EXECUTIVE ORDER

There is Bill Stoneman’s way or the highway, but there was a treacherous night in 1963 when the two became one, when the principles of a general manager who refuses to veer off the course he has set for the Angels despite heavy criticism may have begun to take root.

Stoneman, then 19, had returned home after a 12-hour shift at a West Covina gas station at 11 p.m. one Saturday, only to discover that to be eligible to play his sophomore season at Idaho after transferring from Mt. San Antonio College he’d have to enroll in summer school that Monday morning. By midnight, he hit the road for the 900-mile trip to Moscow, Idaho.

After driving all night Saturday, all day Sunday and deep into Sunday evening, he fell asleep at the wheel and flipped his 1959 Volvo, which, thanks to the forward- thinking manager of the Western Tire and Auto Store in West Covina, was equipped with a fancy new device known as a lap belt.

“That saved my life,” Stoneman said.

A dazed and bloodied Stoneman crawled out of the car and onto the pavement near the Washington- Idaho border, about 50 miles from his destination. A set of headlights approached. The driver offered assistance.

Stoneman gathered his belongings, hopped into the back of a truck loaded with pigs and sheep and was driven to the sheriff’s station in Clarkston, Wash. He had several cuts and bruises but was not badly hurt.

The officer took Stoneman to a hotel and arranged a bus ride to Moscow in the morning, but when the wake-up call rang, Stoneman’s head was stuck to his pillow--the blood from his cuts had dried while he slept.

He filled the bath tub with water and soaked his head until he could remove the pillow case, but it took so long he missed his bus. So he hitchhiked to Moscow, catching a ride in a big rig hauling wood chips.

Stoneman made it to campus in time to register for summer school and played three seasons at Idaho. He spent eight years in the big leagues, pitching two no-hitters, nine years as a financial officer for Canada’s Royal Trust, 15 years in the Montreal Expos’ front office, and now look at him, general manager of the Angels at 56.

“I’ve always been a determined guy who would set certain goals and have the patience to stay with things,” Stoneman said. “Like that weekend I drove to college. I knew what I wanted to do--get to Idaho.

“I wanted a graduate degree, so I went to [the University of] Oklahoma without a dime to my name, got a job as a [teaching assistant] and found enough money to go to school. Then I got drafted by the Cubs, but I finished my graduate degree in the off-season.”

It is this single-minded, almost stubborn, insistence on sticking to his plan that has sometimes frustrated general managers trying to work out trades with Stoneman, agents trying to negotiate contracts with him and Angel fans wondering what his intentions are.

Stoneman has made it clear that his philosophy is to build from within, to only supplement the team with free agents and trades when absolutely necessary, and that he will not compromise the future for the present.

But there is a perception in and out of baseball that Stoneman is more financial officer than general manager, that he was hired in late 1999 with strict orders from the Walt Disney Co., to stay within a modest budget, and, if you can win within those means, great.

It’s difficult to draw the line between perception and reality because Stoneman, adhering to Disney’s virtual gag-order policy toward the media, reveals absolutely nothing when it comes to potential player-personnel moves.

But if actions speak louder than words, the silence coming out of the Angel front office has been deafening.

Stoneman has received high marks for his hiring of Manager Mike Scioscia and scouting director Donny Rowland and for his upgrades to the Angel farm system and Latin American program. He seems to be well-liked by his peers.

“He’s bright, he’s smart, he’s a likable guy,” San Diego General Manager Kevin Towers said. “He doesn’t seem to have a huge ego. He lets Scioscia and his staff run the club, and there seems to be a good relationship there.”

But some have described Stoneman as rigid, almost unyielding, when it comes to putting trades and deals together. Several general managers complained privately that Stoneman demanded far too much in talks for outfielder Jim Edmonds last winter, and agents have come away from free-agent negotiations perplexed.

“Some of that might be experience,” one prominent agent said. “He needs to be more liberal.”

Stoneman knows he has frustrated some general managers and agents, “but I’m not so methodical that if someone offered a deal that was good for the club, I wouldn’t do it,” he said. “In the real world, things aren’t as easy to accomplish as they are in fantasy baseball. When you do a deal, you’ve got to do it to help the club.”

The moves Stoneman has made have bewildered some. His first was to let popular pitcher Chuck Finley go last winter without making a competitive offer.

While many expected Stoneman to overhaul an underachieving team that bickered its way to a last-place finish in 1999, Stoneman did virtually nothing outside of signing journeymen such as Tom Candiotti and Kent Mercker and utility players such as Scott Spiezio and Benji Gil.

His biggest deal was essentially a bust. A few days after saying Edmonds was “off the trading block,” Stoneman sent him to St. Louis for pitcher Kent Bottenfield, a 1999 all-star, and second baseman Adam Kennedy.

Kennedy had a solid rookie season and has great potential, but Bottenfield was a flop, going 7-8 with a 5.71 earned-run average before being traded for outfielder Ron Gant in July. Edmonds, meanwhile, hit .295 with 42 homers and 108 RBIs for the Cardinals.

Stoneman was vindicated when the young but unproven pitchers he touted all last winter helped keep the Angels competitive into September, and an Angel team with a potent offense finished 82-80.

But he did little this winter to upgrade a team in need of a dominant starting pitcher and shortstop. Stoneman did not pursue star shortstop Alex Rodriguez, who was open to coming to Anaheim, or high-end pitchers Mike Hampton and Mike Mussina, claiming the Angels “are a mid-market team and will live and act like one.”

