His Survival Tactics Are Rooted in Sport : Baseball: Tenacity that former Angel DeCinces showed on the field helps him succeed in business today.

By FERNANDO DOMINGUEZ

Aug. 10, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEWPORT BEACH — There was a time when Doug DeCinces could barely talk about it.

Few things in his professional life wounded him so deeply.

But the scars have pretty much healed. DeCinces can mention the Angels without disdain. He can discuss them, even root for them, because their front office bears little resemblance to the outfit he loathed.

“I’m happy for their success,” DeCinces said. “I had felt for a long time that they needed to have a change in direction because there was not a forward focus there.”

Or, in DeCinces’ eyes, credibility. At least not in 1987, when the Angels released him with only 11 days of the season remaining so they could save $141,667 by waiving him before it was over. DeCinces accused Mike Port, then the team’s general manager, of bad-faith contract negotiations and blamed him for the shabby treatment.

“To be treated the way I was. . . . It was probably the toughest year I’ve had in baseball,” DeCinces said then.

The detente between DeCinces, who will turn 45 on Aug. 29, and the Angels began when Richard Brown became club president five years ago. DeCinces, now an Orange County businessman, occasionally attends Angel games and likes what he sees. These Angels appear ready to give Anaheim its first division title since DeCinces played there.

Those were the teams of Rod Carew and Brian Downing and Reggie Jackson and Bobby Grich, teams that came as close to giving Gene Autry a World Series ring as any in Angel history, but DeCinces says they had few similarities with today’s club.

“They have the ability to score runs like we did, but they have an extremely thorough pitching staff,” DeCinces said. “We had decent starters but we didn’t have anybody to back them up in the bullpen.”

Well, times have changed. And DeCinces, for one, is glad they have.

Those old problems with the Angels aside, life has been kind to DeCinces. He has operated his own property management company for years and is trying to develop a 27-hole public golf course in Irvine, on land leased from the city and the county. DeCinces said he has been consumed the last two years by the project and its many headaches.

“Sports has taught me to survive this,” he said, “because you have to have the perseverance.”

DeCinces first learned that kind of tenacity as a baseball and basketball player at North Hills Monroe High School in the mid-1960s, where he was a solid shortstop but was not considered a pro candidate.

After two seasons at Pierce College, where he became an all-state pick, DeCinces signed with Baltimore after the 1970 season. He had short stints with the Orioles in 1973-75 before becoming the team’s regular third baseman in 1977.

That year, DeCinces replaced Brooks Robinson, a 16-time Gold Glove winner who was destined for the Hall of Fame. Many, especially Oriole fans, considered Robinson the finest third baseman ever and were not prepared to lose him even when his skills deteriorated beyond repair. DeCinces was under constant scrutiny from those bent on drawing comparisons.

“It was not an easy task, but what made it good was that it was a challenge and made me a better player,” DeCinces said. “But it almost cost me my career because of the undue pressure. . . . Even until the day I was traded [to the Angels in 1982] I was being compared to him.”

Although Robinson’s shadow engulfed him, DeCinces carved a respectable career with the Orioles, leading league third basemen in assists with 330 in 1977 and 340 in 1980. He was also instrumental in Baltimore’s 3-1 championship series victory over the Angels in 1979.

In the decisive game of the series, on a Saturday at Anaheim Stadium, DeCinces made a remarkable play. With Baltimore leading, 3-0, the Angels loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning and Jim Anderson ripped a one-hopper down the line that DeCinces backhanded and turned into a double play. End of threat and end of series, for that matter. Baltimore won, 8-0.

“If he doesn’t make the play,” Angel Manager Jim Fregosi said afterward, “it’s a whole different situation.”

Two years later, in the strike-shortened 1981 season, DeCinces found himself in another critical spot. As the American League player representative in labor talks with the negotiator for the owners, DeCinces was vocal and tirelessly active. The union work, DeCinces said, earned him a ticket out of Baltimore.

After nine years with the Orioles, DeCinces was traded to the Angels with minor league pitcher Jeff Schneider for outfielder Dan Ford.

The move did wonders for DeCinces. It was a fresh start and the climate was good for his chronic bad back, which he initially injured during a high school basketball game.

“When I came out here, I felt relieved,” DeCinces said. “It’s hard when someone is always doubting you. I felt more accepted here for who I was as a player.”

The results proved it. In 1982, DeCinces batted .301 with 30 home runs and 97 RBIs, and led American League third basemen with 399 assists. He helped the Angels to their best record, 93-69, and the West Division title, but he could not prevent one of the biggest flops in playoff history.

The Angels were ahead, 2-0, in the best-of-five series against Milwaukee, but the Brewers swept the next three games at County Stadium and went on to push the St. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the World Series.

In 1986, the Angels were one out from beating Boston in the playoffs when calamity struck. Again.

DeCinces hit a bases-empty home run off Roger Clemens to spark a three-run rally in the ninth inning of Game 4 and the Angels won, 4-3, in 11 innings to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Then everything unraveled.

Dave Henderson’s two-strike, two-run home run off Donnie Moore wiped out an Angel lead in the ninth inning of Game 5. It was the beginning of the end for the Angels. The Red Sox won the next two at home to advance to the World Series.

By the next fall, DeCinces didn’t fit into the Angels’ plans. He had played 749 games, nearly 200 more than any other third baseman in club history, but was released.

DeCinces finished the year with the St. Louis Cardinals, and signed the next season with the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese League for about $1.05 million. He played one season and retired.

Back in Orange County, DeCinces launched several profitable business ventures that afford him some luxuries. One of those is the time to watch his son, Tim, play baseball at UCLA and his daughter, Amy, play volleyball and basketball at Mater Dei. His son’s games, DeCinces said, are particularly important to him.

“I love it,” said Tim, a junior catcher for the Bruins who has been playing this summer in the Cape Cod baseball league. “He was always on the road and never got much of a chance to go to my games. We are making up for it now. It’s a neat feeling to have him root for me.”