ANGELS RALLY TO WIN : ANGELS 7, TEXAS 6.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

Their leaders have fallen, and now all that's left for the 1999 Angels is to play their final series against the team sitting atop the AL West, a place the Angels had hoped and expected to be.

In what the schedule-makers foresaw as a season-ending division showdown between the Texas Rangers and Angels has instead turned into a sidelight thanks to general manager Bill Bavasi's resignation Friday.

Coupled with Terry Collins' resignation as manager Sept. 3, Bavasi's resignation and re-assignment in the front office essentially has left the Angels' players alone in their sea of failure.

Never mind that the Angels rallied from a five-run deficit to beat the Rangers 7-6 on rookie Jeff DaVanon's ninth-inning home run Friday night before 25,515 at Edison Field. Never mind that they are in the midst of their first winning September since 1991.

Down three going into the eighth, the Angels benefited from an error by third baseman Todd Zeile. After a walk to Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon doubled home one run and Troyu Glaus singled home two more to tie the game 6-6.

Mike Morgan entered the game in the ninth and DaVanon, who got his first major-league hit earlier in the game, homered over the center-field fence to win it.

Ivan Rodriguez, a leading candidates to win the AL MVP, singled in the first inning, stole second (No. 25) and scored on a single by Rafael Palmeiro. Rodriguez was at it again in the third inning, hitting a solo homer (No. 35) to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

With 35 homers, Rodriguez set an American League record for home runs in a season by a catcher, breaking Terry Steinbach's mark of 34 set in 1996.

The Angels began their rally in the bottom of the fourth, getting an RBI single from Vaughn and a two-run homer from Glaus (No. 29). Vaughn now has 107 RBI, tying him for sixth best on the Angels' single-season list.

Note: High-tech billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III shot down reports that he will buy the Angels and Mighty Ducks, the Orange County Register reported.

But the co-founder of communications chipmaker Broadcom Corp. left the door open to ``a minority interest'' in the baseball and hockey teams now owned by Walt Disney Co.

Nicholas, Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli and Gotcha Chairman Marvin Winkler were in talks with Disney but did not want full ownership, Nicholas said.

``What we were trying to do was put together a (larger) group that was interested in running the day-to-day operations'' in order to get broadcast rights, he said.

Nicholas stressed that he will not buy the teams himself and has no interest in running them.

ANGELS vs. TEXAS

Time: 7:05 p.m., at Edison Field.

TV/Radio: No TV; KLAC-AM (570), XPRS-AM (1090, Spanish).

Matchup: The Angels' Mike Fyhrie (0-4, 5.05 ERA) faces the Rangers' Rick Helling (13-10, 4.81) in the second game of a three-game series.

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BOX: Angels vs. Texas (see text)