Angels Found Their Fall Guy

It was the worst-kept secret in the American League--Doug Rader out, Buck Rodgers in--because for weeks it has been common knowledge: Someone was going to pay for the worst-kept promise in the American League.

It wasn’t going to be Richard Brown, who began his career as Angel CEO shortly after and largely because he lobbied vigorously for the two-year extension Rader received last September. Rader had Jackie Autry’s ear then; Rader’s corner was the place to be, or at least until last place became Rader’s corner.

It wasn’t going to be Dan O’Brien. He’s been the Angels’ general manager for less than four months, barely time enough to assess the damage.

It wasn’t going to be Mike Port. He was gone already.

Monday, Rader was made to pay for the sins of Dave Parker, the designated hitter who didn’t; Lance Parrish, who turned 35, 36, 37 and 38 all within the same summer; Junior Felix, whose sore leg caught Dick Schofield disease and took two months off; the Angels’ fifth starter, who never showed up, and Fernando Valenzuela and Mike Marshall, who never should have.

United, they were caught up in the whimsy of spring, when Sports Illustrated and others who ought to know better looked at the names while neglecting the birth certificates and assigned the Angels first place in the AL West.

United, they fell six places short.

The dividing has begun.

Rader was guilty, mainly, for buying into the mirage. An avowed nonconformist for his first 46 years on the planet, he picked the worst moment of his life to fall in line.

Last September, Rader knew what the Angels needed. Time was his essence. It was the reason his contract was extended through 1992 and not just 1991: The Angels needed time to re-seed the farm system, to bulk up the scouting department, to season some prospects.

It was a good plan until the headlines got in the way.

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Suddenly, the A’s were deemed catchable. The Angels talked themselves into believing it would be them, not the Minnesota Twins, and that they were one player away and that Parker, weeks shy of his 40th birthday, was that player.

Rader hitched a ride on a millstone when he hitched up with Parker. Valenzuela may have been forced upon Rader, but Parker was his man. He pushed for the trade, he batted him cleanup, he kept him in the lineup long after Parker’s batting average (now up to .234) and upper management had strongly advised otherwise.

In a twist of fate, if not irony, Rader, advocate of Angel youth, was undermined by his allegiance to his older players. Rader also clung to Parrish, through the thick of strikeout binges and the thin of a .220 batting average. Dave Winfield, 39, played like an All-Star in the first half--and a 39-year-old in the second.

But what were Rader’s options?

If not Winfield, who plays right field? Max Venable?

If not Parrish, who catches? Ron Tingley?

If not Parker, who DHs?

Well, once upon a time, the Angels had Chili Davis and Brian Downing, but they are involved in a pennant race and can’t be disturbed right now.

Rader had two more shortcomings.

He doesn’t do lunch and he didn’t play for the ’61 Angels.

Rodgers does and that’s a major reason the Angels will be paying for his meals through 1994. Despite the title next to Brown’s name and the powers that have been gradually acceded Jackie Autry, this is still Gene Autry’s ballclub. Autry would like to win a pennant, but since he’s not any closer to it now than he was 30 years ago, he’ll settle for a little fun before the game. He likes to visit the dugout, chat with the manager, swap stories, rub elbows.

Rodgers at least can provide him that. Rader and Autry were always polite, but Rodgers and Autry go back three decades. Rodgers is an original Angel who’s kept in touch. Autry considers him family. If Jim Fregosi was always Favorite Son No. 1, Rodgers checks in as a close No. 2. How long has this conclusion been foregone? This weekend, as Brown insisted as he squirmed in front of the cameras? Rodgers pegged it closer to June. “That’s when I had lunch with Mr. Autry,” he said. “It was very vaguely mentioned at that time that they were thinking of making a managerial change.”

Until now, it had been assumed that Rader was done in by the month of July. Actually, he was done in by June 1. That was the day Rodgers became available, the day he was fired by the Montreal Expos.

From that point, the waiting game began.

When was Rodgers going to take over?

Whenever he wanted.

“When I left Montreal, I was hoping to be back with some team by the first of September,” Rodgers said. “If I was going to take over a team, I wanted to see it for at least 30 days.”

Rodgers will get 42.

“I conveyed to them, ‘I’m available,’ and they conveyed to me that they were going to make a managerial change,” Rodgers said. “If it was this year or next year, they were going to make a change.

“I think they were very wise in letting Doug go through the summer, to let him play it out. I think the Autrys feel better about it, I think the front office feels better about it, and I think Doug Rader feels better that he was given the opportunity to go through the months of July and August, although they were not good months. It was good to have the opportunity.”

It is tough to quibble with the selection of Rodgers. Personalities got him fired in Montreal, not ability. His Expos were the anti-Angels--they lost free agents instead of gorging on them; they subsisted on a rich farm system; they overachieved, and, more often than not, they contended.

But what of the expense? Totally obscured by the klieg lights at Monday’s press conference was Rader’s contribution to a franchise that was the laughing stock of baseball in 1988, post-Cookie.

Rader lent the Angels instant credibility. In 1989, he may have had the best year of any Angel manager, winning 91 games with a starting rotation and little else. When’s the last time the Angels actually won more games than expected?

Last year, Rader’s hands were tied--he asked for hitting and got none until the Angels were buried--and he still won 80 games. This year, there were expectations, some of them raised by Rader himself. The harder the hype, the harder the fall.

Monday, Rodgers had a novel observation: “Maybe this club was overrated.”

Maybe it was.

It found its level, though. And lost a manager along the way.