Stoneman didn’t even pursue second-tier free agents such as pitcher Kevin Appier and shortstop Alex Gonzalez, instead opting for much-maligned Ismael Valdes, journeyman Pat Rapp, and Tim Belcher and Gary DiSarcina, who are rebounding from major surgeries. The Angels did bid on pitcher Pat Hentgen and first baseman David Segui but landed neither.

“I once heard someone describe Bill Stoneman as a ‘bear,’ ” one fan wrote in a letter to The Times. “I thought it referred to being strong, tough. Of course, now I know it means he doesn’t do anything but sleep all winter.”

Stoneman claims the perception he’s operating under tight restraints--the Angel payroll will be roughly $43 million this season, down from $57 million in 2000--is not accurate.

“Disney has not gotten in the way of anything I’ve wanted to do,” Stoneman said. “Sure, you work within what your resources are, and that limits everybody. Are we able to operate like the New York Yankees? No.

“On the plus side, we can operate it differently than the Twins and Expos. You can’t go hog-wild if you can only generate so much revenue. You have to deal in the real world.”

Another letter writer criticized Stoneman for living in “Fantasyland” for not going after 20-game winner David Wells, who was shopped this winter. Stoneman seems impervious to the criticism.

“No offense, but I’m not a big reader of newspapers,” Stoneman said. “Nobody likes to be criticized, but that’s part of the business. Some of it is justified, but as long as you believe in what you’re doing and think you’re taking the club in the right direction, there will be a payoff.”

This has always been Stoneman’s approach, from his childhood days to his tenure as Angel general manager.

After his family moved from Indianapolis to California when he was 10, Stoneman took advantage of the lag time between the clearing of orange groves and the building of houses in his West Covina tract to organize a neighborhood effort to carve a baseball field out of the dirt.

Stoneman and his buddies raked the rocks out of the dirt until it was smooth, making a fine surface for sandlot games.

“Between innings, we’d run back into the orange groves and gorge ourselves,” Stoneman said. “Then we’d come back and play baseball with sticky fingers.”

Stoneman was never the best player on his youth or West Covina High School baseball teams, but the right-hander plugged away at Mt. SAC and Idaho and was eventually drafted by the Cubs in the 35th round in 1966.

A top prospect, he wasn’t.

“My first offer was to sign my name on the contract,” Stoneman said. “I said, ‘No.’ Then the scout came back with $500, and I signed. That contract is framed on my office wall in Anaheim.”

He had a modest eight-year major league career, going 54-85 with a 4.08 ERA in 245 games, but there were two highlights: After getting picked by Montreal in the 1969 expansion draft, he threw two no-hitters, against the Phillies in 1969 and Mets in 1972.

Autographed baseballs from both games are encased in a Hall of Fame exhibit in Cooperstown, N.Y.

“Those were nights I had my best stuff, and balls that were hit hard were hit right at people,” he said. “Everything happened right.”

After a shoulder injury ended his career in 1974, he joined Royal Trust, a Canadian financial institution. Returning from a vacation in 1982, Stoneman stopped in Montreal to take in an Expo game.

While chatting with reporters in the press dining room, John McHale, then the Expos’ president, told Stoneman to swing by his office. McHale, impressed with Stoneman’s business acumen, asked him if he’d like to work in the front office, and after wavering for a year, he joined the Expos in 1983 as an assistant to the president.

Though he served two stints as interim general manager, he was essentially a chief financial officer whose primary responsibilities were budgets, contracts and arbitration hearings.

As the financial picture worsened in Montreal in the mid-1990s, he became a key figure in helping the destitute Expos remain viable. That--and his extremely low-key demeanor--are what attracted Angel President Tony Tavares to Stoneman after Bill Bavasi resigned in 1999.

The Angels’ ninth general manager, Stoneman has come off as aloof at times, because he responds to so many media inquiries with a “no comment.” But he is personable and patient with reporters and will not try to mislead.

“I don’t know how he is with you guys, but he’s a stand-up guy and a straight-shooter,” Scioscia said. “When he tells you something, you can take it to the bank.”

Stoneman is not impulsive, at least on the job. Though he decided at the last minute to take his wife, Diane, to Las Vegas for a vacation last November, “I’d never do things that were important at the drop of a hat,” said Stoneman, who has two grown children and one granddaughter.

Front-office decisions are not unilateral. He relies on assistant GM Ken Forsch, special assistant to the GM Gary Sutherland and scouting director Rowland. Scioscia and his coaches have considerable input.

“This is the kind of job where you wake up in the middle of the night, think of something and jot it down,” Stoneman said. “By the end of the day, I’ll have little pieces of paper all around my desk with notes to myself.”

He rarely ventures into the clubhouse and prefers to remain behind the scenes. When he speaks, it is in measured, even tones, with little emotion.

“I’m pretty calm on the outside, but on the inside, I’m pretty excited,” he said. “As an athlete, you develop an ability to handle stress. I’m churning on the inside sometimes, but you can’t see it.”

You might if the Angels win the American League West. Then, you can bet Stoneman would be in the clubhouse.

“I’d be the guy crying, the guy fighting back tears,” Stoneman said. “Because when things like that happen, you reflect on how they happened and how many people are responsible for it.”