COMMENTARY : Team Makes Issue of a ‘Non-Issue’

Win a few, lose a few, take three from Minnesota, drop three to Oakland, it doesn’t matter. For two weeks, the same question has dogged him, so Angel President Richard Brown has concocted a pet reply.

Fan, writer, broadcaster, mailman, valet parking attendant or the voice in the automated teller machine: “Are you going to fire Doug Rader?”

Brown: “It’s a non-issue.”

Anyone who knows the Angels knows what a non-issue is. At the moment, the Angels happen to be one in the American League West race.

But Rader?

If his continued employment is truly a non-issue, Brown and his staff have spent a lot of time talking about nothing.

“There are some thoughts in our mind,” Brown said Thursday at Anaheim Stadium. “Number one, we have to re-evaluate if the best thing for the organization is to retain Doug or not to retain Doug. That’s the first question, and we’re looking at that, obviously.

“The second thing is, if you make a decision not to retain him--and that’s a big if--do you bring in a new manager so he can get a feel for the club during the last six weeks of the season or do you let Doug finish it out? Really, what dictates that is how many games you’re out and things like that.

“I mean, Doug was very instrumental in building this team. I’ve always been a believer that you build a partnership with the manager and the general manager. You can get the greatest ballplayer in the world for a manager, and he can bury the kid by not playing him. So you’ve got to make sure--’If I get this ballplayer for you, are you going to play him, is he your type of ballplayer?’

“We went one step further and we said, ‘Doug, is there any ballplayer you feel that fits within your system? If so, let’s do it? And he went out and reached for (Dave) Parker, etc.

“So that’s a critical, critical thing. You really want him to play out the hand no matter what. It’s what you can do with it. As the time draws closer to the end of the season and (if) you leave Doug in, it’s not going to make any major impact on the standings. Then I think obviously you look at the other option and say maybe it would be more beneficial to have a new person aboard now and get a feel.”

The standings show the Angels in last place, 15 games behind first-place Minnesota. The Angels just completed a 5-6 trip through Minneapolis, Seattle and Oakland--a trip that began 5-2 and seemed to be just the prop Rader needed.

Not necessarily so, according to Brown.

“People have said to me, ‘Now that you’ve won (a few) in a row, boy, Doug is really firm,’ ” Brown said. “I said, ‘Wait a minute. You can win 35 in a row and then if you look at the end of the season and you’re in last place. . . .

“A season’s a season. When we pick ourselves to finish in first place--and internally, we really thought we had enough to do it--and then you see (what has happened). Forget about ESPN, forget about Sports Illustrated--the main thing is you yourself. We thought this team could do it. When it doesn’t, you’re obviously disappointed.”

Buck Rodgers-to-replace-Rader is a rumor that won’t quit. Rodgers is a former Angel catcher, a Yorba Linda resident, a friend of the Autrys and, by virtue of his pink slip from the Montreal Expos, available. The pieces may be scattered, but they fit too well to be ignored.

“I’m sure you would hear his name,” Brown acknowledged. “Buck is a well-respected manager. His nexus to Anaheim and the Angels is very strong.

“But once again, you have to go to Montreal and ask for permission, and there’s a lot of prerequisites. And he has to be the person you tab. He’s also very close with the Autrys, as is Whitey Herzog and several other people. If we ever made a decision, Buck Rodgers would be one of quite a few we would consider.”

Brown said he wanted to emphasize that “we still haven’t made that decision” and because they haven’t “all this other stuff is moot.”

Not mute, though. In the offices of Brown and Angel General Manager Dan O’Brien, scenarios have already been drawn out and talked out.

If has been discussed, but so has when.

“You just can’t can’t hire a new person for next year and then put him behind home plate and say, ‘You tell me what the team’s like,’ ” Brown said. “You have to see the players and interact with them.

“Also, you worry about what kind of impact this is going to have on the players. The relationship between Doug and his players is very strong. . . . Obviously, that’s something we strive for. It’s wonderful when the players like the manager.

“But what’s most important is that the players feel that the manager helps them in realizing their potential. Remember, this is a team that, if each player could have had just an average year, not a career year, I felt we could win.

“You look down at the players and the years they have had. It (should be) far from over.”

Thus, Rader exists in his private hell, waiting for Brown and O’Brien to “evaluate,” awaiting a conclusion that, by appearances, is already foregone.

“The only thing that saddens me,” Brown said, “is that a guy has to be left out there wondering what’s happening. However, it’s not like the employee who has heard, ‘Gee, I’m going to be fired, what am I going to do, how am I going to put food on the table?’

“This guy still has a year on his contract, he’s still going to be paid. So it’s a mental torture more than anything else. And I don’t want to torture him. We really have to do what’s best for the team and go through the whole evaluation.”

Around the Angel offices, that’s a frightening phrase. For his first six months on the job, Brown conducted a similar evaluation of Mike Port. On the last day of the sixth month, Brown came in and announced his findings.

Port became a non-issue.