Grateful Dead : Downing Thought Career Was Over Until Rangers Gave Him a Chance

OAKLAND —  Brian Downing could tell last year that he might be looking from the bench at the last days of a baseball career--his own.

Some players are prepared for life after baseball, some are not. It seemed uncomfortably clear that Downing was not.

He didn’t play for games on end, 12 at one point. In the last year of his contract, Downing foresaw an Angels’ future without him.

His assessment was simple, with a chilling edge. “I’m dead,” he said.

The Angels announced after last season that they would not re-sign Downing, a 40-year-old designated hitter who spent more games in an Angel uniform than anyone and who hit more home runs, too. The Angels saw him as too old, too often injured, too expensive and maybe too intense for their tastes.

It wasn’t a popular move with fans, but as Downing said, “Unfortunately, the fans don’t matter in a way that counts.”

Downing, who had nowhere to play until he was picked up by Texas late in spring training, makes his return to Anaheim Stadium tonight.

A month ago, it would have been a triumphant one. He was hitting .389 and was among the American League leaders in the early season.

But as the Rangers open a four-game series against the Angels, it is a month too late for such euphoria, unless one takes the view that it’s a triumph to return at all.

Downing did not want it to be like this.

A monthlong slump has lowered his average from .389 to .282. In his last 20 games, he has hit .116, with only eight hits in 69 at-bats. “I’ve been very embarrassed the last four weeks,” Downing said.

Downing used to say he couldn’t bear to play for another American League team because he never wanted to lift a bat against the Angels. After last year, he changed his mind.

He remains miffed at the Angels but sees no point in discussing it, saying only he is happy to be playing again.

Downing spent the winter trying to accept his career being through.

“It was ,” Downing said. “I got a feel for it during last season, too. It was over.

“That was what I went through this winter. It was sitting and waiting and going through so many rejections, then getting a chance at the last minute.”

Late in spring training, on March 28, the Rangers invited him to camp.

It was as if the Angels and every other team who passed on him had uttered four of the most dangerous words you can say to Downing: You can’t do it.

This is a player in his 17th major league season, despite beginning his career as an undrafted free agent out of Magnolia High and Cypress College.

To doubt him is to inspire him.

“(Doubt) Brian? That makes Brian play better,” Ranger Manager Bobby Valentine said.

Shortly after joining the Rangers, Downing broke his hand in an exhibition game but was back in the batting cage the next day.

After coming off the disabled list on April 13, he started on a tear. Nine games into his season, he was hitting .438. Seven weeks along, he hadn’t faded much. The Rangers won 14 games in a row in May, and Downing hit .450 during that stretch. He was still hitting .389 on May 28.

In June, Downing has been struggling.

“I’m not that worked up about going back and playing (against the Angels) anymore,” he said. “Now, I’ve let a lot of people down here (with the Rangers).

“It’s not a situation where I’m going in saying, ‘Oh, God, I’m going to try to really hurt these guys.’ I’m not that kind of a player. I’m not even hitting batting practice pitchers hard lately.”

If nothing else, this trip will allow Downing some sessions in the back-yard batting cage at his Yorba Linda home, where many a slump has ended. Downing took advantage of the Rangers’ off-day Monday to sneak in a day at home before meeting the team in Oakland. With several days to spend at home during this series, Downing hopes to bury another bad streak in the back yard.

“I’ve been playing the worst of my life the past month,” he said. “The cage is not necessarily a cure-all. But it’s something that was a big part of my 13 years there. I miss it. I’m going to take my machine back to Texas.”

Downing hasn’t forgiven the Angels. He is more concerned with his struggle of the moment.

“If I weren’t playing as bad as I’ve ever played, I would have different emotions,” he said. “If they thought I was a bum, that’s one thing. They made me go through a slow death.

“I don’t want to get into that. I just want to get back on track.”

For the first two months of the season, Downing made the Angels’ off-season moves at designated hitter look bad. Now he has passed the baton to Chili Davis, whose 18 home runs for Minnesota are the most in the major leagues. Davis, a player the Angels thought they would have back, signed with the Twins as a new-look free agent.

While Downing, and now Davis, thrived, the Angel designated hitter, Dave Parker, spent too much time on the low side of .200 during April and May and is now batting .222. Parker was acquired in a spring trade with the Milwaukee Brewers for Dante Bichette and a minor leaguer.

Downing’s start might have been a twist of the knife to the Angels, but the tale that waits to be told is the rest of the season.

“I gave all mine back,” Downing said. “The way I’ve played lately, I’m holding on day-to-day. Any day could be my last, and rightfully so.”

The calculated gamble the Angels made was that, yes, Downing probably had something left, but was it worth the $2 million they might have been forced to pay him if his case had gone to arbitration?

The Rangers, who signed Downing to a contract that will be worth about $600,000 if he achieves all of the incentive goals, have been more than happy with him as a part-time player.

“We’ve gotten everything we could expect,” Texas General Manager Tom Grieve said. “Brian has been a streaky kind of player, and he has been streaky with us. I don’t mind. When you can have that kind of streak and almost carry the team like he did, that’s more than you can ask.”

Downing’s history of missing time with back trouble and a strained rib cage was a concern for some teams--he suggested that the Angels had misrepresented his condition--but the Rangers sought him out anyway after releasing Pete Incaviglia, a strikeout-prone hitter who is now with the Detroit Tigers.

“We were a little concerned about (Downing’s) health, but we didn’t feel we were going to ask him to play as much of a role on the team as he has,” Grieve said. “We didn’t think he would play this much. We figured with the part-time player status, it wouldn’t bother him.”

Valentine said he isn’t bothered by Downing’s slump.

“When he was getting on base 70% of the time and hitting .500, you had to wonder, was that reality?” Valentine said. “If you looked at that with an open mind, that it would not continue, you can also look at this and say it will not continue.

“He’s had five games of bad at-bats. Other days, he’s gotten no hits but had good at-bats.”

As for his age, the Rangers, with Nolan Ryan on their roster, know a little bit about not underestimating men in their 40s.

“I think that age, whether it be young age or old age, the effect you get is usually decided by the person,” Valentine said. “Usually the performance you get depends on the individual and what makes them willing to work. When you’re young, it’s like you’re wearing tennis shoes. As you get older, you’re walking on bare feet. Some guys will walk a mile on bare feet. Some are not willing.”

Downing, who came so close to being out of the game, is more than willing.

“I think he’s got a lot of competitive juices flowing right now,” Grieve said. “He wants to prove he can still play. He has a strong feeling about wanting to go out on his own terms, not someone else’s.”

As it turned out, even Downing’s own reports of his “death” have been greatly exaggerated.

“It’s kind of hard to get real down,” Downing said. “As bad as I’ve been, I never thought I’d experience the highs and lows of playing again.

“It was over . I’ve already been through the emotional trauma.”

The next time the end comes, Downing believes he will be more prepared. He’ll survive.

“It will be real easy,” he said. “If they release me tomorrow, I won’t have the emotional trauma, or very little.

“My pleasure is just playing again.”