There May Be Less Pressure, Some Bruised Feelings

PALM SPRINGS — Can Gene Mauch cope with the indifference that he once said consumed him during his last withdrawal from managing?

Will Cookie Rojas be a success in his first managerial assignment north of the winter leagues?

Time, of course, will provide the test. But the events of Saturday morning--the retirement of Mauch and the removal of Rojas’ interim status as manager of the Angels--seemed to produce two immediate responses:

--A feeling among the club’s younger players that there will be a change in the environment, that they will have to deal with less pressure than when Mauch, the intense Little General, was their manager.

--An implication that at least two members of the coaching staff, veterans Moose Stubing and Bobby Knoop, believe they were snubbed by the appointment of Rojas.

It was not in what Stubing and Knoop said, it was in what they did not.

“I just don’t have anything to say right now, and I hope you understand,” said Stubing, who spent 10 seasons as a minor league manager before joining the Angels staff as the hitting and third base coach in 1985.

Was Knoop, once a standout second baseman with the team and now beginning his 10th season as a member of the coaching staff, disappointed that he wasn’t considered or interviewed?

“No comment,” he said.

Does he have managerial aspirations?

“No comment,” he said.

Marcel Lachemann, the respected pitching coach, was more definitive.

“I think about managing every once in a while,” he said, “but I don’t think I’m prepared to do the job yet. I have a lot to learn yet. I have my hands full doing what I’m doing.

“I think Cookie was an outstanding choice and will do a fine job.”

Angel General Manager Mike Port said that all of the coaches have managerial capability, but that the decision to stay with Rojas was a byproduct of the decision to make him the interim manager.

“We didn’t want to disrupt the coaching staff then. We didn’t want somebody wearing two hats,” he said, adding that on the basis of the jobs Rojas, the coaches and players did since then, and on the basis of an evaluation made by Mauch, it was decided to let Rojas carry on, that the attitude will remain “Gene Mauch instilled and oriented.”

Rojas played for Mauch in Philadelphia and worked for him as the Angels’ advance scout. If there is much of Mauch in Rojas, there is much that is different.

“Everyone in baseball realizes that you’re going to win 50 games and lose 50 games, and it’s how you do in the other 62 that determines how successful you are,” first baseman Wally Joyner said. “I believe Gene realizes that but wasn’t willing to accept losing the 50 games.

“I think the difference between Gene’s and Cookie’s philosophy is that (Cookie believes) as long as you don’t beat yourself and give 100%, that’s all you can ask.

“Whereas (with Gene), it didn’t matter if you just lost or beat yourself, you couldn’t relax. You weren’t supposed to lose any games.

” . . . that pressure has been taken away now. We’re human, we’re going to make mistakes. Gene would tell us that and wouldn’t hold it against you, but he wouldn’t accept it himself.”

Of Mauch’s decision, Joyner said the shock was when he first left the team in Arizona. This, he said, was more of a surprise. He said he was happy for Mauch in that he appeared healthy and ready to enjoy life again, as if the burden and grind of the last two years had been lifted from his shoulders.

Joyner said he was also happy for Rojas, crediting the interim manager with having done a “great job” of building rapport and communication with the players. Mauch had talked with the players before Saturday’s exhibition game and said that his decision was best for the team and himself.

“I’m sure he’s seen a couple things he likes,” Joyner said of the interim period. “I’m sure he’s seen the great atmosphere and camaraderie that has developed, not that it wouldn’t have been here if he had come back.”

Asked if he agreed with Joyner’s feeling that the younger players would be more relaxed, second baseman Mark McLemore smiled and said: “We’ll see.” He added: “There’s definitely been a different atmosphere on the bench, and I think it shows on the field. I think Gene saw it. I think everyone saw it. I know we saw it.”

Bob Boone, of course, is at the other end of the Angels’ experience and chronological ladder. He said Mauch’s goal was to get the best out of every player, regardless of age. He said there is bound to be a different atmosphere because Rojas is a different person.

“A lot of positive things have happened since Cookie became manager,” Boone said. “We’re confident we can win it with Cookie, as we were with Gene. We expect to get the same qualities of leadership and expertise that we got from Gene.”

No player was closer to Mauch than Boone. They were often in the dugout four hours before a game, analyzing hitters and discussing pitching strategy. Boone said he had prayed hard for Mauch to emerge from his recent hospitalization healthy. He said he was surprised by Mauch’s decision but prepared to accept it “since Gene obviously felt it was best for him and the team.”

Boone added:

“Gene prepares for a game more than any manager I’ve ever been around. He taught me how to prepare. He put in a lot of hard work. It was like what a football coach goes through. In fact, I see a lot of Dick Vermeil in his decision.”

Burnout?

“It’s speculating, but that’s the way I read it,” Boone said. “A 162-game season is a tough grind for the players and even tougher for the manager. Gene has been through 26 of them. Maybe he likes feeling good.”