They’ll Never Forget A Year Later, Angels Are Still Haunted by Memory of Crash

Bobby Rose lies awake in a cramped apartment in Yokohama, Japan, tormented by the memories of a year ago, and afraid that he will forever be haunted by them.

Buck Rodgers, who spent two months in a wheelchair and never will have full mobility in his right arm, walks gingerly up and down the dugout steps each day, his left knee aching with arthritis.

John Wathan watches games from the dugout instead of the third-base coaching box, wondering if his three-month interim stint last summer might have been a roadblock to his passionate desire to once again be a major league manager.

It all goes back to one year ago today, when the Angels’ bus veered off a lonely stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike, ripping through a guard rail and crashing into a forest in Deptford Township, N.J.

Perhaps miraculously, everyone survived. But the accident changed the lives of all involved, in some cases leaving physical and psychological scars that still remain.

“I think it affected a lot more guys than want

to let on,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “It was a time in our lives when everything stopped. Your life was put on hold for a few days. . . .

“Most of us were able to overcome it in time, but some didn’t.

“It’s obvious what it did physically to Buck, but you look at a guy like Bobby, and he never has been the same since. It’s like he couldn’t bounce back with the rest of us. It was too much for him to overcome.”

Said catcher Ron Tingley: “It was weird. Here’s a guy who was one of us, our starting second baseman. He gets hurt, and we never see him or heard from him again. None of us. It’s like he just vanished from our lives.

“I think that scared a lot of guys, because we all realized that what happened to Bobby could have happened to any of us.”

Rose, a 24-year-old rookie, won the second base job in spring training. He hit a home run in the season opener and was batting .300 the first 10 days, but his game soon deteriorated. He struggled at the plate and appeared nervous and tense in the field.

The Angels soon learned that Rose’s marriage was crumbling. He lost his starting job and began platooning with Rene Gonzales.

On the night of May 19, however, the Angels sensed that Rose was reverting to the player they had seen in spring training. Pinch-hitting, he clubbed a two-run homer off Steve Howe.

“It was like that one hit brought the old Bobby back,” DiSarcina said.

Little did anyone realize it would be Rose’s last at-bat in the major leagues. He suffered a severely sprained right ankle in the bus accident and was put on the 15-day disabled list. Later, he was sent on a rehabilitative assignment to Palm Springs, was optioned to triple-A Edmonton in late June, and the next thing he knew, on Oct. 16 he was sold to the Yokohama Taiyo Whales.

“He had a lot of personal problems, but when the accident happened, it was like the last straw,” DiSarcina said. “He never had the same drive, the same intensity. It was like he just couldn’t get over what happened.

“Everyone knows he should still be in the big leagues, but it’s like the accident jolted his focus.

“Sometimes, the guys will talk about Bobby in the clubhouse, wondering how he’s doing, or what he’s up to. Mostly, I think, a lot of guys worry about him.”

Rose, whose wife and family joined him in Japan 1 1/2 months ago, says his life now is beginning to have a semblance of order. He’s hitting .330 in the Japan Central League and would like to return to the major leagues. But he says he’s not ready just yet.

“This has been very hard, very difficult to get over,” Rose said softly over the telephone. “It’s taken a long time just for me to fall asleep at night without thinking about what happened that night.

“I mean, I try. I try so hard not to think about that night, but I can’t help myself. Every time I get on a bus, every time I see a bus on the streets, it brings back memories. How can you ever forget something like that?

“I have to revive my career now. You know, I can’t help but think that if it wasn’t for that accident, I’d still be playing for the Angels. Maybe I’d be starting, who knows?

“Now, I wonder if I’ll ever be back.”

Rodgers’ and Rose’s lives may never be the same, but the accident had lasting effects on many others.

Chuck Hernandez was the Angels’ roving pitching instructor when he heard the news of the crash on his car radio in Jackson, Miss. He pulled over and called in for messages. He was told to report to Baltimore, where he would become the interim bullpen coach.

Rodgers wound up missing three months, and when he returned Aug. 28, he told Hernandez to stay the rest of the season. When veteran pitching coach Marcel Lachemann left in the off-season to join his brother, Rene, with the Florida Marlins, Rodgers decided to make Hernandez, 32, the youngest pitching coach in the major leagues.

“If the accident hadn’t happened, it’s very unlikely I would have hired him because I really didn’t know him,” Rodgers said.

Ken Macha, who moved from the bullpen to third base coach when Wathan became the interim manager, wound up staying put in that highly visible position, and now is considered a managerial candidate.

“I went from being Joe Schmo to having people recognize the job I do,” Macha said.

Relief pitcher Chuck Crim, who had a fear of flying before the accident, said flying no longer bothers him. Hitting instructor Rod Carew, who is deathly afraid of flying, now has occasional fears about driving his motor home. Chuck Finley, who rushed to the bus and was one of the first to pull out players without concern for his own safety, now is looked at in a different light by his teammates.

