Angels Apparently Don’t Feel Time Is of the Essence

While wondering if Ken Griffey Jr. would consider Anaheim close enough to home if they hired Ken Griffey Sr. as manager, I was thinking:

How do you like the strategy devised by the Angel front office, allowing all of the other teams needing a manager to hire one and then choosing from the leftovers? . . .

You’ve got to admit, that’s one way to turn a long list of candidates into a short list. . . .

The Angels should have been calling a news conference last Monday to introduce Don Baylor as their manager. Instead, they were introducing General Manager Bill Stoneman, who would have been hired 10 days earlier if team President Tony Tavares had been allowed by Disney to make the decision. . . .

Meantime, Baylor was locked up by the Cubs. You can’t blame him for choosing not to wait for the Angels. Managing the Cubs is an opportunity of a lifetime. That job doesn’t come open more than every two or three years. . . .

Now that Baylor, Davey Lopes, Mike Hargrove and Phil Garner are taken, the best fit for the Angels is Willie Randolph. . . .

Or maybe Stoneman knows someone I don’t. He was part of the Montreal management team that brought Felipe Alou to the Expos from their Class A team at West Palm Beach, Fla. . . .

Stoneman also was part of the Expo management team that traded Delino DeShields to the Dodgers for Pedro Martinez. . . .

Maybe not everyone will admit it now, but many smart baseball people here besides Fred Claire and Tom Lasorda thought that was a good deal for the Dodgers. Likewise, Stoneman said that a lot of people in Montreal thought the Expos got taken. . . .

“We knew it was risky,” Stoneman said, giving credit to then-Montreal General Manager Dan Duquette for executing the trade. “But we knew that if it turned out right for us, it was really going to be right. Pedro burned inside, burned to excel.” . . .

It’s not hard to figure what attracted Disney to Stoneman. With a $15-million payroll, the Expos won 68 games last season. The Angels won 70 with a payroll of more than $50 million.

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There was at least one potential championship team at Staples Center on Wednesday night when the Lakers played Vancouver. . . .

Galaxy players were watching from one of the suites. . . .

Midfielder Roy Myers made Dallas Coach Dave Dir angry by saying the Chicago Fire would have been a more difficult team for the Galaxy to face in the MLS semifinals than the Burn. . . .

Although the Burn made it difficult for the Galaxy in Game 1 last Sunday at the Rose Bowl, losing, 2-1, on a last-minute shot by Ezra Hendrickson, Myers isn’t backing down. . . .

“I still believe Chicago was the better team,” he said Thursday. “I didn’t say it was going to be easy to play Dallas.” . . .

The best bet in the Breeders’ Cup Saturday at Gulfstream Park is Budroyale in the Classic at 12-1. . . .

Bob Baffert, who has eight horses entered in the Breeders’ Cup, recently offered rides from his elite stable to Laffit Pincay. . . .

If Pincay had accepted, he would have been virtually guaranteed to break Bill Shoemaker’s record for victories, perhaps by the end of the year. Pincay needs only 29 more. . . .

But because Baffert had never been very interested in employing Pincay before, the jockey decided that the trainer was seeking attention. . . .

Bob Baffert seeking attention? Pincay must know a different Bob Baffert. . . .

Here’s the way I look at Baffert: If he draws attention to himself, he also draws attention to horse racing. Everyone in that struggling sport should be thankful. But many aren’t, which tells you a lot about why the sport is struggling.

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Pro basketball fans in town are beginning to discuss whether they’d rather have Kobe Bryant or Lamar Odom. It’s too early for anyone to draw a conclusion, but the fact that it’s even being discussed is already an indication of Odom’s positive impact. . . .

Knick forward Larry Johnson on the Lakers: “There’s a lot of distractions out there. If they were the Wyoming Lakers, they’d win.” . . .

Bob Arum and Don King will have their first meeting Nov. 13 to discuss an Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad rematch. . . .

USC fans shouldn’t count on an automatic victory against any team, especially not Louisiana Tech on Nov. 26 at the Coliseum. Bulldog quarterback Tim Rattay could finish his college career with more yards passing than anyone in NCAA history other than Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer. . . .

USC and UCLA might both have losing records in the same season for the only time other than 1958. . . .

I understand the frustration of Trojan fans, but could e-mailers please quit referring to “Buddy” Hackett?

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.