BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Reese’s Return Lifts Team Spirit

He walked gingerly through the clubhouse door early Sunday morning in Tempe, Ariz., and the moment he stepped inside, heads turned and players rushed eagerly toward him.

Jimmie Reese, 92, was back for his 78th season of professional baseball.

“It means more than everything to see him back today,” pitcher Mark Langston said. “Everything we do is meaningless compared to seeing Jimmie. I can’t begin to tell you how much we missed him last year.”

Reese, the Angels’ conditioning coach, was hospitalized in 1993 and remained too weak to rejoin the Angels, missing the second half of the season.

“I was just hoping and praying that things would work out all right,” Reese said, “but when get to 92, you begin to wonder. When I die, I want to go with this uniform on. This is my life.”

Said rookie pitcher Troy Percival: “If I never make it to the big leagues, it’s all been worth it just being able to meet that guy.”

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While there were no more than a couple of dozen fans who attended the Angels’ first workout, they got a treat when Bo Jackson arrived four days early.

Jackson not only captivated the crowd with his exploits in the batting cage--hitting a ball to the fence with his first swing--but he completely overwhelmed Preston Gomez, Angel assistant to the general manager.

“I came to see Bo,” Gomez said. “I had hip replacement surgery two years ago, and I can’t believe for the life of me that someone could play baseball with an artificial hip. That’s absolutely amazing.”

Jackson, who is expected to be a reserve left fielder and first baseman and designated hitter, said Sunday, “I’m just out here trying to win a job,” but Manager Buck Rodgers knows better.

“In the back of his mind, he feels like he’s going to be an everyday player,” Rodgers said, “so we’ll see what happens. We don’t know whether last year was an experimental year or not. We might have got a bargain or gotten a bust. We’re going to have to wait and see like everyone else.”

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If the season were to open today, Rodgers said his bullpen would consist of Joe Grahe, Mike Butcher, Craig Lefferts, Bob Patterson and Scott Lewis. “I wouldn’t be afraid to send any of those five out there to get the last out,” Rodgers said, “and that’s the first time I could ever say that about my entire bullpen.”