Locked-Out Angel Pitchers Prepare to Seek Alternative Practice Fields : Baseball: Despite optimism that spring training will open soon, getting in shape remains an immediate concern.

Bryan Harvey was looking forward to reporting to Mesa, Ariz., today for spring training. Instead, the Angels’ right-hander is looking for a place to work out.

Because owners and players don’t have a new collective bargaining agreement, the spring-training lockout officially began today, the first day that pitchers, catchers and injured players were permitted to report to camps in Arizona and Florida.

The Angels’ first scheduled workout was to be Saturday in Mesa, but even an immediate accord would not allow enough travel and preparation time for that to take place.

Until an agreement is reached, Gene Autry Stadium in Mesa and Anaheim Stadium will be closed to players, leaving them uncertain about their travel plans and in need of alternative practice sites.

“You’d like to know when you’re going, but it’s out of your hands,” said Harvey, one of about 10 players who worked out for the final time at Anaheim Stadium Wednesday. “You can’t get on the phone and say anything to anybody.”

If he could issue orders to the negotiators, Harvey said, “I’d tell ‘em, ‘Let’s go.’ ”

Most Angels will go to high school and college fields in Orange County to continue their regimens. Reliever Chuck Finley plans to join Bert Blyleven, Kirk McCaskill, Harvey, Willie Fraser and Jim Abbott for a session tomorrow, “maybe at Villa Park (High School) or somewhere out in Irvine or at a junior college. Just to keep throwing.”

Being kept out of spring training, he said, is an odd feeling.

“I haven’t even packed,” said Finley, who is coming off a career-high 16 victories last season and recently agreed to a contract for $725,000. “It’s kind of weird. Last year at this time I was all ready to go.

“Right after the first of the year, you get fired up to start again. It seems like the season is that much longer away. Everybody’s anxious to go, but nobody’s going to go til it gets resolved.”

In the meantime, several Angels have resolved to stay in shape. “If they give us a (long) time period, we might slack off,” Finley said, “but it could be settled within a week. You’ve got to keep your training up like it’s going to be settled tomorrow.”

Blyleven, who went through the 1976 lockout and several strikes since then, said he might take a brief vacation if the lockout becomes lengthy. Then again, he just might take his glove out to his backyard to keep his arm limber.

“Maybe Patti (his wife) can catch me, that’s how hard I’ve been throwing,” he said.

Fraser said it won’t be hard for him to get in shape once the lockout ends.

“I’m as ready as I’m going to be right now,” the 25-year-old reliever said. “I just need to throw to hitters and I’ll get plenty of that. Something like this hurts guys from the East Coast more than us because they’ve been throwing inside and they’ll have to go outside and adjust to that.

“We all knew it was going to come to something of this nature. I don’t see it as being too long. We just have to wait and see what they decide.”

For some, packing won’t take much time. Said Mike Witt, “I just tip the drawer over into a suitcase and I’m ready to go.”