Angel Notebook : Devon White Winning Lots of Attention With a Spring-Loaded Bat

PALM SPRINGS —  George Hendrick looked up from his locker stall and saw the reporters moving in for a word with the man dressing next to him, the hitting wonder, Devon White.

“There you go,” chided a grinning Hendrick, the Angels’ Mr. No Comment. “You hit .420 and you start bringing all these kind of people around.”

Mark McLemore tried to squeeze in front of his locker across the aisle. “Hey, Devon,” he called over. “How about some consideration for the guys on Skid Row?”

White, embarrassed by the sudden attention, just laughed. There were only two possible solutions to this situation. Stop hitting or start holding press conferences outside.

For the moment, the first option appears out of the question. White had three more hits in the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the San Diego Padres Tuesday, giving him 14 in his last 6 games and raising his spring average to .411.

“The last time something like this happened, I was back in high school,” White said. “Right now, I’m hitting everything they throw up there. I’m pretty sure that’s gonna change.”

It should, any day now. But then, they were saying that last week. Since Friday, White’s highlights include a two-run homer Saturday, a game-winning hit in the bottom of the 11th inning Sunday, a pinch-single Monday and three singles in his first four at-bats Tuesday.

White knew he had to make an impression on Manager Gene Mauch this spring, but Mauch hadn’t intended for him to get carried away with the idea.

“By far, he’s been the most impressive rookie down here,” said Mauch, referring to the eight teams that train in Arizona and California. Is there anything else White could have showed the manager, someone wanted to know.

“I don’t know what it would be,’ Mauch said.

White admits: “I’ve surprised myself.” He says he has taken advantage of his newness to opposing pitchers.

“They still don’t know what I can do,” White said. “I’m an aggressive hitter and I haven’t been very selective. I’m getting hits off balls.”

What will happen when the newness wears off? White remembers the case of another rookie named Wally Joyner, who hit .313 during the first half of his first season and .257 the second.

“I’m concerned about it, but I’m not worried,” he said. “The way I look at it, I did what I had to do to make the team. Now, I have to concentrate on what the other teams are going to do against me.

“I hope it continues, but even if it doesn’t, I’m going to put in my mental bank everything that’s happened to me so far at the plate.”

For the time being, the Seattle Mariners weigh most heavily on White’s mind. Seattle will open the regular season against the Angels next Tuesday at Anaheim Stadium.

“I’ve hit the Mariners well this spring,” he said. “They’ve pitched me away and they’ve pitched me in. I want to see what they’ll try now.”

With one day remaining in training camp, Mauch was ask to assess the team’s biggest concern of the spring, the bullpen.

“If the second left-hander was where he wants to be, and where I want him to be, I’d feel secure,” Mauch said.

The second left-hander is Chuck Finley, whose spring could best be described as spotty. Finley pitched two innings Tuesday, allowing one hit, two walks and striking out three.

Mauch summed up the outing as “pretty good.”

Elsewhere, Mauch said he felt confident that Stewart Cliburn’s arm would be strong enough to start the season in the bullpen--”Why not?” he said--and has been impressed by the relief work of rookie Mike Cook.

“How does Cook stand with me? Tall,” Mauch said. This despite a two-inning performance Tuesday that Cook said left him “a little disappointed. I lost my composure. I got a little frustrated.”

Cook pitched a scoreless eighth inning but gave up three hits, a walk and two runs in the ninth.

“He doesn’t like walking people,” Mauch said. “Those kind of hits he gave up, 15-hoppers through the infield, if you’re a pitcher, that’s exactly where you want them to hit ‘em.

“He probably feels ‘Oh, I better be perfect every time out there.’ He probably figures he’s on trial. That’s not exactly accurate, although I haven’t told him otherwise.”

Angel Notes

Donald Fehr, executive director of the Players Assn., met with Angel players Tuesday morning on the last stop of his annual trek around spring training camps. “There are a lot of younger faces in this camp than last year,” Fehr noted. “But they’re a lot more educated than most players have been in the past few years. I didn’t educate Wally Joyner--Mike Port did that for me. (The owners) are doing to players today what they used to do to players in 1973. All the things Marvin Miller said make a lot more sense now to those who didn’t live through it.” . . . The Angels have one free agent, Vern Ruhle, in camp and Fehr was asked what made Ruhle’s situation different from that of Bob Boone’s. The difference, according to Fehr, is that Ruhle is signed to a minor league contract, requiring him to spend at least the season’s first month at Edmonton. “You can have no agreements, no understandings about the player working toward appearing in the major leagues,” Fehr said. Under those conditions, could the Angels have signed Boone to a minor league contract and done the same with him? “If it wouldn’t be a sham,” he said. Fehr also said that ex-Angel pitchers Bruce Kison and Ken Forsch have grievances pending against their former team. According to Fehr, Kison had a provision in his contract that would pay him $100,000 if he was not on the Angels’ roster on April 15, 1985. Kison wasn’t. “They refused to pay,” Fehr said. Forsch is appealing the amount of termination pay he received when the Angels released him last May.

Kirk McCaskill improved his spring record to 2-1, yielding five hits and one run in five innings. He struck out four. “I’ll be ready for the season, that’s the bottom line,” McCaskill said. “I’m not as consistent as I want to be, I want to throw more strikes, but I think I could go right now.” McCaskill is scheduled to pitch the final game of the Freeway Series. The probable pitching matchups: Friday--John Candelaria vs. Fernando Valenzuela; Saturday--Don Sutton vs. Bob Welch; Sunday--McCaskill vs. Jerry Reuss. . . . Gary Pettis, hitting just .229 after going 0 for 3 Tuesday, took extra batting practice after the game. “Anything to get him going,” Mauch said. “I know how it hurts to struggle with the bat.” . . . With a crowd of 3,406, the Angels set a spring attendance record at Palm Springs. With one game remaining, the Angels have drawn 54,414 to Angels Stadium.