Angels Hoping to Catch Break With Scioscia

Mike Scioscia never backed off. Seldom has a catcher been more willing to absorb or more capable of withstanding a collision at the plate than Scioscia was in his 13 years with the Dodgers. He was Iron Mike, but now he faces a challenge more daunting than a 235-pound Dave Parker coming at him full barrel all the way from second base.

He has been chosen from a field of seven candidates to manage the Angels.

It is his first major league assignment, and he will be forced to enter the war zone that is the Angel clubhouse without the knee pads, chest protector and facemask that helped protect him from damage behind the plate.

Nothing could save predecessor Terry Collins.

Wounded by the infighting and ineptness of a season so embarrassingly disappointing that President Tony Tavares compared the clubhouse to a day-care center and wondered why all 25 players couldn’t be traded, Collins ultimately surrendered Sept. 3.

Now Scioscia gets an opportunity he has long coveted but may soon wonder why.

Beyond the need to restore peace and discipline in a combustible clubhouse, Scioscia is joining an organization in skeletal disarray.

Bill Bavasi resigned as general manager rather than commit to the housecleaning that Tavares--undoubtedly calling on his background in facility management--deemed necessary.

There is no farm director, scouting director or coaching staff. More than a dozen of the club’s most experienced scouts were fired by Tavares even before Bill Stoneman was hired as general manager, a hiring that Disney chairman Michael Eisner approved only after the anticipated announcement was delayed so Eisner could interview other candidates, creating the impression he had reservations either about Stoneman or Tavares.

In addition, the possibility of Disney streamlining the payroll in anticipation of selling the club lingers. It now appears that the Angels will not retain Chuck Finley or pay big to fill major holes at second base, behind the plate and on the pitching staff.

Scioscia inherits an injury-riddled team that lost 92 games, was last in the league in hitting and on-base percentage, and could feature a rotation headed by Ken Hill and Tim Belcher, who were a combined 10-19 this season.

Tavares claims the Angels, who had a $51-million payroll in 1999, have lost $50 million over the last three years and that one of Stoneman’s attractions was his ability to help keep the Montreal Expos competitive despite their consistently low budget. Stoneman spent 16 years with the Expos, primarily dealing with arbitration, contracts and other financial matters, and his selection of Scioscia--neither Tavares nor Eisner interfered--may have been made partially with the budget in mind.

Scioscia received a three-year contract totaling about $1 million. Both Don Baylor and Phil Garner, who were 1-2 on Bavasi’s initial managerial list, signed multiyear contracts with the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers at more than $1 million per year.

Baylor, of course, would have been the perfect fit in Anaheim. He is a former most valuable player with the Angels who led the team to two of their three division titles and boasted both the managerial experience and physical presence to cope with the incendiary clubhouse. Baylor lives in La Quinta and yearned to come home, but by the time Tavares, focused on the protracted GM search, made a $1-million-a-year offer that seemed designed strictly to say that he had done it and didn’t fool anyone, a disappointed Baylor was committed to the Cubs.

Scioscia is not Baylor. Nor is he the tough and fiery Hal McRae, who led the Kansas City Royals to three winning seasons despite shortcomings in personnel and was a runner-up with Ken Macha in the Angel search.

There is no track record really to know what kind of manager Scioscia will be or if he can handle a demanding task complicated by the uncertainties of ownership, payroll and front-office inexperience.

The Angel situation seemed to call for a proven manager with muscle, but Baylor and Garner weren’t going to wait and were wary about Disney’s ultimate plans. Scioscia takes over after two years as a bench coach for Bill Russell and Glenn Hoffman with the Dodgers and after one year as a triple-A manager at Albuquerque. He had wanted to return to the Dodgers’ major league staff in 2000 but opted to leave his longtime organization when that opening wasn’t provided. Technically, Scioscia resigned. Some say he would have been fired.

One of his consistent supporters has been Fred Claire, the former Dodger general manager. Scioscia once seemed to be Claire’s choice to succeed Tom Lasorda as manager, but his absence of managerial experience when Lasorda’s heart problems surfaced in 1996 prompted Claire to select Russell on an interim basis.

Claire recommended Scioscia to Stoneman.

“The thing everyone knows about Mike is his ability to block the plate, but what he does better than anyone else is deflect credit to other people,” Claire said. “I complimented him many times on how he had called a great game, but he would say that he had nothing to do with it. That will be a great strength for him with the Angels.”

Experience comes in many forms, and Scioscia was always a manager behind the plate, understanding the other positions as well as his own.

“He’ll command respect with his knowledge of the game,” Claire said. “I see the Angels as having a group of competitive players who only need to come together. As a player, Mike had a real sense of team and the ability to bring people together. That should be another strength for him.”

Nothing will be more important in that clubhouse than bringing people together. If the Angels can avoid the injuries of 1999, have a Ramon Oritz and/or Jarrod Washburn step up in the rotation, fill one of the gaping holes by trading a surplus outfielder, the new manager’s taskwill be much easier. Going in, however, Scioscia would seem to face formidable odds. The former catcher may carry the protection of a multiyear contract, but the bumps and bruises could be more severe and lasting than anything he experienced behind the plate.