THE INSIDE TRACK : For Better or Worse, Players Are the Game

Bill Bavasi, the Angel general manager, started the tailspin that led to Terry Collins’ resignation by giving him a contract extension in June. What a dirty trick!

Of course, it wasn’t the contract alone that caused an already ticking time bomb to explode. But Bavasi used the occasion to also announce his declaration of war against the Modern Day Ballplayer.

Asked at the time about his players’ reaction to Collins’ extension, Bavasi responded, “Who cares?”

He also quoted his father as having said, “We need good players, not happy ones.”

Bavasi apparently forgot that Buzzie Bavasi ran the Dodger front office during a time when that might have been true. He wasn’t the only one to forget.

His manifesto was met by the local media, including me, with hurrahs.

What were we, insane?

At the least, we were overcome by nostalgia.

As the placard that the Modern Day Ballplayer carries when he goes on strike says, “The Players Are the Game.” The general manager can assemble all-stars at every position and the manager can write their names onto the lineup card. But if the players have too many other priorities besides winning, there’s a chance they will be mathematically eliminated from the postseason on Labor Day. The Angels avoided that by beating the Yankees and Roger Clemens on Monday night at Edison Field.

Three days before, they had already claimed their first victim in Collins.

Bavasi might be the second.

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Although it’s possible to identify Collins and Bavasi as the losers, it’s not as if the players won anything.

The Angels have the privilege of living in Southern California, playing in one of baseball’s nicest stadiums and relaxing in a clubhouse that, until the big-screen televisions exited a few hours after Collins did Friday, was fit for the Royals--the ones in Buckingham Palace, not Kansas City.

Tony “the Terrible” Tavares is threatening to dispense of all the players, meaning they could be summering next year in Milwaukee or Pittsburgh.

It could have been so different.

Speaking of his rivals from Fox, Disney’s Michael Eisner said in spring training: “Luckily, their baseball team doesn’t compare to our baseball team. So, in that area, we don’t have to worry about the competition.”

He was correct not to worry about the Dodgers.

For most of this decade, they have been overpaid underachievers. The only difference this season is that they are more overpaid.

But the man who has made millions selling fantasies never realized that the image of the Angels as gritty overachievers was one of them.

Injuries contributed to the team’s slow start. When Tim Salmon, Gary DiSarcina and Jim Edmonds returned, however, the Angels got worse instead of better.

On June 22, hours after Bavasi announced Collins’ contract extension, the Angels won at Seattle for a 31-39 record. They won 22 of their next 67 games, a .328 winning percentage.

A team can do that without trying. The Angels have proved that.

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The Yankees have had to deal with Joe Torre’s leave of absence while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, George Steinbrenner’s “fat toad” comments about Hideki Irabu, Darryl Strawberry’s drug suspension and return, and the New York tabloids.

Still, they win.

The only thing they complained about Monday was that, while mentally preparing for the playoffs, they’ve been playing less golf on the road.

Torre, their manager, no doubt deserves much credit for their success. But considering that the Yankees had to have the best season any team ever had in 1998 for him to get over .500 for his managerial career, it’s not as if you could put him in the Angel clubhouse and expect similar results.

It starts, Torre said, with players who want to win, learn how to do it and make sacrifices necessary each season to do it again.

“It’s the experience of last year and the year before and the year before,” he said when asked how the Yankees, also Modern Day Ballplayers, maintain their focus.

“They know how to win and they understand that winning isn’t easy to do. They understand that when things start wobbling a little bit, they need to be patient. You don’t get caught up in mood swings. You don’t get too high or too low and, pretty soon, things will be fine.

“Good clubs are judged on how they handle bad times.”

Those who don’t handle them well can play as much golf as they want in September.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected]