Red Sox Coach Is Manager Material

Tim Johnson is expected to be high on the Angels’ list of managerial candidates, but the Boston Red Sox bench coach might be even more attractive to the Angels as part of a package deal.

“Wherever he goes,” Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn said, “I want to go with him.”

Nothing like an endorsement from the 1995 American League most valuable player to spice up a resume. Vaughn, the Red Sox first baseman, is signed through 1998 and won’t be going anywhere soon, but his message was clear: Johnson is ready to manage at the big league level.

“First of all, he knows the game,” Vaughn said. “He knows how to communicate and get guys to play hard for him, and in this day and age, that’s what’s important. With his character, communication skills and the fact he knows the game inside out, he could manage anywhere.”

Johnson, who attended Montebello High and was a scout and coach in the Dodger organization from 1982-89, was a finalist for recently filled managerial jobs at Oakland, Detroit, St. Louis and Florida, and he fully intends to pursue the Angel job.

“I’ve been a bridesmaid long enough, it’s time to become a bride,” Johnson, 47, said. “You hear your name so much, you just hope something happens. But it’s better to be rumored than not rumored.”

General Manager Bill Bavasi is traveling with the Angels and said he hadn’t planned any informal talks with Johnson this weekend, “but if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” he added.

Johnson, a former infielder who played seven seasons in the major leagues, is in his second year with Boston after spending the 1993 and ’94 seasons as Montreal Manager Felipe Alou’s bench coach. He managed triple-A Indianapolis in 1990, and after the 1993 season, Johnson managed the Angels’ Arizona Fall League team at Tempe.

The Red Sox extended Johnson’s contract through the 1997 season, “but any time you get a chance to become a manager, they’re not going to hold you back,” he said. “Being a bench coach for so many years, I feel I can do it.”

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Shortstop Gary DiSarcina took one look at the media mob in front of the Angels’ dugout Friday and declared: “It’s like a rock concert around here.”

DiSarcina, who attended nearby Billerica High School, used to be the object of such attention in Fenway Park, but Friday the spotlight was on John McNamara, the former Red Sox manager who was returning as the Angels’ interim manager.

McNamara was involved two of the most memorable games in Red Sox history--a dramatic 7-6, 11-inning, come-from-behind victory over the Angels in Game 5 of the 1986 league championship series, and a 6-5, 10-inning loss to New York in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, a game the Mets won when Mookie Wilson’s grounder went through first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs.

Which one do Red Sox fans remember him for?

“Game 6 of the World Series, no question,” said McNamara, who was criticized heavily for not replacing the hobbling Buckner with Dave Stapleton late in the game.

“Heck, 1918 [the last time Boston won a World Series] was a long time ago . . . I won’t say it to them [Boston media], but check the last time they won a playoff game.”

That would be 1986, when the McNamara-led Red Sox beat the Angels for the American League pennant. Boston reached the playoffs in 1988, ’90 and ’95 but was swept by the Oakland Athletics (1988, ‘90) and Cleveland Indians (‘95).

McNamara managed the Red Sox for 3 1/2 seasons, beginning in 1985, but despite being fired at the All-Star break, and despite the devastating loss to the Mets in the 1986 World Series, he says he has nothing but fond memories of Boston.

“I have a lot of good friends here,” he said. “There’s maybe two or three enemies in the media, but I’ve been deluged with calls since I got here.”

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Orlando Sloan Jr., the Angels’ 56th-round pick in the June draft out of St. Monica High, died in a car accident last Saturday in Santa Monica. Sloan, an outfielder who had not signed with the Angels, will be buried in an Angel uniform. . . . Reliever Chuck McElroy, suffering from tendinitis in his pitching hand, did not rejoin the team Friday in Boston. McElroy, who was in Texas for the birth of his second child, hasn’t pitched since last Saturday, and Bavasi acknowledged that the left-hander might have to be put on the disabled list. . . . Catcher Todd Greene, who also hasn’t played since Saturday, is suffering from muscle spasms in his neck but said he could play if needed. . . . The Red Sox Friday placed pitcher Aaron Sele on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained muscle in his left rib cage and recalled reliever Kerry Lacy from triple-A Pawtucket (R.I.)