The Cowboy’s Last Roundup

One of Gene Autry’s lifetime dreams was to see his beloved Angels play in the World Series.

It never happened, although they came as close as one pitch 12 years ago.

One pitch, one lousy pitch.

And they haven’t played a postseason game since.

“I’ll always harbor this secret feeling that he gave up when the Angels didn’t make it this year,” Hollywood producer and television host Dick Clark said after hearing that Autry had died Friday--three days after his 91st birthday.

Known as the “Singing Cowboy,” Autry became owner of the Angels by accident. Attending the 1960 baseball winter meetings in St. Louis as owner of a radio station hoping to secure a baseball contract, he left as owner of the expansion Los Angeles Angels.

Autry was majority owner at the time of his death, although he sold controlling interest to the Walt Disney Co. 2 1/2 years ago.

More than anything else, though, he was a fan, a friend to those connected with the team.

“He was the best of the best in that area,” said vice president of communications Tim Mead, who has worked for the Angels since starting as an intern in 1980.

When the Angels won their first AL West title in 1979, Autry was in the clubhouse, joining the celebration along with his friend, former President Richard Nixon.

The Angels then lost to Baltimore, 3-1, in the best-of-five AL championship series.

Three years later, the Angels won their second division title and took a 2-0 lead over Milwaukee before losing three straight games to the Brewers.

Then came 1986 and the ultimate heartbreak.

Unfortunately, the league championship series had become a best-of-7 playoff, unfortunate because the Angels won three of the first four games against the Boston Red Sox.

In Game 5, the Angels took a 5-2 lead into the ninth, and Anaheim Stadium was crazed with excitement.

“I remember being in the auxiliary press box, walking around and seeing the press getting excited,” Mead recalled. “And I actually heard, ‘Boy, this is going to be great for the Cowboy.’

“It was one thing that his team felt it. People in the press felt it.”

What followed was the team’s worst nightmare. Mike Witt was one out away from victory when Don Baylor hit a two-run homer, making it 5-4.

Manager Gene Mauch then removed Witt, and Gary Lucas hit Rich Gedman with a pitch before Donnie Moore relieved and gave up a two-strike, two-run homer to Dave Henderson, putting the Red Sox ahead.

The Angels would tie the game, but Boston won 7-6 in 11 innings, pinning the loss on Moore, who would never emotionally recover and committed suicide three years later.

The series moved to Boston, where the Red Sox won the final two games, 10-4 and 8-1, to move on to the World Series.

“My biggest disappointment was not being able to win it for him in ’82 and ‘86,” said Mauch, who managed the Angels in 1981-82 and again from 1985-87. “Autry never treated me like he was my boss and I was his employee. He was my friend.”

The Angels have often been beset by misfortune off the field as well as on, adding to the heartbreak. There was the serious bus crash in May 1992, along with several accidental deaths and bizarre injuries over the years.

It appeared the Angels were headed back to the playoffs in 1995, but they blew an 11-game lead over Seattle, and ultimately lost a one-game playoff to the Mariners.

The Angels led the AL West by three games in early September of this year before being overtaken thanks mainly to five straight losses to the Texas Rangers in the final two weeks.

It would be Autry’s final disappointment.

“Even though the Angels didn’t play in the World Series, I guarantee you he felt like he got it all, they never cheated the Cowboy,” said former big league manager Sparky Anderson, a commentator on Angel telecasts the last three years. “He got everything he wanted.

“He would have never traded owning the Angels for the New York Yankees, believe me.”