Disney Moves In; Brown Spins Out

Richard Brown’s year in limbo, subtitled, “Terminated Man Walking” since last May, reached its designated conclusion Wednesday, with no pardon from the governor or Michael Eisner.

Once the Walt Disney Co. announced plans to buy into the Angels and eventually run the franchise, Brown says he was “asked by several people, ‘So, are you now a Mighty Duck?’

“I always told them, ‘No, I’m a lame duck.’ ”

Brown, president of the Angels since November 1990, said his contract “affords me the opportunity to leave if there’s a transfer of ownership and I am not named president of the club. That has happened here. Tony Tavares will be president of the club. I have no interest in remaining with the California Angels in any capacity other than president.”

Translation: Brown has been harnessed into a platinum parachute. Should his position be deemed “redundant” after a change of ownership, Brown’s contract calls for severance package equivalent to three years’ salary--roughly $1 million--which should help tide him over as he job hunts.

Limbo for others in the Angels marketing, sales, publicity, accounting and community relations departments was closer to a living hell, according to Brown.

“If this went to the state Supreme Court,” Brown said, “it would be ruled cruel and unusual punishment.”

Since mid-1995, Angel front-office employees have endured without knowing when their last paycheck might come. November? January? March? May 15? Unlike the baseball team, the Disney-Anaheim negotiations had no closer. Emotions, morale and family futures were squeezed by a vise that didn’t loosen for months.

“Disney has been fair with me,” Brown said, “but for other employees, the circumstances around [the sale] have been very difficult.”

The darkest hours came this weekend, as office gossip regarding who’s going and who’s staying reached a crescendo. Some staffers, sensing they were on the wrong side of the reorganization, visited with writers in the press box, indulging in gallows humor. Before the Angels left on their East Coast trip, pitchers Troy Percival and Mike James stopped by the office to say goodbye and tell longtime employees, “Hope you’re here when we get back.”

“A period of awkwardness” is how Brown describes the transition process. In recent weeks, Angel employees not only had to suffer sleepless nights and career uncertainty but also read about their supposed shortcomings in newspaper interviews with Disney officials.

Brown bristles at more than a few of the charges, particularly the Angels’ perceived inept marketing strategy and neglect of the local Hispanic community.

“Two weeks ago, I received on behalf of the California Angels the Humanitarian of the Year award from the Orange County Hispanic chamber of commerce,” Brown said. “That’s a prestigious award, and we wouldn’t be getting it if we’d ignored the Hispanic community.

“Two years ago, we donated $50,000 to build a Little League facility in the middle of Santa Ana, mainly for the use of the Hispanic community.”

Brown balks at the marketing criticisms, maintaining, “We never had the funds to package or leverage the way Disney does. Disney has more money to market, they have more money to leverage. Heck, they’ve bought half the world.

“A perfect example is opening day [pregame entertainment]. This year, we spent $7,500 on opening day, because that’s all we could allot. Disney reportedly will spend $300,000 on opening day. . . .

“Disney can do so many more things because of cross-ownership. They can say, ‘Buy a ticket to an Angels game for $50 and we’ll throw in a trip to Disneyland.’ We say, ‘Come see the Angels play for $15 and then go to Disneyland on your own. Say hi to Mickey for us.’ ”

Brown has seen artists’ renderings of Disney’s vision for the new Anaheim Stadium, which features monstrous, cartoonish sculptures of baseball caps and bats and a water park beyond the outfield fences that lacks only bobsleds. But give Disney time.

His impressions?

“I will reserve opinion,” Brown intones, the lawyer in him creeping to the surface.

“I’m a traditionalist. I can’t make an opinion until the house is built.

“I understand they’re also going to change the uniforms and the logo. Again, I’m very much a traditionalist, and I just love the logo the way it is now. Baseball really is the most traditional of all games. I cannot think of one thing Disney has touched that is worse than before they touched it, but in baseball, there’s a real value in maintaining tradition. To each their own beauty, I suppose.”

And to each their own cash register receipt. Compare the two uniforms, Angels and Ducks. The Angels’ has a classic look--understated, dignified, the best design in the franchise’s 36 years. The Ducks look like children’s pajamas. But Ducks merchandise moves and the Angels’ sits there. Stick a halo over Goofy’s head and stick that on the Angels’ chests and those $110 replica jerseys will be flying off the racks.

New ballpark, new logo, new uniforms, new name. What is Disney attempting to do here? Polish the Angels’ old image? Or eliminate it altogether?

“I think when you have a franchise that never got to a World Series or never won a pennant, it’s easy for a new owner to come in and say, ‘History starts with this year,’ ” Brown said. “That doesn’t bother me at all. Any club owner has the right to do that.

“The Angels I will remember are the Angels I have followed from the date of their birth until May 15, 1996.”

Where does Brown go from here?

First, he says he will “take a couple months off,” vacation in Alaska and return home to “see what’s available in baseball, what’s available in college athletics. I have toyed with going back to the practice of law, but my first preference is to stay in sports. I would hate to take the last six years of my life and just throw them out.”

Brown said he “will still pull for” the Angels, but he cannot deny: It will be different from now on.

“The Autrys ran the Angels like a kind of family business,” Brown said. “Like a Ma and Pa store. Because it was. It was like an extended family.

“Baseball has changed dramatically. You don’t see too many family-run organizations in baseball anymore. Disney will run it as a bottom-line business, which is what it has become. Baseball has evolved.”

And, as with all types of evolution, it leaves behind its own set of victims.

* PERSONNEL MOVES: Several members of the Angel organization are given the word their jobs are gone. C3