MINOR MISUNDERSTANDING : Angels’ Class-A Team Surrenders Its Equipment to Police in Dispute Over Hotel Bill

The Quad City Angels, a Class-A team for the California Angels, had its equipment seized Monday night by police in South Bend, Ind.

The Angels had just finished playing the South Bend White Sox when police entered the locker room and confiscated the equipment in a dispute over a bill with The Works Hotel.

On Tuesday, the Angels paid $2,700 to retrieve the seized property.

“They have sent us a negotiable check yesterday, paid into court,” hotel owner T. Brooks Brademas said. “So we released the equipment. Actually, there’s been a lot of ado about nothing.”

Mike Tatoian, the club’s general manager, said in a prepared statement that the money was paid solely to retrieve the equipment. Team officials said the club considers the seizure unwarranted and intends to take legal action against The Works Hotel.

“In order to regain the baseball equipment necessary for our ballclub to compete during the upcoming road trip to Madison (Wis.), The Works Hotel was wired an amount equal to the billing of the three days (in question),” Tatoian said.

The incident began last season when the Angels reserved rooms at The Works for their June 27-30, 1988, series against the White Sox. Tatoian said the team found the hotel was not within walking distance to most downtown restaurants and never checked in.

“That’s a clear fabrication on their part,” Brademas said.

“Richard Harris and the Camelot troupe stayed here and Neil Diamond stayed here. They were all very, very pleased. We took those rooms out of circulation for three days and we lost income because of it.”

Tatoian said The Works rejected the club’s offer to pay for one day. Hotel manager Joe Walsh said the organization never responded to correspondence.

“We don’t want to damage South Bend’s image in the Midwest League,” Walsh said. “We exercised every option, including going to the Midwest League office, before we pursued legal channels.”

“We went to the local courts and won a judgment,” Brademas said. “The Angels were aware of this. We had informed them. They chose not to show up.”

Tatoian said Tuesday that club lawyers advised the team not to pay because the hotel’s lawyers had sued the wrong name. The suit named the Quad City Angels. The franchise name actually is the Quad City Professional Baseball Club.

The Angels returned to South Bend last week for a four-game series and on Monday, after an 8-2 loss to the White Sox, found the police in their locker room.

The equipment, which included uniforms, bats and helmets, was seized as part of a default judgment awarded The Works Hotel.

Police sealed exits to the visiting team’s clubhouse at Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium and searched Quad City players as they left.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, the cops taking stuff and going through our bags,” said losing pitcher Mark Holzemer.

Brademas said the seizure was the last resort.

“This was the only way we could get it taken care of,” said Brademas. “We don’t intend to set up our own ball team. I guess they assumed since they were from another state, we couldn’t enforce it.”

Tatoian said the seized equipment belonged to the California Angels, not the Quad City franchise.

“If they felt they had to seize something, they can come here and get a popcorn cart,” he said from the club’s office in Davenport, Iowa.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.