Andy Hassler

Drafted out of high school as a 17-year-old left-handed pitcher, Andy Hassler enjoyed a 14-year career in the major leagues for the California Angels and five other big-league clubs. The Palo Verde High School (Tucson, Arizona) graduate, selected in the 25th round of the June 1979 draft, was scouted and signed by Jack Paepke and Kenny Myers for the California Angels.

Andrew Earl Hassler was born on the Texas shoreline near Galveston in the small city of Texas City on October 18, 1951. The city’s population in 1950 was 16,620, having more than doubled during the 1940s. His parents were Fred Hassler and Doris (Bohannon), known as Ma. When Andy was young, the family moved to Tucson. Fred Hassler was, in the words of Andy’s “lifetime best friend” Debbie Wines, “some form of engineer with an oil company” in Texas.1 He had suffered a massive heart attack while still in his mid-30s. Andy’s younger sister Charlotte developed severe asthma and, because their father couldn’t work, they moved out to Tucson. “The mother went to work as a telephone operator for the Army at Fort Huachuca.”2

Raised in Tucson, Andy attended Palo Verde High School and was named to the 1969 All-City first team. His won/loss record as a pitcher didn’t seem that impressive at 5-5, but his earned run average was 0.89. “He struck out 93 batters in 63-1/3 innings. Hassler signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Arizona, but after being drafted, he launched his pro career instead.”3 A 1974 article in the Los Angeles Times says he once struck out 19 batters in a game.4 The same article also said he was “tall, even-tempered, matinee-idol handsome and left-handed.”

Assigned to the Arizona Instructional League, he appeared in nine games (six starts), with a 2-2 record over 37 innings and a 4.62 earned run average. He had gotten his feet wet.

In 1970, his first full year in professional baseball, the Angels placed him with their Double-A team in the Texas League, the El Paso Sun Kings. Hassler started 22 games and produced a record of 10-7, with a 3.88 ERA. He struck out 122 batters in 144 innings, but walked 87. When he returned to the instructional league in October 1970, Angels manager Lefty Phillips pointed out the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Hassler to a writer, saying, “He came down here last winter without a game of professional experience and pitched well enough to go right to AA with our El Paso club. Without the Instructional League, he probably would have gone to a rookie league or a Class A league.”5 Among the instructors was Norm Sherry. Hassler agreed the experience had helped him, and then helped out by posting numbers on Mesa’s Rendezvous Park manual scoreboard.

Still a teenager, Hassler began the 1971 season at Salt Lake City in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. When Angels left-hander Rudy May suffered injuries to both his arms and went on the 21-day DL, Hassler was called up on May 28 and made his big-league debut two days later in Yankee Stadium. Both teams had losing records (the Angels were 23-25 and the Yankees were 19-25.) Angels manager Lefty Phillips gave Hassler the start.

The L. A. Times’s Ron Rapoport summed up his debut nicely: Hassler “showed an impressive ability to get out of tough situations, but he also seemed to have a disturbing penchant for getting into them. The Yankees got a run on two singles and a walk in the first and then got two men on base in each of the next three innings, only to have Hassler struggle out of the jams. But in the fifth, after two singles and a wild pitch, with nobody out, Phillips excused Hassler from further duty and brought in Archie Reynolds, who got out of the inning with only one run scored.”6

Five days later, Hassler pitched one hitless inning of relief in Boston.

He got another start at Anaheim Stadium on June 8, and allowed just two runs (one earned) in four innings, but the Angels were shut out by the Yankees, 3-0, so he bore his first loss. On June 12, the Washington Senators came to town and Hassler started, threw six innings, allowing three runs, but the Angels only scored two, so he lost another game. After another brief hitless appearance against the Red Sox, he got his fourth start, and suffered a third defeat, 6-1, in Kansas City on the 18th. Three of the runs (two earned) were charged to him in three innings of work. May rejoined the team and Hassler spent the rest of the season in Salt Lake.

Sam Gazdziak wrote of Hassler’s 1971 season: “If you ever needed an example of how a win-loss record doesn’t tell the story of a pitcher, Andy Hassler could be your exhibit A. He was rushed to the majors by the Angels when he was 19 years old…promoted in spite of two glaring problems. One, Hassler was still developing as a pitcher and probably wasn’t ready to face big-leaguers yet. Two, the 1971 Angels were awful and stood to gain nothing by throwing a good-looking prospect to the wolves. To his credit, Hassler held his own in six games, four of which were starts. He still ended the year with an 0-3 record in the majors.”7

His 1971 record for Salt Lake, in nine starts, was 5-1 with a 4.59 ERA. He pitched a full year in Salt Lake in 1972, going 9-10 (4.40), with 150 strikeouts in 174 innings, but with 114 bases on balls.

