Dwayne Hosey, who was claimed on waivers from Kansas City on Aug. 31 and has emerged as the starting center fielder while batting .333 with the Red Sox through Thursday. “The man has given the team a new spirit,” coach Frank White said of the veteran Hosey.