Hudler Helps Keep Everything Cool as Ice for the Angels

The Angels Really Miss Tony Phillips--a story line update:

On Monday, the team for which Tony Phillips now bats leadoff lost to the team he left behind, 9-8.

On Tuesday, it was the Left Behinds again, 5-4.

Wednesday: Team With Darin Erstad & Rex Hudler At The Top Of The Order 14, Team That Stole Tony Phillips From The Angels 2.

OK, so it’s only three games against the Chicago White Sox.

One series sweep.

One fifty-fourth of a regular season.

Take a larger sampling.

In their last 11 games, the Tony-less Angels are 10-1. They have come from behind to win in every one of those 10. In their last seven games, including Wednesday’s, they have produced hit totals in double figures. And in a mid-June litmus test against a team that refuses to let Cleveland pull away in the American League Central standings, a team that began Wednesday with the fourth-best record in baseball, the Angels outscored the White Sox in these last three games, 28-14.

Life without Tony does go on, and can be worthwhile and productive . . . so long as Hudler gets enough days off from Marcel Lachemann and enough ice bags from Angel trainers.

After singling once and doubling twice, after scoring one run and driving in three more, after nearly throwing out Phillips at the plate in the top of the first inning, after stealing both second and third bases in the bottom of the first, after “opening the floodgates,” as he put it, with a three-run double that triggered a seven-run seventh inning, Hudler sat splay-legged in front of his locker stall with ice bag No. 1 strapped to his left shoulder, ice bag No. 2 strapped to his right knee and ice bag No. 3 wrapped around his left foot.

“That’s a new one,” Hudler said, pointing to his foot. “Jammed my left foot on that slide into third.”

The iceman cometh . . . and the Hud-man chilleth.

“I love having ice all over me,” Hudler announced, revving up the one-for-the-quotebook machine gun. “It’s a great feeling to be tired and to come in here and ice down. Sometimes I’ll go 0 for 4 and not be tired at all. I won’t even have scratched myself a stinking scab.

“When I have ice all over me, it means I’ve played hard and I’ve been helpful to my team. I’ll recover. I’ll get a good night’s sleep and got out and take batting practice tomorrow and I’ll be fine.

“This game has a healing process all its own, at least it does for me.”

On occasion, however, the manager has to assist the healing process. Hudler saw it as clearly as Lachemann. He pulled off the Wonder Dog routine too many times in May--his 10 home runs by May 31 set a personal single-season high--and his 35-year-old shoulders are built for utility duty, not weightlifting. Hudler isn’t used to carrying a team. By early June, he was dragging, fatigued, in dire need of a few days off. Before Wednesday, he had managed but one hit in his previous 10 at-bats.

“I told Lach, ‘Now that the other guys are heating up, how about resting me a few days?’ ” Hudler said. “I needed to get my strength back. I had to get my legs back.”

So on Monday and Tuesday, Hudler rested.

And on Wednesday, he went 3 for 4 with four RBIs and two stolen bases.

Hold the champagne, just break out the ice.

“Sure, we miss Tony Phillips,” Hudler said. “But that’s been talked about enough already. That’s over. That’s done with . . .

“I knew going into this season that they were going to use me and Randy [Velarde] at the top of the order. I told myself, ‘Tony Phillips, you are not. You’re not going to walk a lot. You’re a hacker. You’ve got a big arsenal behind you. Just put the ball in play, Hud-man, and get on base any way you can for these bombers.’ ”

Phillips walked three times for the White Sox Wednesday. That gives him 57 this season, second in the league behind teammate Frank Thomas--and 52 ahead of Hudler. Last season with the Angels, Phillips walked 113 times. Hudler finished with 10.

“Walks don’t compute with me,” Hudler said. “Unfortunately, I never listened to my dad, who told me, ‘Son, if you’re going to lead off, you’ve got to walk more. Be patient.’ I wish I could. But if I wanted to walk, I’d be a mailman.

“I’m a slash-and-dasher. I’m a hacker. Always have been. And it got worse when I played in Japan. They batted me eighth, right in front of the pitcher. You think they wanted the American to get any hits, batting in front of the pitcher?

“They slopped me to death, but I kept swinging. My hitting instructor in Japan told me, ‘If your strike zone this big [Hudler drew an imaginary square the size of the standard strike zone], you hit .400. But your strike zone verrry large.’ ”

With or without an acute sense of what’s realistically hittable, Hudler is batting .317 in 44 games this season, scoring 32 runs and driving in 23. Not Tonyesque numbers, maybe, but good enough to help keep the Angels from capsizing because of too many heavy ERAs in the boat.

The key to his success, Hudler professes, is simple.

“Live for today,” he said, “and get as many ice bags as you can on you.”