COMMENTARY : Trouble, Not Tragedy, for One Lucky Team

It is a quarter to two, Thursday morning on the East Coast, and alongside a lonely stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike a bus carrying 18 members of the Angels’ traveling party is tilted at 60 degrees, precariously near turning on its side, 300 feet from a mangled guard rail that failed.

Soon, police sirens sound. Ambulances arrive. The bus windshield is smashed in order to extricate the team’s manager, Buck Rodgers, who has broken an elbow, a knee and a rib.

Around him, traveling secretary Frank Sims has a cracked rib.

Bullpen catcher Rick Turner and shortstop Gary DiSarcina are bleeding.

First baseman Alvin Davis has bruises on his back.

Batting coach Rod Carew has a stiff neck.

At nearby Underwood Hospital, in Woodbury, N.J., spokeswoman Sara Crispin examines the injuries and, imagining what could have been, declares, “It looks like they were very lucky guys.”

Indeed they were.

Angels.

Lucky.

For once.

Back on another coast, the first news of the accident trickled across the bottom of the television screen, across David Letterman’s desk. Just a blurb of a bulletin, in white letters: The California Angels’ bus had crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike. More to follow.

For many minutes--too many--that was it. In the interim, in a rush, all the darkened images of this fortune-forsaken franchise reappeared.

Staff ace Ken McBride, his budding career ruined by injuries sustained in an automobile accident in 1964.

Relief pitcher Minnie Rojas, paralyzed in a car crash in 1968.

Infielder Chico Ruiz, killed in a wreck in 1972.

Rookie pitcher Bruce Heinbechner, killed in a 1974 accident a half-mile away from the team hotel.

Shortstop Mike Miley, killed in 1977, at the age of 23, in a car crash in Louisiana.

Outfielder Lyman Bostock shot to death in Gary, Ind., in 1978.

This time, the lead vehicle in a two-bus convoy from New York to Baltimore had swerved out of control, smashed through a guard rail and stopped, mere feet from a 15-foot embankment leading down to a drainage pond.

“Thank God for the trees,” said Leonard Garcia, the team’s equipment manager.

“I thought we were going into the water,” third base coach John Wathan said. “Then, all of a sudden, we were in the woods. The trees stopped us.”

The trees were the heroes of the hour, but the ranks would quickly swell.

Out of the second bus leaped Chuck Finley, who led a charge to the disabled bus and began pulling teammates out of broken windows.

“All I remember is somebody yelling, ‘The bus is down!’ and Chuck Finley running out of there,” said team publicist Tim Mead, who was seated in the second bus. “Right away, he was grabbing people.”

Trainer Ned Bergert was already on the first bus, down and dazed with all the others, but quickly on his feet and tending to the injured--seemingly unaware of the deep bruises in his lower back.

Rodgers sustained the most serious injuries, and his elbow will require surgery in Los Angeles this weekend. Phillie team physician Phillip Marone examined the manager and noted: “If he was a player, he’d be out for the season.”

Rodgers needs to only sit up in the dugout, but even that is expected to take awhile. In the meantime, Wathan will serve as interim manager and search for interim replacements for Rose, bound for the disabled list, and Davis, who might join him.

“It felt like we hit a pothole,” Rose said, trying to recall the sensation of sudden impact. “I don’t remember much after that. Either I was knocked out or something hit me on the head.

“When I woke up, Chuck Finley and Jim Abbott and Lee Stevens were pulling me out.”

Senses regained, Rose was released from the hospital, but before joining his teammates in Baltimore, he inspected the wreckage one more time. He shook a woozy head. “We’re all pretty lucky,” he said.

Lost in the woods?

Today, the Angels would say they were saved by them.