Getting in Game Shape : After a Shaky Off-Season, the Big A Is Ready, Eager for Call to ‘Play Ball!’

Mother Nature has rocked it, architects have criticized it,and the Los Angeles Rams have threatened to leave it.

Anaheim Stadium has suffered through a long and torturous off-season.

But none of that seemed to matter this week as work crews busily prepared the 28-year-old stadium for the baseball season, which will unofficially start Saturday night when the California Angels host cross-region rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in their annual exhibition Freeway Series. (The official home opener is more than a week later, when the Angels play the Cleveland Indians April 11.)

“It will be nice to have baseball start again,” said Greg Smith, the stadium manager. “There’s a good feeling in the air. There’s a lot of hope.”

Souvenir manager Sam Maida, who has been stocking shelves this week with the latest hats, mini-bats and pennants, said Thursday the stadium is filled with optimism.

“In April, everybody is in first place,” he said with a chuckle. Even the Angels. “Everybody is excited.”

A mere three months ago, however, despair was the prevailing mood.

The 6.8 earthquake that shook the Southland on Jan. 17 toppled the stadium’s 17-ton scoreboard, destroying hundreds of stadium seats and demolishing a concession stand as well as two restrooms.

Normal preparations for the baseball season had to give way to emergency repairs to assure that Anaheim’s Boys of Summer had a place to play in the spring.

Stadium crews worked around the clock to remove twisted seats, concrete debris and the broken scoreboard in time for the Freeway Series. The city also reinforced 18 steel beams throughout the stadium to bring them up to current earthquake standards.

“It’s been a real challenge,” Smith said this week as he surveyed the still-visible quake damage.

All the repairs are expected to be completed by August. In the meantime, baseball fans will have to settle for a temporary scoreboard positioned in the middle of the left-field bleachers.

There will also be fewer seats, some 2,000 of them, for most of the season. That, however, will make it easier for the Angels to get a sellout, something that eluded them all of last year.

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Other than the seats and the scoreboard, the stadium looks ready for its season debut.

The sun shone brightly on the groundskeepers Thursday as they mowed the freshly planted grass to a precise five-eighths of an inch and raked the infield dirt.

Concessionaires, meanwhile, were busy loading their stands with kegs of beer, pretzels and, of course, hot dogs.

“We’re getting trucks and trucks of deliveries between now and the weekend,” said John Trosper, concessions manager at the stadium. “You can tell the season is beginning. There’s an electricity building around this place.”

Down the tunnel way from Gate 4, souvenir workers were checking their inventories and stocking their shelves with the latest products. Maida said new products this year will highlight Angel outfielder Tim Salmon, winner of last year’s Rookie of the Year award, and Nike pitchman and newly signed Angel Bo Jackson.

“If the team does well, we do well,” he said.

Last year, when the Angels suffered through a dismal season, Mighty Ducks merchandise received more attention than Angels products, said one woman concessionaire, who was stocking her stand with Angels hats Thursday.

The Angels are looking to change that this year. The organization hopes its off-season acquisitions and the development of its younger players will strengthen the team.

Also, team officials said they hope a new mascot and new team cheer will bring the ballclub some luck.

* GOOD NEWS BEARS

Furry new mascots designed to lure kids, lead cheers. B9