Tony Tavares

It's nights like Wednesday that make Tony Tavares' blood boil and his stomach churn. As his first year as Angel president drones on, Tavares finds the club's uninspired play no easier to take now than he did back in June or July. It grates on his nerves, to be sure. But it also has strengthened his resolve to turn the Angels into winners. He's certain he doesn't want to come to Anaheim Stadium next year, see it more than half empty and hear those who are there rooting for the opponents.

Mighty Duck president Tony Tavares doesn't believe all-star left wing Paul Kariya will be signed to a new contract in time to join the team when it leaves Monday for season-opening games next week against the Vancouver Canucks in Tokyo. "There's nothing to indicate he will [start the season with the team]," Tavares said Wednesday. "I'd have to be crazy not to worry about that. Any time you take one of the league's premier players out of your lineup you can't be excited.

In five months as general manager of the Montreal Expos, Omar Minaya has made seven trades. In those five months, Bill Stoneman has made no trades. In his three years as general manager of the Angels, Stoneman has made nine. The Angels' need for help is more urgent after three relievers and the starting catcher were put on the disabled list within the past three weeks, but Stoneman has yet to make a deal, even for a middle reliever.

No longer are Disney's Mighty Ducks the darling of Orange County sports fans. But why should fans continue to support the Ducks when Disney might not? The lingering uncertainty over the possible sale of the franchise helps explain this season's alarming decline in attendance, said Disney sports chief Tony Tavares. "I think that has had a very negative impact in the marketplace. I really do," Tavares said. "It's the attitude about the team: What are they doing?

He may be known as "Meddling Mike" in the entertainment industry, but Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner is hands-off when it comes to running the company's two professional sports teams. "There's this perception that Michael has his fingers in everything, but that's the farthest thing from the truth," said Tony Tavares, president of the Mighty Ducks and Angels. "Mike is not involved in day-to-day decisions at all.

The Angels won the World Series. The Mighty Ducks are in the Stanley Cup finals. Tony Tavares, the man who once ran both teams, sits in a windowless office in the creaky old stadium here, without a championship ring on his finger. From the time Disney took control of the Angels in 1996, to the time he resigned in January 2002, the oft-combative Tavares oversaw both teams, during an era in which few imagined a championship parade for either one.

Angel President Tony Tavares, long upset about voting rules that require three-fourths approval on many important baseball issues, blasted that situation Thursday, saying it was time to provide a new commissioner with real power. "Anyone worth his salt is going to insist on systemic change in league rules," Tavares said in a speech to a group of sports marketing executives in New York. "If he doesn't, he will be a powerless commissioner.

Tony Tavares, who oversees the Angels and Mighty Ducks as president of the Anaheim Sports division of the Walt Disney Co., has agreed to a contract extension with the company. Although critics have targeted Tavares, with the Angels and Ducks both finishing in last place last season amid financial losses and attendance declines, senior Disney executives have not wavered in their public support of him.

The fans had walked away from Disney's sports teams. On Friday, Tony Tavares followed them. Tavares, who ran the Angels and Mighty Ducks, resigned as president of Disney's Anaheim Sports subsidiary. "Any kind of losing is my regret," Tavares said. "Losing money and losing on the field makes a job like this unbearable." The teams lost games, lost money and lost fans, and Disney executives did not try to dissuade Tavares from his decision. "Tony came to us and said he thought it was time to go.

Saying he was angry about "personal attacks" and hoped to tell his side of the story, Mighty Duck President Tony Tavares still refused to explain precisely why Ron Wilson was let go as coach. "You want to fix blame, OK, fix it on me," Tavares said Thursday. "But personal attacks have no business here." Of his absence from Tuesday's news conference announcing the Ducks' decision not to renew Wilson's contract, Tavares said: "I was not hiding. I had a prior engagement.