Mark His Word, Angels to Be Tough

For a man who’s worth more money than most Anaheim savings and loans, Mark Langston still seems a fairly down-to-earth chap. Oh, he looks spiffy enough in his wild wide-striped suit and purplish shoes that resemble something Jack Nicholson’s Joker might wear, and his glamorous wife keeps a diamond on her finger that is larger than Anaheim Stadium, but what the heck, when you got it, flaunt it. What should these people do--wear blue jeans ripped at the knee?

Langston looks sharp, feels sharp and talks a good game, too. He wants not to make waves, even this close to the ocean. Says he’s glad to be an Angel, glad to be where it’s warm, glad to be making what he’s making no matter how much more Mark Davis or Robin Yount or anybody else in baseball’s Billionaire Boys Club eventually commands, and says he’s glad to be playing his home games on real grass for a change, even though “I’m a pitcher, so I’m always in the dirt anyway.”

Outspoken? Not particularly.

The biggest limb Langston ventured onto, at his welcoming party Friday at the Big A, was his description of the Angels as “the team to beat” in the American League West next season, even with the Oakland Athletics having been to back-to-back World Series. That one raised a couple of eyebrows.

Langston explains that he and his off-season next-door neighbor, A’s outfielder Dave Henderson, have been chatting over the back fence about Oakland’s need to fill voids left by Storm Davis on the mound and Dave Parker in the batter’s box and clubhouse, which in turn has led Langston to this startling conclusion: “The Angels definitely figure to be the front-runners going into the season.”

Just wait’ll Jose Canseco hears that. Be sure to dial 1-900-JOSE, or whatever his number is, any time next week, because Canseco probably will be picking the Angels to finish seventh.

Keep in mind, though, this is neither controversy nor conceit on Langston’s part. It’s enthusiasm. It’s a mind-set taking hold. This is Mark Langston already getting into the proper mood for the season, getting himself into a suitable frame of mind after toiling for ballclubs that stayed away from pennant races as though they had incentive bonuses in their contracts not to win.

“I’m a very poor loser,” Langston makes a point of saying and later repeating.

He mentions how he gave a great deal of thought to signing a long-term deal with the Montreal Expos in the middle of last season, soon after they sent three pitchers to the Seattle Mariners on May 25 just to be able to rent him. Then something happened to unsettle Langston.

As he recalls: “We hit a skid where we lost seven games in a row, or something like that, and I was anxious to see how the team would bounce back. Well, we didn’t bounce back.”

That indicated to him something about the club, about its hunger to win.

Same thing at Seattle. Langston ran into the new owner of the Mariners the other day, liked his upbeat attitude, told him it was “too bad he hadn’t bought the team sooner, because things would be very different right now.”

Might he have signed to stay put, had Seattle had more generous management?

“I probably would have signed,” Langston said. “I’m just very glad that I didn’t.

“Spike Owen and I used to talk about it almost nightly in Montreal, why we never could win when we were in Seattle together. All you have to do is look around the league to understand it. Look at the Oakland A’s--half the team’s ex-Mariners. You could fill an All-Star team with the players Seattle has let go.”

Since Langston is eager to please, he answers affirmatively when someone from the West Coast asks him if the biggest factor in his free agency was playing for a team on the West Coast. As a native Californian, Langston hardly minded saying yes. Trouble is, it’s untrue. It’s a little white lie, no harm intended.

Remember, this is a pitcher who just finished saying how he nearly signed with Montreal, or would have stayed in Seattle, given the money. He negotiated with the New York Yankees, with the Chicago Cubs, with the St. Louis Cardinals.

West Coast, schmest coast. Langston was out for three things: major loot, a no-trade guarantee and a five-year warranty. The Angels obliged.

Mark Langston cost Wayne Gretzky $11 when Gretzky bought his fantasy-league baseball team. He cost the Angels $15,999,989 more.

After the Angels outbid seven or eight other teams for the pitcher’s services, a friend ran into Gretzky at a hockey game. First thing Gretzky said was: “Langston!” He was excited. And, as it turns out, the admiration society is mutual.

“I’m a huge fan of his,” Langston says of Gretzky.

The two men have certain things in common, not the least of which is a wife with a show-biz career. Michelle Langston, much like Janet Jones, has an acting career to consider, although Gretzky’s lady already has been in several films, whereas Langston’s wife is a beginner who has merely been taking acting classes for a couple of years.

“Jackie Autry already has introduced me to some of her friends in the business,” Michelle Langston said of the Angel owner’s wife Friday.

Any specific interests?

“Daytime TV,” she said. “A soap would be perfect. It would be nice to have the nights free.”

After all, there will be baseball to watch in the nighttime. The Angels open the season April 9 against--well, what do you know?--the Seattle Mariners, and even if Bert Blyleven works opening night, you can bet Mark Langston won’t be far behind. Langston says he doesn’t care who’s No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 5, except that some guys who are told they are No. 5 tend to believe it, and pitch accordingly.

He does have one worry. One big concern. This Blyleven character, he gives people hotfoots. He’s dangerous.

“Last night I had nightmares that Bert Blyleven was going to be underneath this podium, with a match,” Langston said, during his opening remarks. “That’s why I wore shoes without laces, so he couldn’t get me.”

“I noticed that,” said Blyleven, who was in the room.

“I asked my shoe company to get me some with non-flammable shoelaces,” Langston said.

“They don’t make ‘em!” Blyleven shot back.

Listen, with $16 million in the bank, if you want non-flammable shoelaces, somebody out there will make you non-flammable shoelaces.