The Angels were a fine mess.

New Manager Lefty Phillips tried to get his players' attention by attacking their wallets. Five players who missed curfew were fined. Then pitcher Phil Ortega was charged $500 for being found in a Kansas City hotel lobby allegedly wearing only underwear (that costs you only $500?).

Pitcher Bob Priddy fought back, going public after he was sold to the Angels' minor league team in Hawaii. "I could no longer play for Lefty Phillips," Priddy told The Times' Ross Newhan. "I've played for many managers, but he's the worst."

Priddy wasn't exactly Cy Young. He was 0-1 with the Angels after coming with Sandy Alomar in a trade with the White Sox for Bobby Knoop.

The Angels said Priddy had publicly criticized his coaches and, besides, had told Phillips he was going to retire. "I've never heard a player talk about other players like he did," Phillips said about his confrontation with the pitcher. "He broke a code. I lost all respect for him."

Newhan saw the developing trend and wrote a smart story about the struggling franchise.

"It has been seven weeks ago that Dick Walsh … appointed his friend, Harold Phillips, as manager of the tottering Angels. The 'big' stories continued to occur off the field.

"They have, for the most part, involved fringe players and the question is, are they symptomatic or should they be forgotten? Are they indicative of dissension within or simply a change in style from the laissez-faire policy of Bill Rigney?"

It's not every day you find baseball players accusing their manager of a "reign of terror." Others suggested that the Angels were a last-place team and the manager could do what he pleased.

— Keith Thursby