Angels Watch While Clark Works on Pitch

The hitter dug in, the crowd cheered merrily and the umpire leaned intently over the plate. Poised for action, everyone awaited the magic phrase that would set the game in motion. Another few seconds for the anticipation to build, and here it was. It came as a shout.

“Action!”

So much for “Play ball!”

The umpire was an actor and the fans at the UC Irvine baseball field were Hollywood extras, all players in a television commercial starring San Francisco Giant first baseman Will Clark. To the eight Angels who had gone there Wednesday to run and stretch and throw, the film crew’s visit was a welcome diversion from a routine that had become tiresome by the time the lockout reached its seventh day.

Pitcher Chuck Finley, his workout done, sat with his back against the fence and regarded Clark with a bemused expression. “Well,” he said, “I’m glad somebody’s working.”

Left to their own devices and consciences, the Angels worked hard enough to break a sweat during their 90-minute session at the place that has become their home away from home since the lockout put Anaheim Stadium off limits.

Finley and Jim Abbott paired off to loosen up with easy tosses that grew progressively harder, breaking up the monotony with chatter about a pickup basketball game Finley had played. Bert Blyleven, wearing a T-shirt imprinted with the slogan “Play Ball,” did exactly that with reliever Willie Fraser.

“Throw it where I can reach it,” Blyleven scolded after Fraser hurled a pitch high over Blyleven’s head. Fraser wasn’t the least bit remorseful. “Hey, the fence will stop it,” he said.

Mike Witt and Bryan Harvey wandered past the commercial set at home plate and headed for the left-field bullpen, where Witt got in some throws off the mound. Kirk McCaskill did some serious throwing in another enclosure on the first-base side.

Only shortstop Dick Schofield, the lone nonpitcher at the workout, left before his teammates had finished their regimens by running in the outfield. Schofield says he has felt the effects of the lockout less than the pitchers because although pitchers and catchers would normally have reported to spring training a week ago, the earliest all other players were permitted to report was today.

“There’s nothing to do here,” Schofield said. “It hasn’t gotten to me yet because (Thursday) I’d just be leaving for spring training. The pitchers are the ones it’s bothering. But if it goes into March, it’s going to hurt everybody.”

The workout was satisfying for Witt even if “there probably wasn’t as much intensity” as in a usual spring practice. “It’s getting kind of boring,” he said. “You enjoy your time off, but there comes a time when you should be out there using your skills.”

Those skills might rust if the lockout drags on.

Fraser said he would continue to work out even if the negotiations recess, as players union head Don Fehr said would be the case if an agreement weren’t reached today.

Abbott also will go on working out. “I have nothing else to do. I didn’t plan on being here, so I didn’t make any other kinds of plans, and I’m getting bored,” he said. “You end up feeling like you’ve just wasted days at a time, not doing too much.”

Finley shares that sense of futility.

“I’ve been losing a lot of golf balls,” he joked. “I don’t even know what I’ve been doing. . . . I’ve just got to stay in the same pattern, but it’s hard to get motivated to come out here and go through these workouts. I’ve got to force myself to do it.

“I’ll keep prying myself out of bed and coming here until somebody tells me something else. But if it doesn’t get settled this week, I’m going back to Louisiana and going fishing.”