Defeat Cast Pall in Stadium but Not in the Park

It was the top of the ninth inning. The Angels were teetering on the brink of their very first trip to the World Series, but the ultimate possession of the 1986 American League pennant was the last thing on Susan Vargas’ mind.

“My hamburgers are turning into meatballs,” she lamented, trying without much success to make a fork do the work of the spatula that was forgotten when her family left their Costa Mesa home for a picnic in the park.

Gathered around the food-ladened table were her husband, Jose, and children Abe, Alex and Olivia. Nowhere to be found was a transistor radio or portable television tuned to the critical fifth game between the Angels and Boston Red Sox.

And that’s how it was across much of the rolling, green expanse of TeWinkle Memorial Park, next to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. Families, friends and young romantic couples were just out to enjoy a Sunday in the sun.

There, around a lake and beneath shade trees, they were about as far from the cheering crowds as they could be and still be in Orange County, even though Anaheim Stadium was only six miles as a very, very well-hit fly ball travels.

It isn’t that Jose Vargas was indifferent to the goings-on. “I hope the Angels win,” he said. “But I just preferred to come to the park for a picnic with my family today.”

His son Abe, on the other hand, might have preferred to be at the ballpark, or at least in front of the TV. “I love baseball,” he professed quietly, all the while contemplating the hot dog that had taken the place of hamburgers as the afternoon entree. “But I don’t watch it very often.”

Unlike the Vargases, Joe Condon wasn’t just ambivalent. He was downright adamant.

“I’m a devout hater of baseball,” said Condon of Orange when asked why he wasn’t at least listening to the game on a radio.

“Is there some important game today?” his companion, Amalia Ford, asked. “Who is it? The Raiders? The Browns?”

“That’s football,” Condon said, shaking his head.

“Oh. Oh well, I only like to watch soccer anyway,” said Ford, who lives in Costa Mesa and attends Orange Coast College.

“Actually, it was a nice day,” Condon said, motioning to a stack of books on the picnic table. “We thought she might get some studying done.”

Dave Arebalos and Matthew Stump of Costa Mesa also thought it was too nice a day to be spent inside.

“It was getting too hot in the apartment, so we decided to come over here,” Arebalos said.

“Yeah, it was great to get out in the sun,” Stump added, as he and Arebalos perched on a railing in the shade of the park’s island pavilion.

Arebalos admitted to having an interest in the Angels-Red Sox playoff series, but that had been Friday, when the money from an office pool was at stake. He even watched the game on TV.

“I lost, but I was still happy to see the Angels win,” Arebalos said. “I’d like to see them get into series, but if they do the Mets will probably beat them.”