BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : As Usual, Angels Lost a Good One

In the history of the Angels, which should be written by Stephen King, allowing the departure of Nolan Ryan will always be regarded as the club’s most grievous sin.

In the long litany of their other debatable dealings are the names of Don Baylor, Wally Joyner, Dave Winfield, Chili Davis (who left long enough to help the Minnesota Twins win a World Series), Jim Abbott and Bryan Harvey.

Then there is Devon White, who is about to win his fifth consecutive Gold Glove as baseball’s best defensive center fielder and has been a catalytic and sometimes overlooked weapon in the well-stocked arsenal of the Toronto Blue Jays.

“He preceded Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter and was one of the first and most important bricks in what we’ve built the last three years,” General Manager Pat Gillick said of White, whom he stole from the Angels in the winter of 1990. The Angels got Luis Sojo, Junior Felix and catcher Ken Rivers, none of whom remain with the club.

White, meanwhile, has helped the Blue Jays win three consecutive division titles, two pennants in a row and last year’s World Series. The Blue Jays have returned to face the Philadelphia Phillies, and White is in characteristic October form.

He went 12 for 27 in the six-game playoff victory over the Chicago White Sox to tie the American League record for hits and now has a .392 average for 21 playoff games and .350 for 27 playoff and World Series games.

“I’d love to go out there as relaxed as I was against the White Sox,” White said of the Series. “I don’t know why, but my concentration seems to be so much better in these situations.”

The Angels, of course, will catch it on the tube again. No surprise to White, who isn’t sure things will ever change there. What he is sure of is that “they didn’t know what they were doing” with him or what they expected of him.

Contact hitter one year, power hitter the next. Leadoff hitter one day, No. 3 the next. The Angels were convinced that the uncertainty was in White’s mind. White thought it was in the Angels’.

In 1989, when he batted .217 and was embarrassingly sent to Edmonton after five seasons with the club, then-manager Doug Rader demanded that White be traded.

“When Rader got sideways with a player, that was it,” Gillick said. “We were able to get Tom Henke the same way. Rader was managing Texas and got sideways with Henke.

“The Angels felt White (because of his speed) should be a contact hitter who put the ball in play.

“We didn’t see him that way. We saw him as a guy who strikes out 100 or more times but makes enough contact to hit 10 to 15 homers and bat .270 to .280.

“We think the way he plays defense makes up for the strikeouts.”

White has struck out 395 times in three seasons with Toronto. He has batted .282, .248 and .273, with 17 homers and 60 RBIs each of his first two years and 15 and 52 this year. He has stolen 104 bases and been caught only 18 times.

White said he had to read the lineup card to know where he stood with the Angels, that he had to come to Toronto to get respect.

“I guess my shoulders weren’t big enough (for the Angels’ expectations),” White said.

“They were either trying to break me or frustrate me.

“They had all those young players--Wally, Mark McLemore, Jack Howell, Dick Schofield, Dante Bichette, myself. All of them are gone. I couldn’t believe it when they traded Abbott.

“Now they have a good young tribe again, but we’ll see how long they stay. I don’t know. The more things change, the the more they stay the same.”

On White’s first day with the Blue Jays, Manager Cito Gaston told him to relax, forget the expectations. He would play center field and bat leadoff.

White did it regularly until Rickey Henderson arrived in August, when White moved to No. 2 in the batting order after telling Gaston he wasn’t going to stand in the way of an all-time leadoff hitter.

“I see Devo as more relaxed and open. He’s much happier than he was with the Angels,” said Schofield, a Toronto teammate now. “He had some good years there, but they were never sure what they wanted him to be and he came to Toronto with a lot of talent ready to explode.”

Gene Tenace, the former Oakland catcher who was the hitting coach when White arrived and is now Gaston’s bench coach, said:

“I was very surprised that a club would give up or lose confidence in a player of that talent.

“I couldn’t do it. I’d have to take a different approach or philosophy. I’d have to be patient and find a way to maximize his ability. Hitting is tough enough without one person telling you one thing and another something else.

“The Angels messed with Devo’s head, but I’m glad they tossed it in because he’s been everything we hoped for and more, and a lot of credit goes to Cito and the way he handles people, the way he lets them be themselves.”

Both Tenace and Gaston consider White the best center fielder they have ever seen, and Paul Molitor, playing with White daily for the first time in ‘93, said:

“I would tell you without hesitation he’s the best I’ve ever seen. We used to go into Anaheim with the Brewers and marvel at his ability. I was totally surprised the Angels traded him, but it rejuvenated his career.”

A relaxed White is under contract through 1995. He doesn’t believe the Blue Jays have received the recognition they deserve, but adds, “I don’t thrive on media attention. I’m rewarded by the organization’s year-in and year-out appreciation, and I’ve had that.”

Against the suspect defense of the Phillies, the fleet White could be a formidable factor if he maintains his contact form of the league playoffs. Millions will be watching, including the Angels.