Head in the Clouds

Jim Abbott swam over to the waterfall cascading into the hotel pool and stood up directly beneath the thick sheet of water. “Hey, I want a shower like this,” he shouted to his wife, Dana.

Why not? He has everything else he wants.

Abbott is in an Angel uniform again and preparing to pitch in front of the fans who have always adored him. Home games are a stress-free cruise up the Costa Mesa Freeway from his home in Corona del Mar. He’s reunited with Marcel Lachemann, the Angel manager whom Abbott considers simply the best pitching coach alive, and close friend Tim Mead, the assistant general manager. And he gets to spend a lot of time hanging out in the clubhouse with many of his best buddies in baseball.

His planets are aligned, his ducks in a very neat row.

“I’m on top of the world,” he says, smiling. “I can’t express how delighted I am to be here. And for all the right reasons, the important reasons. It’s such a great feeling.”

Abbott turned down a contract offer from Toronto worth $9.5 million over three years last winter and accepted a $7.8-million, three-year deal with the Angels 45 minutes before the 9 p.m. deadline on Jan. 8.

The man wanted to be an Angel . . . again.

The Angels had traded Abbott to the Yankees in December of 1992 when he wouldn’t accept their four-year, $16-million offer. Abbott felt “pushed to the wall” by the Angels’ take-it-or-leave-it negotiating style and he wasn’t sure the team, which lost 90 games that season, had a direction for the future. They had one. Down. They lost 91 games in 1993.

“There were a lot of different dynamics going on behind closed doors; money wasn’t the only consideration,” Abbott said. “But I don’t want to talk about it. It’s history and it really doesn’t matter now.”

Now, everything’s lovey-dovey. Mead says Abbott “should have never not been an Angel” and there are a whole lot of people in the Southland who agree. He could be the most beloved Angel in history--sorry, Nolan and Wally--and the turnstiles spin every time he pitches.

The always-poised Abbott nearly bristles at the notion the Angels might have wanted him back as much for his marketing and public relations value as his pitching, though.

“I think that sort of criticism would be unfounded and not really fair,” he said. “You can’t bring me back here to be a novelty, a fan favorite who will draw crowds. You can’t pay me the kind of money they’re paying me and not expect production.

“If I go out there and pitch terribly, any popularity I might have gained will wear off very, very quickly. And anybody who doesn’t believe that is incredibly naive. Look, I’ll take my chances out there with anyone in the American League. I felt like I had a good year last year and I think that warranted them wanting me back on the team.”

Abbott’s 1995 record of 11-8--6-4 with the Chicago White Sox and 5-4 with the Angels--may not be the stuff of Cy Young awards, but his earned-run average was 3.70, ninth-best in the American League. He also struck out 86 and walked 64 and gave the two teams a total of 197 innings.

Lachemann probably heaved a huge sigh of relief this January when Chuck Finley signed three days before the deadline, and the stoic Angel manager might have even jumped up, pumped his fist and yelled, “Yes!” when Abbott agreed to terms. And his excitement had nothing to do with attendance figures.

“I thought it was very important that we made an honest effort to sign him,” Lachemann said, “and I think the Autry’s went above the original budget.

“If we had lost Chuck or Jimmy, we would have been in big trouble. We scored runs last year and we’ll score runs this year, but you have to defend it, and that starts on the mound. These are the guys who give you the innings, put you in a position to win.”

After last season’s trade that brought him back to Anaheim, Abbott was brilliant on the road--going 5-1 with a 1.51 ERA--and ineffective in the Big A, where he was 0-3 with a 7.54 ERA in six starts. Was he trying too hard to please the extra 5,000 fans who showed up each time he pitched?

“I really can’t explain it,” he said. “I don’t think I put extra pressure on myself. I never really even thought about it. My approach is always the same. I think it was just the way things worked out.

“I pitched very well a couple of times at home and didn’t win and I pitched horribly a couple of times, too. Over the length of a complete season, I bet those things would have evened out.”

The Angels are eager to find out and so is Abbott. He may have lost a couple of miles per hour off his fastball since he jumped from the Olympic team to the big leagues with the Angels in 1989, but Abbott doesn’t have to rely on throwing the ball past a hitter anymore.

“Abby is such a quick learner,” Finley said. “He’s made the adjustments from year to year, working out what he can do against certain guys and what he can’t do. He was pretty polished when he first came up, but he keeps improving on it.”

Abbott is a bright young man who learns from his mistakes, and he’s made his share. He has given up an average of 21 homers per season over the last three years.

“I’ve seen a lot of hitters in the American League a lot of times now and I feel like I know what I can do and what they can do,” Abbott said. “When I first came up, I just concentrated on throwing the ball and trusting the movement on my pitches. Now, I’m much better at using both sides of the plate, I have better breaking pitches and off-speed pitches, more ways to get people out.

“But most of all it’s experience. I have a much better idea of how to approach it.”

Abbott also has the confidence of knowing that his mentor and pitching guru will always be nearby to provide technical, or fatherly, advice.

“Lach being here was a tremendous factor for me,” Abbott said. “I have the utmost respect for him as a man and a manager and I want to be on his side of the fight. I grew up with Lach and [pitching coach] Chuck Hernandez. They know me and understand me and I feel comfortable working with them. That had a huge amount to do with it.”

The presence of Tim Salmon, Jim Edmonds, J.T. Snow, Chili Davis, Garret Anderson, Gary DiSarcina and Co. didn’t hurt either. They have the potential to provide the offense that a workhorse such as Abbott can transform into a bunch of 7-5 victories.

“This team should be able to go out and compete with anybody on any night,” he said. “This is going to be a very good offensive team, a team that plays good defense and, to top it off, we’re going to have a fine bullpen. What more could any pitcher ask for?

“All you have to do is take the ball every five days, give your team the innings and you’ll have a good chance of winning.”

Abbott is hoping the Angels are the feel-good hit of the summer and maybe he can pick up the only item missing from his otherwise perfect life: a World Series ring.