FOR LACHEMANN, LAST YEAR WAS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

Byline: Steve Bisheff Orange County Register

It was one of those periods we almost all go through eventually, a few days, weeks, sometimes even a month, when life's harrowing experiences seemingly conspire to come crashing down around you.

Shaking you. Hurting you. Testing you.

Marcel Lachemann's big test came last September.

His baseball team, surprise leader of the American League West for much of the season, was in the throes of the worst major-league collapse in 25 years. His 94-year-old father, badly injured in an accident a few months earlier, would battle but eventually lose a fight for his life. And one of his coaches and close friends was informed that his daughter had contracted a serious, potentially life-threatening form of leukemia.

It was the darkest month of his life. It could have clouded his future as a manager and even rained on any chances the Angels might have had of regaining their status as one of the bright, young clubs in baseball.

Only Lachemann wouldn't let it. He wouldn't give in to it.

Six months later, he and his team appear to have bounced back stronger and hungrier from the experience. If he is more reflective as he begins his second full season on the job, he is also more flexible and communicative than he was before.

And don't think his players, waiting to take their 1996 cue from the 54-year-old man who leads them, haven't noticed.

``They say steel doesn't get real hard until it goes through the fire,'' pitcher Jim Abbott said. ``I think this team is a lot like Lach. There is confidence now, but there's also still that hunger. Everybody feels a little something was left on the table last year.''

Rex Hudler stands in the middle of the clubhouse and watches as his gray-haired, often stern-looking manager makes his appointed rounds after the game.

``I think he's learned more than any of us,'' the veteran utility man said. ``To see him hurt like he did last year, after we didn't win it and then he lost his father and all. He took a lot of what happened personally. But I think he had a lot of time to reflect and put it in perspective.

``You know,'' Hudler said, ``I think we've all matured a little after what happened. But I believe he matured more than anybody.''

Gary DiSarcina, the quiet All-Star at shortstop, the one man whose late-season thumb injury probably was the difference between cruising to a championship and falling into that 9-28 abyss, is happy to see a looser, more open manager.

To his credit, Lachemann is not afraid to talk about last year's disintegration. If anything, it almost seems cathartic to him now.

``I do think I learned from it,'' he said. ``I've learned the pain goes away. It really does. And I think the team has kind of taken the same attitude I did from it. It gave them a taste and made them want it even more. Some of them didn't even want to watch the playoffs, because they thought they should have been there.''