So Far, Time Has Not Healed All of the Angels’ Wounds

Play through it, the Angels kept telling themselves this weekend.

Forget the guardrail that didn’t, the trees that were buzz-sawed in half, the blown-out bus windows, the paramedic vans that carted away a dozen comrades into the New Jersey night.

Occupy the mind with other thoughts, the Angels said. Think baseball, Baltimore Orioles, Camden Yards. And when you’re not, put on the CD headphones, turn on the TV set, flip through a magazine.

The Angels were fooling themselves.

Even escapism escaped the Angels as they readied for the final game of what infielder Rene Gonzales calls “the road trip from hell.” For a little pregame entertainment Sunday, a group of players huddled around an overhead television monitor in the visitors’ clubhouse. On the tube: the Indianapolis 500.

“We’re sitting there watching it,” backup catcher Ron Tingley said, “and all of a sudden, we see a guy crash. Guys are saying, ‘Gee, I hope that guy’s all right,’ and ‘Man, I don’t want that to happen to anyone.’

“That brought it right back, right away.”

Four days have passed since an Angel team bus crashed along the New Jersey Turnpike, causing injuries as slight as broadcaster Al Conin’s black eye and as serious as Manager Buck Rodgers’ shattered knee and elbow.

Three games have been played.

Not enough time yet.

Not enough distance.

“The evidence of what happened is all around us,” Gonzales said, sweeping an arm through the air. “Guys are missing. Guys are on the field who under normal conditions wouldn’t be out there. Guys are banged up.

“It’s hard to forget about it.”

Even a trip to the hotel desk, for Sunday morning checkout, can been treacherous.

“I handed my bag to the bellman and there’s a dent in it,” Tingley said. “Guys are opening their bags and still finding things broken inside. There are constant reminders.”

Tingley glanced to his right. Fifteen feet away, a group of reporters were clustered around an Angels’ publicist who was reading aloud a post-surgery update on Rodgers.

Tingley wandered over as well.

“All of our thoughts are still with Buck,” Tingley said. “A lot of this will cease to exist once we hear that Buck’s OK.”

Buck won’t be back soon. Team physician Lewis Yocum has advised Rodgers to place no weight on his fractured and repaired left knee for two months. The timetable for the reconstructed right elbow? Too early to have one.

Second baseman Bobby Rose is already on the disabled list with a badly sprained right ankle. First baseman Alvin Davis has already missed three games because of bruised kidneys.

So the Angels lost Sunday’s game, 6-4.

So the Angels finished this trip 2-7 and slipped to 20-22 overall.

So what?

“As for the Baltimore series,” Tingley said, “I’m surprised we won one game. But we did play in all of them. I guess that’s what it means when you’re a professional. You have to go out there and do your work.”

The work has almost become secondary for the Angels this season, beginning with the spring-training foul ball that almost killed pitcher Matt Keough in March and the lung cancer that claimed popular batting coach Deron Johnson in April. In May, a team bus skids off the road into a tree grove.

A crisis a month.

The A on the front of the caps must stand for adversity.

“I’d never really sat back and thought about it before,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said, “but those are three tragedies right there. Strange that would happen to one team. Maybe Matt hurting his head was the strangest one; that was not a normal scenario.

“But this one might have been the real tragedy. Somebody could have ended up dying.”

Relief pitcher Bryan Harvey sighed and said, “We have been through a lot. We’ve been lucky in all the situations except for DJ.

“We could have lost a lot of guys this year. Matty was close. A lot more on the bus were in danger the other night. The good Lord’s definitely been watching over us.”

Someone asked Gonzales if this had been “the worst road trip of your life.”

The question brought a laugh.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Gonzales replied. “When I think about what happened, the same thought keeps coming back: ‘God, it could have been so much worse.’

“No doubt, we’ve got a lot to be grateful for.”

Outside Camden Yards, another bus awaited the Angels. This one was intended to transport them to Baltimore-Washington International Airport for a cross-country charter flight back to Ontario.

Any trepidation about stepping back on board?

“I don’t think so,” Tingley said, grinning. “But I can’t wait to get to the airport. I guess it’s true what they always say: The safest way to travel is by plane.”