COMMENTARY : Snow Overcomes His Most Fearsome Opponent--Pressure

Champagne hasn’t visited the Angels’ clubhouse since 1986, a thousand final scores and seven years ago, so Luis Polonia was forced to improvise. Palm a towel, fill it with shaving cream and break through a postgame media huddle to carry out a hit on J.T. Snow.

“Who did that?” asked Snow.

A snitch squealed.

“His initials are L.P.”

Snow nodded. In this room, that could only mean one man, Lance Parrish having been cut last season.

“Being a young rookie, you got to take stuff like this,” Snow said.

“When go out there and have some fun, you can do things like this,” he reasoned.

For another five minutes, Snow answered questions, completing two separate television interviews, without so much as lifting a finger to wipe his half-covered face.

Shaving cream? What shaving cream?

Home run into the right-field bullpen? What home run into the right-field bullpen?

With the weight of the Jim Abbott trade on his shoulders, 30,000 sets of eyes watching his every move and three dozen friends and relatives sitting on the edge of their private-box seats, he wasn’t worried.

“I must’ve had 30 or 40 people here,” Snow said, “and, to be honest, I was probably the calmest one out there. They’re the ones who get nervous and excited. They sit there biting their fingernails.

“Me, this is my job. This is what I do.”

This time last season, this was Lee Stevens’ job. But Stevens never homered in his second Angel at-bat. He never went two for four to trigger a 3-1 opening day victory. He never smiled through a shaving cream facial until an Angel publicist handed him a towel and reminded him to wipe the stuff off.

That is one reason Lee Stevens no longer plays first base for the Angels and J.T. Snow does.

“Lee Stevens definitely felt pressure, pressure beyond his control,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “He was the one replacing Wally Joyner, and it really bothered him. He couldn’t handle it.

“Right now, J.T. has more perspective, in 15 minutes, than Lee Stevens had in a whole season. He’s coming in here, brand new, and he’s letting people know, ‘This is J.T. Snow, I’m from the Orange County area, I came here to play baseball and it doesn’t matter how the hell I got here. I’m here.’ ”

Actually, it does matter, or it has mattered all winter. Dec. 6, Snow and minor-league pitchers Russ Springer and Jerry Nielson were traded from the New York Yankees for Jim Abbott, who was more than the most popular Angel since Joyner. Abbott was the most popular Angel since Nolan Ryan, whose jersey number now adorns the right-field fence inside Anaheim Stadium.

Snow had nothing to do with the deal, except being a part of it, but he has had to deal with it every day since.

Snow has been asked about Abbott “too many times to count.” But he says he must be prepared for it, having been coached by his father Jack, the former Ram and Notre Dame wide receiver who knows the territory.

“We knew the trade was a possibility,” Snow said, “so Dad told me, ‘If it happens, here’s what to expect.’

“I’m not upset at people who are upset at the trade. But it was out of my hands. It was a business decision. This is a business. It happens.

“I’m not trying to replace Jim Abbott. I know he was very popular here and did a lot for this club. But it’s over and done with.”

Time to move on is what Snow is saying. With the Angels, however, that move can be tough, with Dave Winfield and Devon White going out and winning World Series and Bryan Harvey still around, saving the Florida Marlins’ first game.

So Snow made the move himself. His fourth-inning home run not only broke a scoreless tie, it became contagious. One inning later, shortstop Gary DiSarcina reached the left-field seats, hitting his first home run since August and his fourth in 634 major league at-bats.

During a month in Arizona, the Angels hit five home runs.

On opening day, they hit two.

But Rodgers wasn’t fooling himself. When he watched Milwaukee right fielder Darryl Hamilton press high against the bullpen gate and come down empty-handed, he refrained from any Snow-Will Clark comparisons.

“I was just glad to be on the board,” Rodgers said with a smile.

And if Snow’s voyage trip around the bases looked a bit hurried, the rookie explained that he hadn’t “hit enough home runs to develop a home-run trot yet.” Trots, swagger, proper demeanor while lathered in shaving cream--all are part of the major league learning experience.

“Nothing like being thrown out there and learning on the job,” Snow said.

The Angels have thrown them out there, all right. Lesson No. 1: Play this way, and maybe you get to stay.