Better luck this time
Angels' playoff return gives '86 alums fresh hope
BY MICHAEL FISHER
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
1986 / THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Bobby Grich, whose strikeout ended the pivotal Game 5 against Boston, is optimistic the current Angels can soar in the playoffs.
1991 / THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Darrell Miller says although memories of that disappointing day in Anaheim Stadium still return, "I don't believe in bad luck."
Gary Lucas, a lanky left-hander from Riverside, strode to the pitcher's mound in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series needing just one out to send the Angels to their first World Series.
Considered a control pitcher, Lucas hit Boston Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman with the first pitch.
The errant toss added life to an improbable Red Sox comeback from a three-run deficit in the ninth inning. With the Angels one strike from the World Series, Boston outfielder Dave Henderson homered off Angels closer Donnie Moore. The Angels' championship dreams slowly vaporized with the 11th-inning loss and losses in Games 6 and 7 in Boston.
As the Angels prepare for their first postseason start in 16 years Tuesday, players from the 1986 roster are hoping their old team will seize the glory that slipped from their grasp.
"I feel for everybody who feels that pain of the Angels not being able to get in," said Lucas, 47, a graduate of Riverside Poly High and a former Riverside Community College student.
"I had a lot to do with that. . . . It still eats at me," said Lucas, a pitching coach for a Minnesota Twins farm team. "Hopefully, they can take it a little bit further."
Gene Mauch, manager of the 1986 Angels, watches all of the team's televised games. On Friday, Mauch, 77, plans to trek from his Palm Springs home to Anaheim to see the Angels' return to the playoffs firsthand with Game 3 of the first-round series against the New York Yankees.
"My heart has been in baseball all my life, and it was with them this year, same as it was when I was managing. I pulled for them hard," Mauch said. "I can't tell you how happy and proud I am."
Mauch said he rarely thinks about the 1986 season. When he does, the memories are not bitter.
"For 166 games, no one in the world could have had a better time than I did," he said. "But games 167, 168 and 169 were not quite as much fun."
That fateful day
Mauch disputes how baseball history remembers the October 12, 1986 loss to the Red Sox, who trailed 5-4 in the ninth when Lucas' stray pitch sent Gedman to first and Henderson to the plate.
Henderson crushed a two-out, two-run home run, giving Boston the lead.
"Everyone talks about that home run beating us. That home run put them one run ahead," Mauch said. "We came back and tied the score."
Henderson struck again in the 11th inning when his sacrifice fly put the Red Sox up again by one. The Angels loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning, with Doug DeCinces coming to bat.
But DeCinces popped out, and second baseman Bobby Grich struck out to end the game -- and the Angels' momentum in the best-of-seven series.
Watching the Angels clinch the wild-card playoff spot Thursday triggered a flood of memories from the 1986 season for Darrell Miller, a Riverside Ramona graduate who was on the team's roster that year.
"To be honest, I actually played the whole thing out in my mind," said Miller, 44, an older brother of NBA all-star Reggie Miller and former USC and Olympic basketball star Cheryl Miller.
Hurt in 1986, Darrell Miller was sent down to the minors. Miller said he was to be activated for the World Series.
Miller, who spent 22 years with the Angels as a player and administrator, does not buy into the so-called "Angels' curse," which some fans cite when discussing the team's postseason drought. The Angels also lost playoff series in 1979 and 1982.
"It's time for that stuff to die," said Miller, a Yorba Linda resident. "I don't believe in bad luck, either. The organization has had only three cracks at this."
Different story now
Grich, who lives in Orange County and works in the Angels' speakers' bureau, said the 2002 Angels are poised to dispel the disappointment of 1986.
"The team has to make believers out of their fans," said Grich, who retired after the 1986 season. "They have to show their fans they can do it and the fans will get behind the team."
Grich cited the team's unity and confidence as keys to its success this year.
"They have a group that really puts the team's best interests at the forefront at all times, and they don't seem to care who gets the headlines," he said.
Mauch, Miller and Grich agreed the 1986 Angels would match up well in speed and power with the 2002 roster, but the current Angels have the edge in pitching.
"They might be a little deeper in the bullpen than we were, and so far the manager they have now knows a lot more about handling the bullpen than the manager we had in 1986," Mauch said dryly.
Lucas, who now lives in Wisconsin, was flicking through channels on his television Thursday when he spotted the Angels' postgame celebration.
"I was just so happy," Lucas said. "I think it's just great for them to get back. . . . They have some great fans out there, and those people deserve to have a winner."
Reach Michael Fisher at (909) 368-9470 or
mfisher@pe.com
Published 9/30/2002