When It Comes to Chili’s Retirement, All Bets Are Off

The Angels were buried in last place, some 15 games back, in September 1996, mired in a state of depression that must have altered then-designated hitter Chili Davis’ thought process.

“If you see me in an Angel uniform or any other uniform in 1997, I will give you every dollar I have,” Davis said at the time. “This is one of those years when retirement is definitely in the cards.”

Three years later, Davis, the ageless wonder, is having a superb season for the New York Yankees with a .319 average, 10 homers and 43 runs batted in, and getting a good belly laugh out of his 1996 quote.

“I spent it all, it’s all gone,” Davis, 39, said when confronted by a reporter looking to collect on old debts. “I tell you what, if you see me in any uniform in 2001, I’ll give you every dollar I have left.”

Davis, deemed to old and slow and expensive by the Angels, was traded to Kansas City for pitchers Mark Gubicza and Mike Bovee after the 1996 season.

He had a good experience with the Royals--”I played with great guys in a great city,” Davis said--and when rumors about a possible trade to the Yankees surfaced that July, Davis got to thinking it might be good to win another championship.

The trade never materialized, but a .279 season with 30 homers and 90 RBIs convinced the Yankees he was worthy of a two-year, $10-million contract with an option for 2000, and Davis got another World Series ring last year.

Davis missed more than four months of 1998 because of an ankle injury, but he has been a force in 1999, playing in 64 of 66 games and even stealing four bases. He had an RBI double in the third inning Saturday night.

“My brain keeps playing tricks on my body, telling my body to do stupid stuff like run faster, steal this base, put a glove on,” Davis said. “My body has to remind my brain I’m 39.

“Even though I talk about retirement, I’ve got to get this game out of my system. I’d hate to be sitting home in 2001 and thinking I could have played another year.”

*

Davis has many friends on the Angels, but he was disappointed to hear that several of them went to General Manager Bill Bavasi two weeks ago to discuss concerns about Manager Terry Collins in the wake of news the team was negotiating a contract extension for Collins.

“I don’t agree with going upstairs and bad-mouthing a manager,” Davis said. “If I have a problem with [Yankee Manager] Joe Torre I will go into his office and work it out. I wouldn’t go to [General Manager] Brian Cashman or [owner] George Steinbrenner and say you’ve got to get rid of this guy.”

When Davis looks at the Angels he sees “a team that has underachieved every year, for whatever reason. You can’t say they don’t play hard. They’ve got hard-nosed players, some gamers. But you can’t afford to lose the players [Tim Salmon, Jim Edmonds and Gary DiSarcina] they lost to injury because it puts a lot more pressure on everyone else.”

TODAY

ANGELS’

TIM BELCHER

(4-6, 6.95 ERA)

vs.

YANKEES’

DAVID CONE

(7-2, 2.77 ERA)

Yankee Stadium, 10:30 a.m. PDT

TV--Channel 9.

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090), KCTD (1540).

* Update--DiSarcina, rehabilitating a broken arm, had two hits, an RBI and a run in a game for double-A Erie Saturday night and is batting .300 (6 for 20) in four games for Erie.