Smith Got What He Deserved

Lee Smith for John McEnroe?

No, that can’t be right.

Whitey Herzog might have made that deal--Whitey once traded Lee Stevens for a quarterback--but he hasn’t worked for the Angels in months.

Lee Smith for Chuck McElroy?

Yes, that appears to be it.

And a 15-game winner to be named later?

No. That’s it.

Smith for McElroy.

Baseball’s all-time saves leader, an almost certain Hall of Famer who led the Angels with 37 saves last season, for a journeyman middle relief pitcher with a 1996 earned-run average almost as high as Jim Abbott’s.

And, the Angels get to pay the difference between Smith’s and McElroy’s salaries--an amount totaling almost $900,000.

Then, the Angels become responsible for the remaining two years on McElroy’s contract--an additional $1.6 million.

First reaction: Whitey, come home.

Second reaction: Is there a method to determine who got the worst end of this deal?

The Angels, who shopped the most successful relief pitcher in history for five weeks and could find nothing better than an obscure eight-year veteran with career totals of 18 victories and 14 saves?

Or Smith, who now gets Marge Schott?

Clearly, it’s lose-lose for the Angels and Smith, although it can be argued that the Angels deserved better. Smith painted himself and the team into this predicament by ignoring an irrefutable law of physics (38-year-old muscles tend to transport a cork-and-twine spheroid at a velocity appreciably less than 26-year-old muscles) and refusing an assignment to serve in a support role for Troy Percival.

When your demand boils down to “Let me blow the ninth inning or trade me,” you take your chances with your eventual destination.

Symbolically speaking, Smith just traded mouse ears for swastikas. Today, Smith awakens inside the Fourth Reich of major league baseball, where the club president insults her players verbally or financially--or both, whenever possible. If Smith sincerely views this as an improvement over his situation with the Angels, he needs to consult Dave Parker and Eric Davis.

Smith didn’t better his lot in the bullpen, either. That’s the ironic twist of the knife here: Smith didn’t want to set up for Percival in Anaheim, so now he sets up for Jeff Brantley in Cincinnati.

Assuming Smith doesn’t opt for the insubordination route one more time.

Reds General Manager Jim Bowden made it clear to Smith before his arrival, telling Cincinnati writers Monday that “We have Jeff Brantley. He’s one of the best closers in baseball. We just wanted to upgrade, and Lee Smith to get us to Jeff Brantley makes us a better team.”

Manager Ray Knight supports Bowden on this one, stating flatly that Brantley’s “my closer,” and, well, best of luck to him. In Anaheim, Smith’s “If I ain’t closin,’ I might as well be dozin’ ” routine had Marcel Lachemann and Bill Bavasi running in so many circles that, eventually, the entire team spun off course.

Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on first?” act had nothing on Lachemann and Bavasi’s “Who gets the ninth?” bit. Percival or Smith? Smith or Percival? Bavasi says it’s Percival, but Lachemann promised Smith. Bavasi says, no, I really think it’s Percival; Lachemann says, no, it’s Percival until Smith is ready. And who decides when Smith is ready? Lachemann? Bavasi? Smith? Percival? Rocks-and-scissors between Rex Hudler and Brad Pennington?

It was funny to everybody except the Angels. The players quietly filed in behind Percival and after 11 saves in 11 attempts, who could blame them? Lachemann began to look like the nutty professor, locked away in his lab with his own broken test tubes, all alone to tinker with a doomed experiment.

It wasn’t good for team morale, it wasn’t good for team performance and it finally forced the Angels to deal with Smith, the avid off-season outdoorsman, in terms he could understand.

Monday, the Angels finally cut bait.

They could have released Smith, and probably should have. Releasing him would have been cheaper--$1.2 million, the remainder of Smith’s 1996 contract, instead of the $2.5 million they will pay to make up the difference between Smith and McElroy this season as well as the last two years on McElroy’s current contract.

But Angel left-handed middle relief hasn’t been the same since the club decided to scrimp on $500,000 and not re-sign Bob Patterson. Last Saturday, Angel scouts in Denver watched McElroy pitch 4 2/3 innings and hold the Rockies to two runs. That’s better than most Angel starters have fared recently, so the team decided to jump.

It didn’t have to end this way. Smith could have saved the Angels a lot of money by taking the eighth inning, instead of the ninth. He could have saved the Angels a lot of grief by taking one for the team.

Instead, the final line on his 1 1/3-season career with the Angels will forevermore read:

Blown save opportunity, Smith.