Angels’ Snow Cleans Up Under Pressure

Champagne hasn’t visited the Angel 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, totally ambushed, looking as if a can of Barbasol had exploded on him.

A snitch squealed.

“His initials are L.P.”

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

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

“When you 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-obliterated face.

Shaving cream? What shaving cream?

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

Two major league firsts for Snow and he can barely work up enough emotion to shrug. Taking one on the chin after taking Bill Wegman deep after arriving to work Tuesday 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.

What, him worry?

“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 made the late-night highlight reels, grinning through a shaving cream facial until a Angel publicist handed him a towel and reminded him to, oh, yeah, better wipe this stuff off.

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

For another, consult Buck Rodgers, the Angels’ manager.

“Lee Stevens definitely felt pressure, pressure beyond his control,” 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. On the eve of Dec. 7, 1992, a day Angel fans fear will live in infamy, Snow and minor league pitchers Russ Springer and Jerry Nielsen 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, the neo-folk hero 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 always going out and winning World Series and Bryan Harvey still around making history by saving the Florida Marlins’ inaugural 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, delivering his first home run since last August and his fourth in 634 big-league at-bats.

A month in Arizona and the Angels hit five home runs.

On opening day, they hit two.

Next, they’ll be moving in the fences, setting up a right-field porch for Hurricane Snow and the rest of Jaywalkers Row.

Sipping the official post-victory brew of the 1993 Angels--a light beer--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 cartwheels and any Snow-Will Clark comparisons.

“I was just glad to be on the board,” Rodgers said with a grin. The man knows his team.

And if Snow’s voyage 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--it’s all a 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.