AROUND THE MAJORS

While several potential candidates for the job of Angel general manager expressed interest Monday--Bob Watson, Pat Gillick and Bob Gebhard among them--only Fred Claire actually telephoned Tony Tavares.

“If there’s an opportunity there,” Claire said Monday evening, “then I’m interested.”

Claire and Tavares, president of Disney Sports, traded messages but had not spoken as of Monday evening.

Claire, the general manager of the Dodgers from 1987-98, was fired in June 1998, among the first to go in a gradual purge by Fox.

On the first day of a search he said he hoped to conclude quickly, Tavares said he contacted three candidates on his original list of four.

“I’m not running,” Tavares said of his pace in the proceedings, “I’m sprinting.”

The fourth--Oakland Athletic General Manager Billy Beane--received a three-year contract extension Monday and is no longer an option.

Reached by telephone, Watson, who like Gillick interviewed for the general manager vacancy in Seattle, said he had not been contacted by Tavares. Gillick, once Kevin Malone’s boss in Baltimore, and Gebhard, who resigned from the Colorado Rockies, also claimed not to have heard from the Angels.

But all three have strong interest in the position vacated by Bill Bavasi on Friday.

Watson, in fact, said that among his first acts if he gets the job would be to seek George Steinbrenner’s permission to approach Yankee Manager Joe Torre about managing the Angels. Watson, who resigned as general manager of the Yankees before the 1998 season, said he also would strongly consider Yankee coaches Chris Chambliss and Willie Randolph.

Gebhard recently accepted a position in the St. Louis Cardinal front office, but said it would not keep him from interviewing.

“You’re always interested in a position of that level,” Gebhard said.

Claire was not among Tavares’ original four and Tavares would not comment on Claire’s chances of cracking the list.

Bavasi, who resigned when he learned Tavares’ preference was to dismantle a club that won only 70 games, stayed on as an advisor.

“I am just in awe of the way Bill Bavasi has handled himself,” Tavares said. “There are very few people I know that have conducted themselves as professionally under circumstances like this.”