LEADER OF MEN—Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia, left, congratulates outfielder Gary Matthews following yet another Halo victory. After guiding the Angels to their fifth American League West title in six seasons, Scioscia is considered by many experts to be the oddson favorite to claim his second AL Manager of the Year award, the first of which he won in 2002. Mike Scioscia walks toward the front door at Starbucks in Oak Park dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans, his hair slicked back and his head held high.

On the previous night, the professional baseball team Scioscia manages, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, won the American League West pennant for the fifth time in six years.

A highly emotional celebration had followed.

Scioscia, 50, in his 10th season guiding the Angels, converses with a pair of Starbucks employees before going inside and ordering a beverage.

He quickly emerges and takes a seat under the warm midmorning sun at a table adjacent to where Simi Valley High graduate Don MacLean, the all-time leading scorer in UCLA men’s basketball history, is chatting with a couple of associates.

The coach, who moved with his family from Claremont to Westlake Village in 1993, appears extremely comfortable hanging out at his local coffee shop.

As fans and friends walk over to the table to congratulate him and the team, a smiling Scioscia admits that a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

“This is the toughest goal to reach (the regular-season title),” he says, “because the grind gives you so many twists and turns.”

Managing it all

It has been a trying year for Scioscia and the entire Angels organization.

On April 9, 22-year-old pitcher Nick Adenhart and two friends were killed by a suspected drunken driver in Fullerton, only hours after Adenhart had thrown six innings of no-run ball during his season debut against the Oakland Athletics.

“You can prepare for a lot of things, but you can never prepare for what happened with Nick,” Scioscia said.

“The perspective is that it was never about us, about how we’re dealing with it. When a tragedy like that happens, it’s very simple to see that it’s not about us losing a friend or a teammate. It’s about the Adenhart family losing a son. . . .

“That’s the perspective that we have. We played all year with a heavy heart, and we’ll continue to play with a heavy heart. But we need to understand that it’s not about us; it’s about their family. We’re here to support their family, and that’s what we have to do,” he said.

The Angels, who opened the AL Division Series at home Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox, were also hit hard by injuries, particularly within their pitching staff, where Scioscia and pitching coach Mike Butcher were forced to use 14 different starters, just three shy of the team record.

Through it all, Scioscia, the 2002 AL Manager of the Year and the league’s frontrunner to claim the same honor this season, guided his squad to a 97-65 record, the second-best mark in all of baseball, behind only the New York Yankees.

Matt Scioscia, the coach’s 21year-old son who plays catcher and designated hitter at Notre Dame, said his dad was able to navigate the Angels through the trials and tribulations of the regular season by staying true to his long-standing personal beliefs.

“He has a very strong moral fiber. He puts his family first, and he has his priorities organized,” Matt Scioscia said. “That kind of carries over into every aspect of what he does.

“He’s very good at keeping his priorities straight, being motivated and being driven. He’s a good mentor—to me he’s been a very good mentor. I think a lot of that rubs off on his players, too.”

Halo highway

When the team plays at home, Scioscia hops into his Toyota Prius and makes the 70-mile oneway trip to Angel Stadium. He typically leaves around 12:30 p.m. for night games, arriving at the venue just before 2, depending on traffic, of course.

All those hours on the road give the coach plenty of time to think.

“At night it’s definitely therapeutic to unwind from the game,” he said of the drive. “And going down I have a lot of time to prepare, to make calls on the phone. When I get to the ballpark, we’re ready to go.”

After recently signing a 10year contract extension, Scioscia certainly has the means and motivation to move closer to Anaheim, but his family has a strong connection with the Conejo Valley, and this is their home.

Scioscia’s wife of 25 years, Anne, attended Thousand Oaks High. The couple’s two kids, Matt and his younger sister, Taylor, have lived in Westlake for most of their lives. Matt graduated from Crespi in 2007. Taylor is currently a senior at Louisville High in Woodland Hills.

Matt has fond memories of making the trek to Angel Stadium with his dad as a youngster.

The two would take batting practice and work on defensive drills before the players showed up. After that, Matt would shag fly balls in the outfield. Even then, the coach made sure to bestow the importance of hard work and discipline on his son.

“My dad took me in there and he worked me,” Matt said with a laugh. “He’d be like, ‘This isn’t a free ride. You better get your work in.’ And I’d always be, like, ‘Oh, all right, Dad.’

“Sometimes we’d go in there and it was all business. He put me to work pretty good, but it was an awesome experience, something I’ll treasure forever.”

Assisting

amateur baseball

Scioscia wants to build more baseball diamonds, particularly in local communities.

“The baseball facilities out here are woefully short of what is needed to support the level of play and the number of kids that play baseball,” he said.

“I think the community is recognizing that to some extent— we’ve had a lot of support from the City Council for a lot of our ideas—but we need more baseball sites to let these kids play and develop.”

In 2004, Scioscia, along with Randy Riley and Kevin Muno, created the Amateur Baseball Development Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping raise funds for programs throughout Southern California, particularly for ballplayers in the 14-21 age range.

Locally, ABDG helps support the Conejo Oaks, a summer-ball squad that competes in the California Collegiate League, a Conejo Oaks U-16 travel team, Thousand Oaks Big League and a pair of high school-aged spring and summer leagues that play games at Conejo Creek Ballpark.

“A lot of times a kid will get cut from his high school team or ninth-grade team and they won’t have anywhere to play,” Scioscia said. “Well, we’ve got a couple of leagues that are safety nets to let kids still experience baseball.

“The rewarding thing is seeing kids that may have been cut as freshmen who play with us in a summer league and three years later they’re on varsity. They didn’t have to give up the game of baseball because they had nowhere to play.”

Dodger or an Angel?

A two-time All-Star selection at catcher, Scioscia spent his entire playing career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he helped the franchise capture World Series titles in 1981 and 1988.

Scioscia still holds the Dodger record with 1,395 games caught, and was fortunate enough to play under legendary manager Tommy Lasorda for all 13 of his seasons competing in L.A.

“Tommy was the best at setting an environment to achieve,” Scioscia said. “I think that’s important. It was important when I was playing—you just brought that confidence forward.

“Now that I’m managing, I think it’s important that your staff and everyone around you understands how important it is to set that environment to where people feel very, very supported and their confidence level is very high to achieve.”

Although he played and managed in the Dodger organization for more than two decades, Scioscia now considers himself an Angel at heart.

He is, after all, the only man to ever lead the Angels to a World Series title, in 2002, and already tops the franchise list in career wins and games managed.

“Oh, I feel like I’m an Angel, for sure,” he said. “But I’m so grateful for the baseball education I got in the Dodger organization.”