This Buck Won’t Stop : Angels’ Former Manager Rodgers Would Like a Job in Baseball Again

YORBA LINDA — When major league baseball camps open in February, players won’t be the only people job-hunting.

Former Angel player and manager Buck Rodgers, who spent 1996 in retirement, wants to return to the game that has provided him plenty of good--and bad--times.

The good ranges from a nine-season career as a major league catcher, including being an original Angel, to managing more than 1,000 games and winning more than 600 in 13-plus seasons with Milwaukee, Montreal and Anaheim.

The bad ranges from a nearly fatal bus accident during a team trip in 1992 to his distasteful dismissal as Angel manager in 1994.

Rodgers, 58, doesn’t have to return. After all, his lawsuit from the bus accident has been settled, he has business interests in an import-export company and an oil company and his four daughters are grown and on their own. He and his wife, Judi, could relax in their Yorba Linda home and enjoy a more unhurried lifestyle.

But Rodgers wants to return to the game.

“I’d like to get into something where I can do things on a day-to-day basis,” Rodgers said. “I’m not particularly looking to manage. My expertise is pitching, catching and player development. I’m a teacher. I’d be interested in anything from a special assignment scout to something in front office where you’re evaluating players.”

His last baseball job was as a major league scout for Philadelphia in 1995. Rodgers kept tabs on the West Coast teams from San Diego to Seattle, writing advance game reports or recommending players the Phillies might want to acquire.

Phillie General Manager Lee Thomas warned Rodgers that because of budget concerns, the job might only be for one season, and it was.

So Rodgers tried to settle into a new life away from the game. But he couldn’t. He believes he has something to offer--if any team is interested.

Start with how the professional game is taught. Many of today’s minor league programs are set up more for stockpiling talent than developing it, but Rodgers says there’s a need for designing methods of instruction for players before they reach the majors.

“The teaching of the teachers has changed,” he said. “Before, the older guys would talk with you and teach you more than just fielding a ground ball. You learned you don’t just copy somebody but get some solutions to your own problems.”

One of the problems Rodgers might face is whether he can work for bosses who are younger and less experienced in the game than he is. That was his problem at Anaheim. At the time of his firing, it was reported that Rodgers didn’t mix comfortably with Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi.

But there’s a feeling among many baseball people that Rodgers still has plenty to offer.

When Thomas fired Phillies manager Jim Fregosi at the end of last season, Rodgers was one of the people Thomas thought about interviewing for the position. However, since the three principles were friends, having come up together with the Angels in the 1960s, Thomas felt it would have been an awkward situation.

Thomas said there isn’t room for Rodgers now in the Phillies’ organization, but said he would be a valuable asset.

“I think Buck is an outstanding baseball guy,” Thomas said. “Buck could handle anything. If the game has passed him by, then it has passed us all by.”

Others agree.

“Even though our relationship ended on acrimonious terms, I would like to see him back in the game,” said Richard Brown, former Angel president. “He’s a good, solid baseball man.

“I pushed the Autrys to sign him because I knew they always wanted him to manage the Angels, and he always wanted to manage them. His priorities changed after the accident, but that’s only natural. But he still did a good job with the Angels. He would do a good job for any team.”

Added Angel Assistant General Manager Tim Mead: “Until he’s 6 feet under, [Rodgers] will have something to offer.”

Ken Macha, who coached for Rodgers at Montreal and Anaheim, said Rodgers provided him lessons he uses today as manager at Pawtucket (R.I.), the Red Sox’s triple-A team.

“One of the valuable lessons he taught me,” Macha said, “was when you go home at night and something is bothering you, write it down, put it by the bed stand, sleep, and if it was still bothering you in morning, act on it. In other words, sometimes a little patience goes a long way.

“He’s got a lot of positive things to bring not only to players but also to the people he would work with. There is a need for people who have been in baseball to help see and shape the overall picture.”

Rodgers said he has received “some feelers” from teams but does not want any job for the sake of a job.

“If I go to work for a club, I have to feel I can contribute,” Rodgers said. “I wouldn’t be good at free-agent scouting, trying to project a high school or college player. But I can see the adjustment needed for a professional in his third or fourth year to turn him around.”