Angel Power Shortage to Blame for Brownout

His team is losing for the third day in a row to the Cleveland Indians, a.k.a. The Boyz N The Tank, and Richard Brown orders a beverage. In an upset, it is nothing stronger than coffee.

His team hasn’t hit a home run since July 6--hasn’t hit a home run in 108 innings--despite a roster that features Dave Winfield, Dave Parker, Lance Parrish and Gary Gaetti--four men who have combined for 1,235 career home runs. Brown, putting a spin on Winston Churchill, grumbles, “I have not seen a team quit hitting for so long with so many people involved.�

His team has plunged from first place to sixth in a span of 14 games, going 3-11 against the worst team in baseball (Cleveland), the worst team in the American League West (Kansas City), the second-to-worst team in the American League East (Baltimore), the fair-to-middling Texas Rangers and the fair-to-fair New York Yankees. “We are a team that has to re-establish itself as the bully on the block,� Brown says, “and it’s time to start beating up on the 98-pound weaklings.�

His team leaves the field after the top of the eighth inning to a torrent of boos. “The fans are not enjoying themselves,� Brown says. “They’re entitled.�

His team. Brown was thrilled the first time he used that phrase, last Nov. 1, the day he was named president and CEO of the California Angels. Now, less than four months into Brown’s first regular season, it has become his headache--and there isn’t an aspirin in the house.

When Brown took over, he promised changes. On the organizational directory, he has kept his word: Dan O’Brien replaced Mike Port, Parker replaced Chili Davis, Gaetti replaced Jack Howell, Junior Felix replaced Devon White, Luis Sojo replaced Johnny Ray.

But on the field, maddening underachievement has replaced maddening underachievement. No news has been the customary bad news: big names, big money, big waste of a summer at the Big A.

Twenty-seven times in 30 seasons, that’s been the Angels’ habit. And now, in Sorry Saga 31, the Angels are three games over .500, seven games out of first place and a scant four games out of last.

They can stop making “Rocky� sequels, but the Angels, like the Energizer rabbit, just keep going and going and going.

“I think I’m a realist,� Brown said from his private suite overlooking Sunday’s atrocity exhibition, a 5-2 loss to the Indians. “And on paper, we’re probably the best balanced team in the West. . . .

“Going into this season, we figured one of our major strengths would be defense--and that has been borne out. Starting pitching has been outstanding. The one thing we feared that might be a weakness, middle relief, has been an Achilles’ heel so far in the second half. But hitting? It never even entered my mind that hitting would be a problem. Hitting was going to carry this team.�

In a 14-team league, the Angels rank 13th in home runs, just above Cleveland. “I find that statistic shocking,� Brown says. If the All-Star break is the unofficial line of demarcation in a baseball season, the Angels remain homerless for the second half. “If you’d have told me we’d go from July 6 until now without hitting a home run, I’d have called you a liar,� Brown says.

“That’s the one thing that bothers all of us,� he continues. “This team does not need career years to win this division. All we need are players having average years. With average years, we can win it.�

Playing most notably below average is Parker, the huge DH who’s hitting so small (.220, seven home runs) you can’t miss him. Sunday, Parker checked in with another 0 for 3, leaving him five for his last 26.

“We obtained Dave Parker for two reasons,� Brown says. “One, we needed a vocal leader in the clubhouse, a positive influence, and Dave has provided that. In that aspect, there is absolutely no disappointment.

“Secondly, we wanted run production from someone who has helped some teams in the past go all the way. We’re still waiting to see that. But I’m not ready to write off Dave Parker. That would be unfair and premature.�

The thunderstorm Chili Davis is presently generating inside the Metrodome--20 home runs, 60 RBIs--only underscores Parker’s wallflower act. So far, the DH switch looks to be the first major gaffe of the Brown era, but Brown bristles at the inference that the error was his.

“The decision (not to re-sign Davis) was not mine,� Brown says coldly. “I was told the day before Chili Davis went to Minnesota that Chili Davis would remain an Angel. That is the truth, I swear on my life.

“I heard on the radio the next day that he signed with the Twins. I couldn’t believe it. Dan O’Brien had assured me. I phoned Dan and asked, ‘Why wasn’t I told?’ Dan said, ‘About what?’ He hadn’t heard, either. When I told him Davis had signed with Minnesota, he said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ �

That would seem to implicate Port, Brown’s general manager at the time. Brown nods. “That was the third time something like that happened,� Brown says. Three strikes and on April 30, Port was out.

Brown defends his nine-month record, insisting that his hand-picked general manager, O’Brien, “and the rest of our people have put the best team possible out there. Whenever Doug (Rader) came to us and asked for a ballplayer, we accommodated him.

“He looked at last year’s team and said we needed a second baseman with better range than Johnny Ray. We traded for Luis Sojo, and he has improved our defense there.

“He wanted a more vocal leader and a power-hitting left-hander in the DH spot, and Parker is the guy he picked.

“When we traded Devon White, we needed some defensive insurance at center field and one of the players Doug wanted was Dave Gallagher. We went out and got him.�

If this is the team the manager wanted, does the current condition say anything about the manager?

Brown says he supports Rader, but as he speaks, disappointment seeps into his assessment.

Brown says, “Doug can’t go out and hit for the players; he’s doing everything possible�--and then adds, “Before the season, I thought we’d probably be in first place by one or two games at the All-Star break.�

Brown says, “The players seem to have a lot of support for the manager and the coaches; they are blaming no one but themselves�--and then adds, “But when I shower, I shower at home. I don’t shower with the players. I’m not privy to everything they say.�

What’s a rookie CEO to do? Excluding the ongoing search for a fifth starter--Are you ready for Freddie Tolliver?--Brown says he plans no imminent changes.

“We have the team we want,� he says. “The team is in a funk. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do other than wait until they snap out of it.�

Can’t wait too long, though. After Sunday’s game, the Anaheim Stadium sound system, almost pleadingly, played Elton John’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.�

It hasn’t yet, but as the Angels scan the horizon on July 22, they can already see it setting.