After the season, he had an operation to transplant a nerve in his elbow. It took a while to learn how to pitch differently. “The operation cost me something off my fast ball, and it took me a while to realize it. When I tried to throw too hard, I was wild.”8

Andy Hassler married Debbie Wines in 1973. She was originally from St. Louis, but was a 19-year-old student at ASU, working as a hostess at a restaurant/bar in Scottsdale, when they met. “He came in one night and we just met and hit it off. I was 19 and he was 21. He had just had surgery on his arm when I met him.”

Most of 1973 was spent with Salt Lake as well; he was 13-8 (4.20), but he was called up to the Angels in midseason and appeared in seven games for new manager Bobby Winkles, four in late June and early July and then three more in September. He was 0-2 in the first stretch and 0-2 in the second, running his major-league totals to 0-7. Again, a lack of run support was part of the problem; in 31 2/3 innings, his ERA was 3.69. So was lack of support in the field; he surrendered 10 unearned runs in his seven appearances. In his final start on September 19 against the Athletics, he threw a complete game, but lost, 5-4 — thanks to two errors by shortstop Rudy Meoli, which allowed in three unearned runs.

A wintertime trade that might have sent him to the Chicago Cubs for Ron Santo fell through.9 He started 1974 with Salt Lake once again, and didn’t do well — his ERA was 5.92 (5-7 in 12 starts), with 48 walks and 98 base hits in 79 innings. On June 15, the Angels sold Rudy May’s contract to the New York Yankees. Hassler was brought up and pitched his best big-league game to date on June 19. It was a complete game against the Yankees in Anaheim. He allowed just one earned run — on a sacrifice fly — but there was another unearned run set up by an error at third base, and his Angels teammates only managed to score one run. The 2-1 loss sent his lifetime record to 0-8, despite pitching a very strong game.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the record for consecutive losses at the start of a career was held by Guy Morton who was 0-13 for Cleveland in 1914.10

Hassler finally secured his first win in his next outing, in Texas on June 23. He got 10 runs of support — eight more than he needed, since he held the Rangers to just one run. After booking that first “W” he acknowledged that he had often not had the best control. “Left-handers were always supposed to be wild. I don’t know why anybody ever said that about left-handers, but that’s one of the ideas I grew up with.”11 He’d only given up three hits and walked three.

He then lost his next three starts — allowing a total of six earned runs. Another offensive explosion gave him a 12-1 win in Boston on July 13. He lost a couple more close games in 1974, one by the score of 2-1 and another one, 1-0. Throwing shutouts got him two wins, one in late August (a four-hitter) and one at the end of September (a five-hitter). He was 4-11 at mid-September (his fourth win saw him give up 10 walks but win, 5-2.) On September 8, he threw a one-hitter against the White Sox, but still lost. It was a leadoff double in the third inning; a groundout advanced the runner one base and he scored on an error by the third baseman.

He won his last three starts, allowing a total of just one run over the course of the three games and 21 2/3 innings. He finished the season with an ERA of 2.89, third-best in the American League. The Angels had lost 94 games (68-94), in last place in the AL West.

Dick Williams had managed the Angels in the second half of the 1974 season and he did so for all of 1975. Hassler didn’t have to fight for a spot in spring training; he’d earned assurance he’d be with the team, the fourth starter on a squad with Nolan Ryan, Bill Singer, and Frank Tanana. And he was okay with that. His wife, Debbie Wines, regularly beat him at golf, though.12

He started the ’75 season with a 10-inning win, and closed out April with 2-0 and 12-1 complete-game wins, then lost his last 11 decisions and closed the year with a 3-12 record and a 5.94 ERA. These were not the sort of close-call losses due to errors or lack of run support. He just wasn’t pitching the way he had. After July 1, he spent most of his time working out of the bullpen. Losing 10 decisions in a row tied the club record; his 11th loss established it as his own.13

Unfortunately, he built on that record in 1976. Dubbed “a left-hander with loads of talent but inexplicable problems in capitalizing on it,” he looked good in spring training.14 He had pitched a little in Puerto Rico, but for the most part sat out the winter. The Angels had him room with catcher Andy Etchebarren; the goal was to try to improve Hassler’s self-confidence.15

When it came to the regular season, however, he lost his first six decisions (three starts) in 1976 and was back in the bullpen again, save for one start, which he lost.

