The Mouse That Roars : He Might Not Own Disney’s Sports Kingdom, but Tavares Is the Guy Holding the Keys to Success for Mighty Ducks and Angels

When the Walt Disney Co. assumed managing control of the Angels last May, adding Anaheim’s baseball team to a burgeoning sports empire that includes the Mighty Ducks, Tony Tavares had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“When I first took this job, my real fear was that we play 82 hockey games and 162 baseball games a year, which equals 244 nights of potential aggravation,” said Tavares, 47, the president of Anaheim Sports, Inc., which runs both clubs.

“The wins are great, but on a parallel, the joy I get from winning doesn’t offset the disappointment when you lose. It’s like a 2:1 ratio. It takes a couple of wins to offset a bad loss for me. . . . With that kind of personality, I wonder how long I will do this for.”

Tavares, who reports to Disney Chairman Michael Eisner but basically runs the two teams as he sees fit, has been known to throw things around his Pond suite and pound the counter of his Anaheim Stadium box when the Ducks or Angels blow a game.

He is prone to outbursts, physical and verbal. He once admonished the Angels for having “too many players who look as if they came from Newport Beach, where their daddies and mommies gave them everything they ever wanted.” Some have referred to him as a West Coast version of George Steinbrenner.

One of Tavares’ first acts as Angel president was to issue an organization-wide gag order, allowing only a few front-office officials to speak to the media and ordering Angel scouts not to talk to other scouts--or reporters--about baseball matters.

The edict sparked a wave of paranoia through the front office--it was as if team employees needed permission from Tavares to tell a reporter the weather was nice--but Tavares said that’s a small price to pay for a competitive edge.

“One of the things that concerned me is that the rumor mill in baseball is deeper and broader than that of any other sport, and the scary thing is [reporters] are always right,” Tavares said. “You know about trades, who’s available in a trade, who’s high on whom.

“What bothered me is, there’s a lot of strategic information there, and if you’re trying to make a deal and you decide a player can no longer help you, the knowledge that you are willing to trade a guy diminishes his value.”

Tavares is motivated not so much by winning as by his hatred of losing. His vision for the Mighty Ducks and Angels, he said, is “to have peer recognition that we are well-run franchises, because if your peers think you’re doing a good job, you are.

“I want to get to the stage where we’ll always be competitive--not win the World Series or Stanley Cup or make the playoffs every year, but to always be in the hunt.”

That’s what made 1996 so hard for Tavares, one of three executives in the United States who run two pro teams--Dave Checketts of the New York Knicks and Rangers, and Stan Kasten of the Atlanta Braves and Hawks are the others. The Ducks missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season, and the Angels, picked by many to win the American League West title, nose-dived into last place, 19 1/2 games behind division-winner Texas.

Disney was criticized for caring more about at-the-game entertainment than the on-field product, and don’t think Tavares didn’t notice. Nothing raises Tavares’ ire more than disrespect or being made fun of.

“I was never a great student in high school and can recall being in a sophomore English class where my mind was a million miles away,” said Tavares, a Rhode Island native. “The teacher asked, ‘What’s your opinion of this paragraph?’ I didn’t even know what book he was talking about.

“He humiliated me and, to this day, I resent him for doing that. But to this day, I also realize he was trying to get me to focus, to pay attention to what I should be paying attention to. I despise being humiliated.”

Perhaps that helps explain the way Tavares has run the Ducks and Angels. His outbursts may be Steinbrenner-like, but the knee-jerk reactions of the New York Yankee boss are not part of Tavares’ repertoire.

His approach has been conservative, deliberate and certainly fiscally responsible. Instead of spending millions on big-name free agents--and taking risks that might blow up in his face--Tavares has been trying to build with draft picks and, especially with the Angels, to beef up the farm system.

The Mighty Ducks have made only one major trade in four years, acquiring high-scoring forward Teemu Selanne from the Winnipeg Jets in 1996.

The Angels made several mid-level trades last winter and acquired some less-expensive free agents, but they seem hesitant to pull the trigger on a blockbuster deal or pursue a superstar free agent.

