ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ANAHEIM, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press
New California Angels manager Terry Collins, whose intensity seemed to grate on some players when he was at Houston, doesn't need to be the most popular guy in the dugout.
``Players have to respect you. I don't necessarily think the players have to like you,'' Collins said Monday at a news conference announcing him as the 15th manager in the Angels' 37-year history.
``It would be nice to have all the players like you, but it's impossible to ask because the players have different personalities that may conflict with mine,'' he said. ``The only thing I ask is a maximum effort every day. The players who want to win will be the players who are out there.''
Collins, fired a month earlier by the Astros after a late-season collapse, was hired by the Angels after about a dozen candidates were interviewed, including former Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson.
``We did a lot of work, talked to a lot of people,'' said Angels general manager Bill Bavasi. ``We feel he's the right man for the job.''
Bavasi said Collins was particularly impressive when, as part of the interview process, he was asked to spell out how he would run the Angels, starting with spring training and progressing through the season.
``He's very organized,'' Bavasi said.
Collins, a former minor-league infielder, also is known as a fiery competitor who gets particularly upset when he feels players aren't trying their hardest.
``I love to compete, and then there's this intensity thing,'' Collins said during a question-and-answer session when ``intensity'' kept cropping up. ``When the game starts, one of the things I love to do is run the game and see my players compete and get the job done.''
Collins was fired by the Astros after three consecutive second-place finishes, but this past September was not good to him.
After leading St. Louis by 2 1/2 games heading into the final month of the season, Houston lost 17 of its final 25 games to finish six games behind the Cardinals.
Collins guided the Astros to a 66-49 record in his rookie year as a big-league manager, finishing a half-game behind Cincinnati when the players' strike ended the 1994 season. The Astros were 76-68, a game behind Colorado for a wild-card berth, in 1995, then were 82-80 this season.
Although he had a three-year record of 224-197 and had the Astros in contention each season, he was let go and replaced by Larry Dierker, who was brought down out of the broadcast booth despite no managerial experience.
The Angels' job came open last Aug. 6, when Marcel Lachemann resigned after California went 52-59 to that point of the season.
John McNamara was named the interim manager, and the Angels went on to finish 19 1/2 games behind division champion Texas.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: BASEBALLby CNB