“People keep calling me a hero,” Finley said. “But actually, I was pretty teed off because I was playing cards and had a winning hand. Next thing I know, all the chips are flying all over the bus. So I figured since I lost a winning hand, I might as well loot the bus.”

Said Tingley: “What he did, and some of the others, is something I know I’ll never forget. They could have been scared to open the windows on what they might find. Will there be dead bodies, or what?

“I think no matter what happens to us, no matter what different directions we go in life, there will always be a special bond between the guys in the accident that no one will ever take away.”

The responsibility of making everyone into a team again belonged to Wathan, who was Rodgers’ third-base coach at the time. He had managed the Kansas City Royals to a 287-270 record during his 3 1/2-year stint with them, and now his managerial skills were going to be judged again on how he responded in this dreadful situation.

“It was extremely difficult, because you know the manager is coming back,” Wathan said. “It was Buck’s team. That’s why I refused to dress in his office. I didn’t feel I belonged there.

“It was tough, too, because it was a team that was suffering emotionally. If we were office workers, we would have been given time off for therapy. But this is baseball, and we had to play.”

The Angels went 36-49 and had an 11-game losing streak under Wathan. It can’t be known how much that record might have influenced prospective employers, but Wathan was a finalist for both expansion jobs and was not offered either one. Now, instead of coaching third, he is the Angel bench coach.

Said Wathan: “I joked with Buck when he came back and said, ‘Thanks a lot. I had a pretty good record in Kansas City. You get into that wreck and screw up my record.’

“Hopefully, I can get another chance under normal conditions. Certainly, I don’t think it’s fair to be judged on what happened last year.”

There are other lives and careers that could also be changing dramatically, pending the outcome of lawsuits. Rodgers, 54, has filed for $25 million in damages. Traveling secretary Frank Sims, who suffered four broken ribs, has filed for damages. And Rose will become the first Angel player to follow with his own lawsuit.

Rodgers is trying to stop the bus companies from changing the venue from New York to New Jersey and anticipates that an out-of-court settlement will be reached before the 1994 court date. Rodgers said he probably won’t spend any money he receives but instead will provide lifetime financial security for his four daughters and grandchildren.

Rodgers has two steel plates and 10 screws in his right elbow and two screws in his left knee as constant reminders of the accident. He realizes he will never totally recover. He is able to indulge his passion for golf, but the stress on his knee and arm prevent him from playing on consecutive days.

Still, it’s the little things he took for granted that are burdensome. He is unable get down on his hands and knees, for instance, and still get up without assistance. It’s painful for him to bend over to turn on the stereo, or reach for items in the lower freezer.

“There are things I can accept,” Rodgers said. “I know I’m never going to be 100%. I’m never going to have full mobility in my arm. I can’t even carry a suitcase with my right arm.

“But I’m alive, and I’m able to do my job and hold myself to a certain standard.

“I’m also lucky. Very, very lucky.”

Although Rodgers no longer has nightmares about the accident, or awakes in cold sweats, he contends that he, too, is a different person. His tolerance has waned, he said, and he figures he has made more impulsive decisions in the last six months than in his previous lifetime.

He astonished his wife, Judi, earlier this month when he bought a getaway home in Corona del Mar. He normally would have pondered that for months, but since the accident, he acts as if there’s no time to waste.

“A little bit of an urgency has developed in my life because I realized how fast it can be snuffed out,” Rodgers said. “It’s like I have more of an I-don’t-give-a-damn approach.

“It’s carried over to the way I manage. I’m not as hesitant to make moves now. If I don’t like what I see, I don’t think twice about changing it.

“It’s hard to explain, but I really have changed. Everything has a purpose now. I don’t have time for malingerers or liars. I’ll tell a guy something once, but if he doesn’t want to use his full talent and improve, then let someone else have him.”

Rodgers says he won’t bother commemorating the accident. In fact, if he and Judi hadn’t been reminded, they would gladly have forgotten the date.

“I know it’s not something I care to think about,” Judi said. “Once this anniversary is over, I really don’t want to think about it again. It’s time to put it aside.

“I still don’t think people realize the pain Bob went through and the trauma the players went through. It was a very difficult time, one we really don’t care to relive.

“I’m just very grateful he is alive and doesn’t have to be in a wheelchair.”

Rodgers said: “I really don’t think it will be a date I’ll remember. The dates etched in my mind are June 2 and June 3. Those are the dates I got fired (by other clubs).

“So every time I make it past June 3 now, that’s when I celebrate.

“Believe me, I will never celebrate this. To tell you the truth, after this year, I hope no one ever reminds me of the date again.”