Problem of a Personnel Nature

Loyalty is to be admired, but is there loyalty to a fault? This was at the heart of the philosophical differences between Angel President Tony Tavares and Bill Bavasi, ultimately prompting Bavasi to resign as general manager Friday.

Tavares, in response to one of the most embarrassing seasons in the history of an organization that has experienced more than one, feels wholesale changes are necessary--on and off the field.

Bavasi wasn’t prepared to deal in wholesale.

Neither Tavares nor Bavasi would confirm that or address the specifics, but those familiar with the situation did, insisting there was no animosity, simply a difference as to the scope of the needed changes.

The result is that the Angels end the season today in disarray.

The manager resigned because he was fed up with the bickering of his players. The general manager resigned because of philosophical differences with the club president. The owner may sell, but the prospective buyers have backed out, believing computer chips are a better investment.

Nice.

On the eve of a critical off-season, faced with pivotal decisions regarding their playing personnel, the Angels first have to hire the general manager who will make those decisions and the manager who will lead the team once those decisions have been implemented.

A managerial search--at a time when Milwaukee and Colorado are also in that market and may be joined Monday by Baltimore, Detroit and the Chicago Cubs--was going to be difficult enough, but now they have to first hire the general manager who will hire the manager, providing there are any credible candidates left by the time Tavares, just getting started now on a prospective list, hires the general manager.

There is also this:

* How easy will it be to lure a general manager given the possibility of an ownership change and the ensuing uncertainty regarding budget and direction?

* How easy will it be given the lingering view of a rebellious clubhouse?

* How easy will it be given the club president’s aggressive role and the evolving perception that he will demand changes at times and be involved in decisions involving playing personnel?

That question was posed to Tavares Saturday. He bristled and said: “I’m offended. As Billy said last night, I never once interfered with any move or trade he wanted to make.�

Perhaps, but it is the moves Tavares now wants to make that led to their philosophical differences and Bavasi’s resignation.

And it was his unceremonious firing of popular Ron Wilson as coach of the Mighty Ducks and the sideways shove of general manager Jack Ferreira while Tavares also was serving as president of Disney’s hockey team that is remembered now as having contributed to this perception of a president who has a hand in any and all decisions.

It’s his prerogative as the owners’ representative, of course, except that an executive of the stature of Cleveland’s John Hart or Toronto’s Dave Stewart--or any prospective candidate--might want to be certain there would be no interference.

For Bavasi, who nurtured many of the Angels’ core players as a minor league executive and came up through the organization with many of the people now on his staff and who may have felt that interim Manager Joe Maddon (an 18-year veteran of the organization) was deserving of the permanent managerial opportunity, he simply wasn’t ready to conduct the full-scale housecleaning Tavares deems essential.

Bill Rigney once said that a manager or club executive should never fall in love with his players, but loyalty, as it had in previous decisions, means too much to Bavasi.

If guilty of it to a fault, so be it.

If responsible for the combustible composition of the clubhouse and disintegration of the Angel season, put it on him, he has said.

“Do I think Billy is responsible for this season? That has never even crossed my mind,� Tavares said Saturday. “I think the world of Billy and value his opinion. He’ll have input on the selection of a general manager. He’s agreed to undertake an evaluation of our minor league system for me. I would give him a glowing recommendation, and I don’t just say that. I mean, I would never say that about Ron Wilson.�

What Tavares also would say, and has said, is the Angel clubhouse resembled a day-care center this year and, essentially, where is it written that you can’t trade 25 players?

He knows that isn’t possible, of course, but he firmly believes the needs go beyond a second baseman, catcher and pitcher.

He sees the need for significant changes--possibly upstairs as well as down.

His former general manager scanned the rubble and saw a house in need of refurbishing, not rebuilding.

He saw it loyally.

Events may determine he also saw it logically.