Was the proverbial change of scenery what he needed? On July 5 his contract was sold to the Kanas City Royals for an amount reported as just above the waiver price. “I’m very happy, ecstatic,” Hassler said. “It’s probably best for all concerned. Going to a contender has got to make anyone happy.”16 The 34-49 Angels had the worst record in the American League; the 48-30 Royals were first in the AL West.

For the Royals, under manager Whitey Herzog, he regained his form with a 2.89 ERA in 19 games (14 starts), though his won/loss record was 5-6.17 He had more of the same misfortune that seemed to dog him. In his last four losses, his teammates had scored a total of six runs.

The Royals made the postseason, playing the ALCS against the Yankees. He started Game Three and was staked to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. A two-run homer in the fourth inning shaved that lead. In the sixth, a walk and a double had runners on second and third with nobody out. Herzog went through four relievers in the inning, but both baserunners scored and the Royals lost. He pitched a couple of innings in the Game Five (and final) loss to New York, giving up a pair of runs (one unearned.)

There was nothing streaky or weird about his 1977 season with Kansas City. The fourth starter again, he won some and lost some and when the season was over, he was 9-6 with a 4.20 ERA. His best game was a 1-0 one-hitter against Cleveland on July 2, a sixth-inning single depriving him of a no-hitter. He had not walked anyone; there were a couple of errors.

Hassler pitched in the postseason again, starting Game Two of the ALCS again facing the Yankees. He worked 5 2/3 innings and left the game tied, 2-2, in the bottom of the sixth, but the baserunner he had left on base subsequently scored and he lost the game.

During spring training in 1978, he was again pitching very well but when he and his wife were packing at one point, he reached for a falling suitcase and somehow grabbed a knife instead. The team’s trainer said, “He had lacerations and needed five stitches in his little finger and about a dozen in his index finger.”18 He wasn’t able to start until the 30th game of the season, on May 14.

He was 1-4 (4.32) when, after the All-Star break, he was purchased by the Boston Red Sox on July 24. That evening, he pitched and won a 4-2 game against the Twins in Minnesota. He’d gone from one first-place team to another. The Red Sox held a 5 ½ game lead over the rest of the American League East. Red Sox manager Don Zimmer had given up on pitcher Allen Ripley and sent him to Pawtucket, and was glad to have Hassler. “I’ll use him to pitch to a couple of left-handed batters here and there. I’ll maybe use him as a starter in Detroit or New York. We’ll see. Maybe this will work out.”19

The 1978 Red Sox folded, surrendering what had seemed like an insurmountable nine-game lead over the Yankees at the All-Star Break, and a seven-game lead at the end of August, ultimately losing a single-game playoff and thus their shot at postseason play. Hassler was 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA. Just a few days after the season ended, he had surgery to repair a tendon in his pitching hand, fixing some of the damage from the knife injury.

“I don’t care whether I’m a starter or relief man,” Hassler said early in March 1979. “I’d just like to stay around and help out this club. Last year was the first time in about three years that I really got excited about playing baseball, the kind of club we had. I felt like an 18-year-old. I liked that all of the things of my past were behind me.”20

The Red Sox used him as a reliever, but they didn’t use him much. He appeared in only eight games through June 2, a total of 5 1/3 innings with an ERA of 8.80 and a record of 1-2. On June 15, he was sold to the New York Mets. “I have no regrets,” he said, though naturally not that happy with heading to a last-place team. “They treated me well. Zimmy treated me well. Maybe I’ll pitch.”21 He did get more opportunities to pitch — a lot more, and he came through for the Mets, working in 29 games (eight starts, and closing 11 games), 4-5 with a 3.70 ERA.

At the end of his career, Hassler had 31 plate appearances in the majors. Of the 31, 23 had come in this year with the Mets. For his career, he never got a base hit and struck out 19 times. He did draw one walk.

A free agent at the end of the season, he signed in the latter part of November with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He only got into six games, without a win or a loss, before he was back where he started, purchased by the California Angels on June 10, 1980. His free-agent contract seems astonishing, a six-year guaranteed contract for $750,000.22

He was with the Angels for most of 1980 and the following three years. Working exclusively as a reliever, he appeared in 41 games under manager Jim Fregosi. When he won his first game for the Angels on July 22, it broke his 17-game losing streak with the team—and the champagne came back out again. He started off 4-0 and ended the season 5-1 with an excellent 2.49 earned run average and 10 saves to his credit.

