Now the Timing Is Right for Mauch

Gene Mauch gets right to the point.

Whether you agree with how he managed the 1982 Angels and the 1986 Angels, whether you think he was an idiot or a genius for how he handled the pitchers late in that 1986 Game 5 against the Red Sox, the thing about Mauch is, he knows baseball.

He knows the nuts and bolts ... and much more. He knows about heart and head, about emotions, good and bad. A manager should be measured by more than wins and losses, by more than how he used his pitchers, or how he played the late innings.

A manager should be measured by his heart, loyalty and devotion.

So here’s another thing about Mauch. He loves the Angels. He loves them dearly. He watches all their games on his satellite dish at home, near the second green of a beautiful golf course at Rancho Mirage.

“I wanted to win one for the Cowboy more than anybody except his family and at least as much as anybody in his family,” Mauch says. “Maybe I wanted to win for the Cowboy too much. So am I happy right now? Damn right I am.”

A day after the Angels clinched their first World Series appearance, Mauch is saying that, yes, he might like to attend a World Series game at Edison Field this weekend.

Jackie Autry, widow of Gene Autry, the Cowboy, had invited Mauch to the ballpark twice during the playoffs.

“I could have come Sunday,” Mauch says, “and I could have come the Friday when the Yankees were in town.

“But I said no. I didn’t want anybody to look at me and see anything that might be mindful of tough times. I didn’t want anybody looking at me if things went badly and thinking I brought bad luck. So I stayed at home, in front of the TV, and pulled like hell.

“Now, it’s all over, that stuff. Would I come back now? Yes, I think I would. Can’t come Saturday because my wife’s [dog] needs cataract surgery and I need to be here for them. But Sunday? I’d come Sunday.”

On Monday afternoon, Mauch could have heard his 1986 managing moves still being dissected on sports-talk radio, 16 years later. Next month, Mauch will turn 77.

“I’ll be par plus five,” Mauch says, giving a little test of sports knowledge.

That’s 72 plus five, right?

“Yes it is,” he says. “Good.”

At his age, and with his history, of being known more for the games he lost -- with the Phillies in 1964, with the Angels in 1982 and 1986 -- than for getting flawed teams so far, Mauch is a man who understands criticism and accepts it. It’s not as if he wanted to avoid anything.

“I’ve heard it all,” he says.

But on this day, Mauch says, it’s not appropriate to talk about Angel failures.

“I don’t want anything negative in print,” he says. “I don’t want these players to know how to spell the word ‘negative.’ So let’s talk about the good.”

The good is Manager Mike Scioscia.

Mauch says he told his wife, Jodie, in the spring that Scioscia was a special man who had a special touch.

“They’ve always said about this game that you can’t get too high or too low,” Mauch says. “I mastered the high part, but I could never master not getting low. I couldn’t get over the bad losses. I’ve always known that wasn’t one of my strong points, coming right back after a tough loss. I never wanted players to see my eyes after a tough loss because I know they could see how hurt I was. Because I did hurt, very badly. And the players could see it in my eyes, just how much I hurt.

“Mike does some things I wish I had understood better. He has an ability to get over things. This team had some sickening losses this year, just sickening. And Mike was able to get this team to move on.”

And as Mauch watched the Angels skip away from the worst start in team history -- “another negative and we’re not talking about those,” Mauch says -- he noticed something about them. It wasn’t about the bullpen or the bench or how Scott Spiezio was becoming a fine hitting and fielding first baseman or how Darin Erstad was playing with joy again or how Tim Salmon was playing without pain or how Garret Anderson was playing with inherent confidence.

“What I really like about this team is that this team has the greatest kind of pride a team could have,” Mauch says. “Pride in each other. It’s not an individual pride. It’s how they look left and look right and like what they see, and they look behind them and see a manager who’s been very fair and very consistent.”

Mauch finds joy in not noticing egos and not hearing complaining. “They trust each other and their manager,” he says.

If you see Mauch at Edison Field during the World Series, don’t ask him if he believes in baseball curses or if he feels somehow liberated now that the Angels will have a World Series on the resume.

No longer will the touchstone of this franchise be “one out away, one strike away.” It won’t be about Donnie Moore pitching to Dave Henderson. It will be the legend of Adam Kennedy and his three unlikely home runs, a 10-run inning and an undersized shortstop making the final catch.

“Hell, no, I don’t believe in curses,” Mauch says. “I believe in a good bullpen. A good bullpen is what gets you through the playoffs.

“And the first time someone asked whether I felt any relief now that the Angels are in the World Series, I raised hell. Is that all anybody thinks of the depths of my sincerity about my feelings for the Angels? That all I cared about was what this meant for me? But maybe that’s a fair question. I feel elation, and it’s for the team and the players and the coaches. And I’ll enjoy coming back.”

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.

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Ups and downs

*--* Gene Mauch’s managerial record: Team G W L Pct Angels (1981-82, 1985-87) 711 379 332 533 Minnesota (1976-80) 772 378 394 490 Montreal (1969-75) 1127 499 627 443 Philadelphia (1960-68) 1332 646 684 486 Total (26 years) 3942 1902 2037 483

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