After Yankees, This Is Heaven

Randy Velarde used to come to the park with an assortment of baseball gloves and absolutely no idea where--or if--he would be playing.

‘It was like going to the airport every day and flying standby, not knowing if you’re going to get a flight,” Velarde said. “It was a tough mental grind, and it really took a toll.”

Velarde, an eight-year utility player with the New York Yankees, will be free of such anxiety this season. As the Angels’ starting second baseman, he has been bumped up to first class.

The Angels made a three-year, $2.45-million commitment to Velarde, virtually assuring he will be an everyday player. And Manager Marcel Lachemann said in the first week of spring training that Velarde will replace Tony Phillips as the leadoff batter.

That gives Velarde a lineup spot and job security in a clubhouse he describes as being “incredibly more relaxed” than New York’s, where Yankee owner George Steinbrenner always made his presence felt.

“I’ve gone from the Bronx to Disneyland,” Velarde said. “How can you top that?”

By making fans forget Phillips, the fiery ex-Angel who batted .261 with 27 home runs, 61 runs batted in, 119 runs and 113 walks, and had a .394 on-base percentage in 1995.

Velarde realizes that’s not likely. He has never hit more than 13 homers in a professional season. His single-season highs for runs, 60, and walks, 55, in 1995 would be near career lows for Phillips. His .375 on-base percentage would be subpar for Phillips.

Looking for speed? Velarde has 22 stolen bases. And to hamper his speed further, Velarde sat out Monday’s exhibition game because of numbness in his right thigh. Want a vocal leader? The low-key Velarde may show as much emotion in a month as the combustible Phillips showed in most at-bats.

“I don’t want to change my style that much,” said Velarde, a .264 hitter. “I’m going to have to make little adjustments, but I can’t just overhaul stuff. That’s not what management wants me to do.”

The way Lachemann and Velarde see it, the Angels won’t have a prototypal leadoff hitter in 1996, so there shouldn’t be much pressure on Velarde to match Phillips’ success.

“I’ve endured enough of New York to know what pressure is,” Velarde said. “And this isn’t it.”

And even if Velarde did feel pressure, he’s not the type to show it.

“After being around the media, fans and owner in New York, nothing really bothers him out there,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “He doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve. He’s composed, there’s a professional aura about him, and it seems like nothing is going to rattle him.”

Velarde found a comfort zone here immediately.

“The first team meeting was short, and we talked about last year, about baseball,” Velarde said. “With the Yankees, that first meeting would last an hour and a half, and we’d go over dress codes, how you should cut your hair, whether or not you could wear gold chains, all these nit-picking things instead of just focusing on baseball and winning.”

Another pleasant surprise in Tempe: No media mob. It was common for 20 or so reporters to cover the Yankees’ first workout in Florida, and for about a dozen to travel with the team regularly.

In Arizona, Velarde was greeted by two reporters--that’s the size of the press corps that now travels with the Angels full-time.

“The press in New York was always pretty fair to me, but you had to be careful what you said,” Velarde said. “Some guys tried to stir it up. I guess it was boring for them to write about wins and losses, so they had to find out who’s cheating on their wives, who’s staying out late. . . . It was like the National Enquirer.”

Velarde, 33, who had spent his entire career in the Yankee organization, has at least one thing in common with his new teammates: a dislike of the Seattle Mariners.

The Angels blew a 13-game lead in the American League West to Seattle last season and lost a one-game playoff to the Mariners for the division championship.

Velarde was on the Yankee team that lost to the Mariners in the memorable division series, in which Seattle lost the first two games but came back to win the next three, the final two in dramatic fashion, to advance to the league championship series.

“I’m not too much of a Seattle fan,” said Velarde, who batted .176 in the series. “There was bad blood between us and them, so I can empathize with these guys as well. But they’re the champs until we say otherwise.”

Perhaps Velarde will have something to say about that. He has a .500 average--18 for 36--against Seattle ace and 1995 Cy Young Award winner Randy Johnson, the highest mark of any player with 20 at-bats against the Mariner left-hander.

“I’m sure if you asked him, he wouldn’t even know about it,” Velarde said. “I doubt I’m one of the top-10 most-feared hitters he’s had to face.”

Actually, Velarde is wrong. Johnson is well aware of Velarde’s success rate against him.

“Even though he’s not a $7-million player like Barry Bonds or Frank Thomas, he’s given me the most fits of all the players in the league,” Johnson said. “I think it’s probably because he’s a good fastball hitter and contact hitter, which is a great combination against a power pitcher.”