BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Rainout Forces Doubleheader

The Angels’ team bus left the hotel Saturday amid a hail storm, took a detour en route to Tiger Stadium because of street flooding, and when players got to the clubhouse they could have trekked to the field . . . in a life raft--the tunnel from the clubhouse to dugout was flooded with about two feet of water.

So it was no surprise the Angels’ game against the Detroit Tigers was rained out. The game is scheduled to be made up today as part of a doubleheader beginning at 9:15 a.m. (PDT).

The first game will feature a matchup of All-Star left-handers, Detroit’s David Wells against the Angels’ Chuck Finley, and Tiger right-hander Mike Moore will face right-hander Mike Bielecki in the second. KTLA will televise the first game only.

It will mark the first doubleheader the Angels have played since Aug. 27, 1993, when they were swept at Milwaukee.

“I don’t like doubleheaders,” Angel leadoff batter Tony Phillips said. “They’re grinding. To keep the focus for 18 innings is tough. I’m pooped after one game, let alone two. But we have a lot of young legs on this team, so it could be fun.”

The Angels, at least, will have the services of right fielder and cleanup batter Tim Salmon, who missed his first game of the season Friday because of a stomach virus but was in Saturday’s lineup and feeling much better.

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Catcher Greg Myers may have lost his starting job to Jorge Fabregas, but at least he has been able to contribute offensively for the past three weeks, filling in capably for injured designated hitter Chili Davis.

But when Davis eventually returns . . .

“I’m physically able to catch every day, but I’m not dumb, either,” said Myers, who is batting .252 with four homers and 24 runs batted in. “I’m not being used [behind the plate]. That kind of tells me I probably won’t be used there.”

Myers, who missed significant time because of injuries in four of the past six seasons, was told in spring training he would catch a majority of the games. But days before the season opener he fouled a ball off his right foot, broke a bone in his big toe and opened the season on the disabled list.

The left-handed hitting Myers returned May 6 and hit .261 in four weeks before straining his quadriceps May 31. He spent another three weeks on the DL, but during this absence, Fabregas impressed Angel coaches with his improved defensive play (he threw out 11 of 34 attempted base-stealers) and a surprisingly potent bat (.268).

When Myers came back from the DL June 21 he was relegated to the designated hitter role and has caught only three games since.

“Injuries got me again,” Myers said. “That happens to catchers a lot during the course of the season. It’s just the nature of the job to get banged up. But at least being the DH has given me a chance to get some at-bats and still feel like I’m part of the team.”

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Spring training gave us replacement baseball players. Now we have replacement baseball writers. Union employees of the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press went on strike Thursday, but the News sent a replacement writer to cover Saturday’s Angel-Tiger game.

Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson, who refused to manage replacement players, said he was uncomfortable having a replacement writer in the clubhouse. Asked whether he would talk to him, he said, “We’ll wait and see.”

But the writer received a cold reception from other reporters--beat writer Terry Johnson of the South Bay Daily Breeze tried to lock him out of the press box in a rain storm.

“He’s [messing] with a friend of mine [beat writer Tom Gage of the News], taking food out of his mouth,” Johnson said. “That’s the least I could do.”