In 1981, overcoming a bit of a stiff back in spring training, Hassler became something of a workhorse. He relieved in 42 games (three more than closer Don Aase) with a record of 4-3 (3.21). This was 42 games out of a 110-game schedule, the season interrupted for two months by a player strike. Gene Mauch took over from Fregosi as manager in late May. The Angels finished fifth.

In 1982 Mauch led the Angels to a first-place finish in the AL West. The team was either in first or second place almost all year long, and mostly in first, though they had slipped to second on August 28 and hovered there for three weeks before finally recapturing first on September 19. In terms of wins and losses, Hassler didn’t mean a whole lot — his record was 2-1. He had four saves. But he worked in 54 games, more than any other pitcher (Luis Sanchez was second with 46), and he recorded an earned run average of 2.78, more than a full run better than the team’s 3.82 ERA. Next-best was Bruce Kison at 3.17.

He’d been a little outspoken, too, at least near the beginning of the season. On May 31, he’d said that Mauch shouldn’t have stuck with Doug Corbett so long. Two days later, that attracted a memo from Angels president Buzzie Bavasi telling him that if he spoke out again like that, he’d be fined. “Sounds like Albania,” wrote Peter Gammons.23

It was the Angels versus the Milwaukee Brewers in the ALCS. Hassler was asked to pitch twice, once in Game Three and again in Game Five. Both times he worked 1 1/3 innings, and neither time did he allow a hit or walk a batter. The Angels won the first two games of the best-of-five series, but lost the last three. The Brewers went to the World Series, bowing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. Hassler had been critical of Mauch in the playoffs, but the back and arm trouble he had clearly didn’t affect his performance on the mound.24 Hassler was unhappy that Mauch had left Luis Sanchez in to face Cecil Cooper in Game Five; Cooper had hit a two-run single in the seventh inning, allowing the Brewers to plate the tying and winning runs. He had struck out Cooper just two days earlier, and typically a manager might be expected to bring in a lefty to face a left-handed batter. After the game, with the ALCS lost, Hassler asked to be traded.25

When Mauch resigned as manager shortly afterward, Hassler said that “the move [to use me] against Cooper) was so obvious.” Nonetheless, he added, “Gene Mauch is the best strategist I ever played for. Something, however, was lacking in [his decisions regarding] the pitching department. We didn’t get along. I t was a conflict of personalities. But I don’t want to use that as an alibi. I wish Gene the best of luck.”26 It was later reported that Mauch had really been asked to leave, but given the face-saving opportunity to resign.27

John McNamara was named to take Mauch’s place. Hassler was with the Angels for the 1983 season. It was not a good season. As in 1981, he worked in 42 games, but this time less successfully. He worked about half the innings he had in 1982 — 36 1/3 as opposed to 71 1/3. He was 0-5 with an ERA that was almost double that if 1982 — 5.45 (compared to 2.78).

Was he simply worn out by the way he’d been used in 1982? He’d appeared in 54 games but, by his own count, he’d been asked to warm up 249 times. This excessive warming up was what Don Aase believed had hurt his career.28 He unburdened himself to Ross Newhan in the Times, detailing his complaints about McNamara.29

Whatever the cause, he underperformed and so did the Angels, finishing 29 games behind the White Sox, in fifth place.

McNamara had two lefties in the bullpen for spring training 1984 — but he went with John Curtis, and Hassler was placed on irrevocable waivers on April 1. It was a month before he hooked on with anyone, signing with the St. Louis Cardinals on May 2. They didn’t call him up until September. He was placed in Double A with the Arkansas Travelers, but was soon brought to Triple A to pitch for the Louisville Redbirds of the American Association. He was 7-4 in 38 games (just one of them a start) for Louisville; he closed 25 games, and recorded an excellent 2.11 earned run average. In three late September appearances for St. Louis, he worked to a total of 13 batters, but won one game and earned a hold in another — despite an 11.57 ERA.

Hassler had worked to add a sidearm delivery to his repertoire and he made the Cardinals out of spring training in 1985. In contrast to his 1-0 record in 1984, his 1985 record was 0-1, a loss to the Mets, giving up just one run in a 2-1 loss. It was only one of two earned runs he gave up in 1985. He appeared in 10 games, working 10 innings, his last major-league appearance coming on May 7 against visiting San Diego. Though he had just a 1.80 ERA, he was sent to Louisville and finished the season (and his pitching career) there, going 4-5 (3.29) in 26 relief appearances. In October he was formally released by the Cardinals.

