It’s No Dream, Wilfong Hits a Home Run

Bo Wilfong excitedly approached his father several minutes after the game and said: “I heard it on the radio that you hit a home run.”

Seated at his locker just a few feet away, Reggie Jackson decided to interrupt.

“And you thought you were dreamin’, huh?” Jackson asked Rob Wilfong’s 4-year-old son.

It may have been past Bo’s bedtime, but he was wide awake when his father belted a towering shot in the second inning to give the Angels a 2-0 lead in Monday night’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

There was, in fact, a better possibility that the elder Wilfong thought his big hit was merely a pleasant dream. Or his whole evening, for that matter.

The Angels’ backup second baseman has been sleepwalking his way through his eighth major league season. But apparently he had decided to exorcise the nightmare that 1985 has been. For one night, anyway.

In four at-bats, Wilfong hit safely three times. Filling in at second for Bobby Grich, who was the designated hitter, he also had nine assists. Two were slick pickups of ground balls--one forcing him toward the hole at second base, the other causing him to go far to his left to throw out Rick Manning in the top of the ninth. He also started two double plays.

After the Angels’ 3-2, 11-inning victory at Anaheim Stadium, while his rambunctious son sat in his locker, Wilfong faced an onslaught of television cameras the likes of which he hadn’t seen in longer than he’d care to remember. It was a special occasion, and he donned his cap before the cameras began rolling.

“I better take advantage of it while I can,” he joked.

Then Wilfong got serious. His thoughts turned to the game, and to his batting average, which rose from .182 to .197 Monday. He was brutally honest with himself.

“It’s nice to finally contribute for a change, ‘cause I haven’t done a damn thing all year,” he said. “I just got lucky.”

Then he was asked if, before the game, he had had any sort of premonition that his performance would be any different than it has been, that he might at last have a good day.

‘I thought I was gonna have a bad day,” he said. ‘It’s nice to think you’re not a .180 hitter, but when you’re hitting .180, that’s how you feel. It’s hard to accept. Nobody wants to have a bad year. But you can’t lie to yourself.”

This night was different. Wilfong had no need to lie to himself.

On Danny Darwin’s second pitch to him, he jumped on a high slider that center fielder Manning climbed the right-field fence for but could only watch. It was Wilfong’s 27th hit of the season, his fourth home run.

“That’s the last thing on my mind,” he said of the homer. “I’m just happy to make contact. I didn’t hit it that good. For me to hit a home run, it’s really got to carry. It was just a hot enough day for it to carry.”

And Wilfong was just hot enough to continue to carry himself through an unusually fine day at the plate. His next time up, in the fifth inning, he followed Grich’s bloop double with a perfectly placed bunt to the right of and in front of Darwin. Wilfong was on first, Grich on third, and the Angels were threatening to increase their lead. Grich was doubled at the plate one play later and the rally was extinguished. But at least Wilfong’s batting average had grown a bit.

It did so again in the seventh, when he grounded a two-out single to left. But again, the Angels left him on first.

But in the bottom of the 10th, after Grich had again led off with a double, Wilfong’s glory came to an end. He took the first pitch, watched the second inside, then weakly bunted into Darwin’s glove. In one at-bat he went from being a possible hero to a possible goat.

“It would have ruined the whole ballgame,” he said, thankful for Doug DeCinces’ game-winning single the following inning. “I just kissed DeCinces on the lips. He saved my neck.”

But it had been Wilfong who had helped save the Angels with his home run and his play in the field. He took advantage of his chances at the plate, and he did likewise at second, covering the infield flawlessly.

“I like to get a lot of ground balls,” he said. “It keeps you in the ballgame. It’s a lot better than sitting out there and watching the game.”

And even more fun than sitting and watching from the dugout.