ANGELS' GM JOB FITS THE BILL STONEMAN A RARE BREED INDEED: GENERAL MANAGER WITH CONTROL, SECURITY.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

TEMPE, Ariz. - These days, Bill Stoneman doesn't walk through the hallways of Tempe Diablo Stadium so much as he glides through them. His mood is as light as his step, his demeanor perpetually cheery.

Stoneman has reason to be upbeat. This winter, the Angels general manager added four impact free agents to form what could be the most imposing team in club history, an effort aided by a freewheeling owner and a bit of serendipity.

Just one year removed from a period of professional uncertainty, with the team for sale and his contract due to expire, Stoneman today finds himself in a place far more secure, far more desirable.

He realizes that right now, his might be the best job in baseball.

``It's a great, great job,'' Stoneman says on a sun-splashed afternoon at the team's camp here. ``I think of that. I really do. I say that to people. Where is there a better place to be a GM? Where?''

How about Boston? Well, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein has the heavy revenue artillery of greater New England behind him. And he also has a demanding gaggle of team executives and the burden of regional expectations that have attached themselves, piano-like, to the back of every Boston executive since 1918.

Well then, what about the Yankees? The YES Network alone could buy a GM a World Series title, but Brian Cashman's Faustian bargain includes working under the thumb of owner George Steinbrenner and answering to a second set of lackeys in Tampa, Fla.

San Francisco? The Giants draw 3 million fans a year ... and until 2020 must annually sink $20 million of that revenue into paying off debt on their picturesque ballpark, forcing Brian Sabean to constantly retool a team built around one superstar.

Seattle's not a bad gig, but former GM Pat Gillick was not able to add an impact hitter at the past two trade deadlines and the Mariners faded badly both years. Previous big spenders like Atlanta, Arizona, Texas and the Dodgers are rolling back expenses, and smaller-market jobs are predictably unpredictable.

In Anaheim, Stoneman answers not to corporate shareholders or a handful of minority owners. He answers to one man, Arte Moreno, who boldly laid out $146 million for Stoneman to improve the team this winter and who predicts a prosperous future for the franchise.

It's a situation others in baseball can't help but notice is close to ideal.

``You're talking about a very good market and an owner willing to spend dollars, who has dollars,'' said Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski, who worked with Stoneman in Montreal. ``He doesn't seem to make decisions just from a financial standpoint. (Moreno) looks like a great guy to work under.''

It also doesn't hurt that the boss has a very high opinion of his No. 1 employee.

``For the next seven years, he's stuck with me,'' Moreno said in signing Stoneman to a four-year contract extension with a three-year option last year. ``Chemistry is very important. You sit down with someone and immediately get a feeling.''

That relationship was hatched one year ago this week. Stoneman was in the final year of his contract. The Angels were for sale. An executive at the Walt Disney Co. called and asked if he'd have an hour to spend with a prospective buyer.

And so Stoneman and Moreno sat down and talked. For five hours.

``We were there a long time. But we weren't,'' Stoneman said. ``The conversation flowed great. I had no idea he would be the guy who wound up owning the ballclub.''

When Moreno did buy the club, for $184 million, he said Stoneman had a job for as long as he wanted, a guarantee he backed up in writing two months later. It was the beginning of a relationship matching kindred spirits from wildly different backgrounds.

Stoneman grew up in West Covina, Moreno in Tucson, Ariz. as a fourth- generation Mexican-American and oldest of 11 kids. But they do share personality traits.

As Moreno became a billionaire billboard magnate, he avoided the public eye almost entirely until he bought the Angels. Stoneman also plays his cards close to the vest; while he is accessible to the media, his extremely calculating negotiating style can privately frustrate player agents and does little to endear himself to information-hungry media members.

Not that he cares. It's about results, Stoneman said, and he's quick to point out that such a below-the-radar mentality helped reel in the reclusive superstar, Vladimir Guerrero, when exactly nobody pegged him to go to the Angels.

But perhaps the biggest factor in the Angels' 11th-hour bid for Guerrero is their lean organizational structure. When Stoneman took the Angels job in 1999, Disney owned the team and getting corporate approval for major transactions was cumbersome.

Stoneman would have to call team president Tony Tavares. Tavares then would seek approval from Disney executive Sandy Litvak. And then the process would trickle back to Stoneman. By then, the deal he thought he had might no longer be available.

Now, it takes just one phone call, to Moreno, for such approval.

Such simplicity was crucial when Stoneman learned Guerrero was available on a Wednesday night in January after a casual phone call to one of his agents. A complex $70 million transaction was done in less than 48 hours.

``It meant everything,'' Stoneman said. ``If any other organization had been presented with the same set of circumstances, would they have been able to do it? Some would, some wouldn't. The fact we could is important to us.''

When Stoneman was hired in 1999 to replace Bill Bavasi, the perception was that the former banker and Montreal Expos vice president would be a short-timer, a tight-fisted caretaker for Disney, which was trying to dump the team.

Now, he ranks fifth in tenure among American League GMs, and it would be hard to argue Cashman, Oakland's Billy Beane, Minnesota's Terry Ryan and Tampa Bay's Chuck LaMar enjoy superior work conditions.

In Anaheim, Stoneman's right-hand man is Gary Sutherland, a pal of his from their playing days in Montreal, a guy he'd play pickup hockey and basketball with in the offseason. He enjoys a pleasant 15-minute drive on surface streets to the stadium.

His wife, Diane, a Montreal native, became a permanent resident two years ago and has warmed to Southern California.

Stoneman is not sure if he'll serve out the term of his contract. For now, he is the one with the iron-clad job security, far removed from the uncertainty of the recent past.

``I don't look back,'' he said. ``I'm not very good at that. You look at what's going on today, plan for the future, look at what you can control now. Always looking forward, always.''

``Usually, patience pays off in sports.''

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) no caption (Bill Stoneman)

(2) Angels general manager Bill Stoneman, second from left, enters the season on a ware of optimism with owner Arte Moreno, right, vice president Kevin Uhlich, left, and manager Mike Scioscia.

Jerome T. Nakagawa/Associated Press