“I’d like to get a marquee guy, but what do you have to give up?” asked Tavares, who is conducting a 10-year study of Angel draft picks. “I’m not going to do what [the Angels] did here for years and years: give up good prospects. We’re committed to rebuilding the system so we can have solutions for the problems of the future.”

The Ducks have improved steadily in each of their four seasons, breaking through in 1996-97 by reaching the second round of the playoffs, but don’t expect them to pour millions into free agents, either.

Hockey players can’t become unrestricted free agents until they’re 32, and signing younger, restricted free agents can cost several valuable draft picks.

“We’ll continue to be cautious on free agents,” Tavares said. “When you sign a 34-year-old to a three-year deal, there are diminishing returns.” As for restricted free agents, Tavares said, “I’ve never seen it work when you have to give up five or six draft picks.”

There was a perception that Disney, a $19-billion corporation with holdings in movies, television and theme parks, among other things, would spend wildly to produce winning sports teams. Not only has that not happened, but Disney has been criticized for not spending enough to build winners.

Tavares does a slow burn when he hears such talk. The Ducks’ payroll of about $15 million--in the NHL’s lower third--will jump significantly this summer when they re-sign forward Paul Kariya. And the Angels’ payroll went from about $27 million in 1996 to more than $35 million in 1997, when incentive bonuses are factored in.

“We’re not sitting here pinching pennies,” Tavares said. “We’re trying to spend money intelligently. If most businesses did what [the Angels] did this off-season, the CEO would be fired. We lost money and increased our payroll.”

The Angels also decreased the volume of their at-the-game entertainment package this season. Blaring rock music, between-period entertainment and fan-participation games have been daily staples at the Pond, but many baseball fans were turned off when Disney tried the same things at Anaheim Stadium.

Music this season has been easier on the eardrums, and there have been no brass bands or games atop the dugouts.

“We did some things last year on a learning curve, some ‘cutesy’ things, and obviously they weren’t well received,” Tavares said. “We weren’t trying to diminish the game for the purists. It was an effort to provide more entertainment. I readily admit it didn’t work . . . but you don’t know that until you try it.”

The Ducks also toned down their in-game entertainment package for recent playoff games and were so happy with fan response they may incorporate those changes during the regular season.

“Our crowd is much more educated now,” Tavares said. “The reason to do things such as animation to show a penalty has diminished.”

Disney had a busy baseball off-season, redesigning the Angels’ uniforms, logo, hiring a new manager and beginning a $100-million renovation of Anaheim Stadium--all right in the middle of hockey season.

Tavares said, “The biggest challenge of this job is, there’s not enough hours in the day sometimes. I’m a driven person . . . but I don’t have a burning desire to work 82 hours a week.”

He probably does work those hours, though, and so do some of the people who work for him. When Disney assumed control of the Angels, 20 or so baseball employees were let go and parts of the teams’ front offices merged, so that some Duck employees, such as Andy Roundtree, vice president for finance and administration, and Bill Robertson, director of communications, now head departments for both teams.

“It’s like the canary swallowing the cat, and it has taken a while to adjust to that,” Tavares said. “Some of our people are close to being burned out. They’re working an incredible number of hours. From a stress standpoint, we underestimated how much time and effort it would take to get this accomplished.”

Tavares said he is considering hiring another executive to help run both teams, but for now he seems content to handle everything himself, which seems to suit his personality.

No job seems too big for Tavares, whether it’s hammering out an arena or stadium lease under intense deadline pressure or putting a hockey franchise together from scratch in about seven months, which he did with the Ducks in 1993.

Tavares has developed a reputation as a fierce negotiator. The Ducks have one of pro sports’ most favorable leases at the Pond, and Disney got the city of Anaheim to pay for 70% of the Anaheim Stadium renovation. And those iron- fisted tactics sometimes carry over to dealings with employees.

“I’m very emotional, and I do get angry at people when they make careless mistakes and I know they’re better than that,” Tavares said. “But I empower people to do their jobs. The only time I get involved is when things are not going well.”

After some outbursts, “I don’t like myself,” Tavares admits. “It’s something I wish I didn’t have in my personality, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve been able to keep it under control.”

There may be at least one benefit to such behavior, though.

“I’ve been told by people that I’ll never have a heart attack,” Tavares said, “because I don’t carry around a lot of burdens.”