Debbie Wines remembers it: “The St. Louis Cardinals were going to send him down to Louisville. I think Fregosi was the Triple-A manager there in Louisville. He wanted Andy to be a pitching coach. I always thought he should do it. But the kids were young and he said, ‘I want to be back with my boys.’ They were 4 and 2 years old.”30

Son Drew Hassler says of himself and his brother Derek, “We were born in the early ‘80s, my brother and I.” Andy and Debbie — their parents — actually got married not once but twice. “They divorced in ’86 and then remarried a couple of years later — tried to give it another go, They figured out that wasn’t going to happen, so I think they were divorced for good in ‘87 or ‘88. But they remained friends all the way through our schooling, into adulthood, and up until the time he died. We were fortunate.”31

Hassler had worked a couple of offseasons helping a jeweler in Scottsdale. “As a matter of fact,” said Debbie Wines, “he designed my wedding band — a gold and turquoise wedding band that he made for me. I really thought that that might be his career.”

But what became his life’s work was something altogether different. “He worked for a very affluent friend of the family, Mike. He needed a ranch foreman in Wickenburg. Mike had a large estate on Camelback Mountain here in Phoenix and Andy lived on the estate with him. He would buy and sell properties Andy was real handy. He didn’t have a contractor’s license or anything but he could do almost anything. From the time he retired from baseball, he started working for Mike. “[The work] kept him pretty active as he was overseeing the care of eight houses, 14 buildings and a few horses and cows.”32

Debbie worked for 20 years as a flight attendant and in-flight supervisor for Southwest Airlines. She had another marriage, to an airline pilot. “I was married to the airline pilot longer than Andy, but Andy and I had the kids together. We were both athletes. We just kind of grew up together.” They also had memories, of winter ball in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, and other aspects of the sometimes itinerant life of a baseball player.33

Work aside, Andy had time to mentor his sons and kids in the Arcadia neighborhood, teaching some baseball, but — as a quiet person — never seeking any particular recognition as a former major leaguer. For a while, he was an assistant coach at Arcadia High School while son Derek was playing as a pitcher and first baseman.34

In 2014, Hassler suffered an aortic aneurysm. It nearly killed him. He’d been working on a generator at the ranch in Wickenburg when the large aneurysm burst. He drove himself the 30 minutes or so it took to reach the local clinic, where they immediately diagnosed a true emergency. “I was losing blood internally,” Andy says. “It was the size of a grapefruit 11 ½ centimeters.”35 He had to be airlifted to a hospital in Phoenix and spent two months in hospital, then more time recuperating at Debbie Wines’s home in Phoenix. He recovered, and began to devote more time to enjoying golf over the next several years.

Andy Hassler died on Christmas Day, December 25, 2019, at his home in Wickenburg, apparently of a sudden stroke or heart attack. The first responders, Drew says, thought it had been a quick death. “The way they said they found him, it didn’t look like he’d been struggling. There wasn’t anything disturbed.”36

A fond remembrance by a golfing friend which was published in the Wickenburg Sun provides a very nice sense of how Hassler enjoyed his last several years.37

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Donna Halper and Norman Macht and fact-checked by Chris Rainey.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. Thanks to Lyle Spatz and to Chelsea Hassler.

Notes

1 Author interview with Debbie Wines on May 28, 2020. The phrase “lifetime best friend” comes from Andy Hassler’s online obituary at https://www.wickenburgfuneralhome.com/obituary/andrew-hassler

2 Wines interview. Charlotte Hassler predeceased Andy. Fred Hassler died in 1978. After the kids were grown and gone, Doris “went back to Jasper, Texas — right on the Texas/Louisiana border — and she worked as the jailer. She’d laugh and say, ‘Oh, Cousin So-and-so was in again….’ She had a real thick Southern accent and she was really a lot of fun.”

3 Sam Gazdziak, “Obituary: Andy Hassler (1951-2019),” RIPBaseball.com, January 5, 2020. https://ripbaseball.com/2020/01/05/obituary-andy-hassler-1951-2019/

4 Jeff Prugh, “Positive Thinking Answer for Hassler; Angels Win, 10-2,” Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1974: B1.

5 Dave Distel, “Win or Lose, It’s Not That Important in Arizona League,” Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1970: H1.

