BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Russian Rookies Get Look at Real Thing

Third baseman Yevgeny Puchkof and shortstop Ilya Bogatyrev, two of the three Russian players who are joining the Angels’ rookie league team in Mesa, Ariz., were at Anaheim Stadium on Monday.

The players, both 23, signed for $1,500 bonuses, and are part of the Angels’ fledgling effort to support the development of baseball in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

“This is a long-term project,” said Bob Fontaine, the team’s director of scouting. “Today, clearly, we are taking a chance. . . . It’s a dream, but in order to be realized it must be begun.”

Puchkof was a member of the 1990 Soviet National team that lost badly to the United States in the 1990 Goodwill Games at Seattle.

“Just being here is progress, just what we have done in the past two days is an accomplishment for when we go back and tell what we did--just seeing the Angels play,” Puchkov said through a translator who will stay with the players in Mesa.

The two players will spend about a week in Mesa before becoming active. Rudolf Razigaez, 23, a left-handed pitcher, will join the Mesa team next month.

News of baseball remains difficult to come by in the CIS. Bob Protextor, the Russian players’ translator and coach, said the players are able to watch baseball highlights on CNN, which they have had access to for about a year. There is also a thriving exchange of videotapes of games.

“They’ll ask if you want to watch a game and it will be the 1987 Mets and Phillies,” Protextor said. “They’ll sit and watch a game four or five years old.”

Trainer Ned Bergert has been added to the American League staff for the July 14 All-Star game at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.