6 Ron Rapoport, “Angels Pay $2,100 for Night on Town, Lose to Yanks, 7-4,” Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1971: E1. Phillips was complimentary: “The boy threw the ball well on the whole. It was the best you could expect the first time out.” The Angels were leading, 3-2, after five innings but did indeed lose.

7 Gazdziak.

8 Dave Distel, “Hassler’s Happy Being No. 4,” Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1975: 18.

9 Richard Dozer, “Cubs End Up with Big ‘Nondeal’,” Chicago Tribune, December 9, 1973: B6.

10 Jeff Prugh, “Positive Thinking Answer for Hassler; Angels Win, 10-2.” More recently, Terry Felton of the Minnesota Twins finished the 1982 season with a record of 0-13.

11 Jeff Prugh, “Positive Thinking Answer for Hassler; Angels Win, 10-2.”

12 Dave Distel, “Hassler’s Happy Being No. 4.”

13 “Hassler Loses 10th Straight,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1975: E1.

14 Ron Rapoport, “Dodgers Unsettled; Angels Optimistic,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1976: E1.

15 Ron Rapoport, “Hassler Built Confidence By Not Pitching in Winter,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1976: D1. He said he thought he might have been listening to too many ideas about how to address the problems he’d been having.

16 “Angels Celebrate A Day Late, 8-1,” Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1976: F1.

17 When he finally won, the first game of a doubleheader in Chicago, the team broke out champagne between games. See Richard Dozer, “Relentless Royals Sweep White Sox,” Chicago Tribune, August 7, 1976: 1. His 18-game losing streak was over; the AL record remained 19 (H. John Nabors, Philadelphia Athletics, in 1916) and the major-league record remained safe as well, held by Clifford Curtis of the Boston Bees since 1910-11.

18 Associated Press, “Hassler’s Freak Injury Gives Boost to Busy,” Hartford Courant, April 5, 1978: 60B. A Peter Gammons column in July said he had cut his finger while cleaning a fish.

19 Peter Gammons, “Lefty Hassler Set for Spot Duty,” Boston Globe, July25, 1978: 30.

20 Larry Whiteside, “Hassler In No Big Hurry to Sign,” Boston Globe, March 7, 1979: 64.

21 Peter Gammons, “Mets Purchase Hassler,” Boston Globe, June 16, 1980: 23.

22 Ray Fitzgerald, “Scenes Seen While Soaking Up the Sun,” Boston Globe, March 10, 1980: 35.

23 Peter Gammons, “Injuries Weaken Angel Bullpen,” Boston Globe, June 5, 1982: 30.

24 Peter Gammons, “Mauch’s Chess Game Now Keeping Critics in Check,” Boston Globe, October 9, 1982: 27. Mauch went with the “hot hand” in the bullpen. Tom Burgmeier said, “If you get hot, he’ll warm you up four or five times a day, every day.” Hassler’s criticism was only to agree: “That’s that way he is. You have to accept it.”

25 Pete Donovan, “Angels Hit Some Highs Before the Bubble Burst,” Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1982: SD B7.

26 Associated Press, “Unhappy Angels Cite Media In the Resignation of Mauch,” Washington Post, October 24, 1982: L2.

27 Ross Newhan, “Mauch Was Let Go, But Rightfully So,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1983: OC A1.

28 Ross Newhan, “Resilient Hassler Bounces Back and Up Again in Angels’ Bullpen,” Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1983: D4.

29 Ross Newhan, “Resilient Hassler Bounces Back and Up Again in Angels’ Bullpen.”

30 Wines interview.

31 Author interview with Drew Hassler on May 28, 2020.

32 “Andy’s Aortic Aneurysm Story,” AbrazoHealth.com, May 28, 2019. https://www.abrazohealth.com/services/cardiovascular/cardiovascular-stories/our-stories/andys-aortic-aneurism-story

33 They had thought about moving to Boston at one point — a place Debbie says Andy particularly liked — but the 44 inches of snow during the blizzard of 1978 prompted reconsideration of that idea.

34 Arizona Republic, March 31, 2000.

35 Andy’s Aortic Aneurysm Story.”

36 Drew Hassler interview.

37 Kevin Cloe, “Remembering Andy Hassler; missing the ‘Big Guy’,” Wickenburg Sun, January 30, 2020. http://www.wickenburgsun.com/opinion/image_4eaee0a2-4378-11ea-bc57-db5fcf3a8d6b.html