Diamond in the Rough : Despite Current State of Disarray, Big A Expected to Be Ready for Season

By CHRIS FOSTER

Feb. 21, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ANAHEIM —

The field looks ready . . . for a sandlot game. Dirt from one end to the other. No fence. No pitching mound. No foul lines. All that’s missing are a few kids with gloves and a baseball missing a few stitches.

At the moment, there are more holes in Anaheim Stadium than in the Angels’ starting rotation. But team officials say the stadium will be patched up by opening day.

In a little more than a month, Anaheim Stadium has to be ready for use. The Angels and Dodgers begin the Freeway Series at Dodger Stadium March 28 and a night later play in Anaheim. Crews are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet that timetable.

“Right now, we’re on schedule to be ready,” said Kevin Uhlich, director of stadium operations. “It has to be ready. This is not going to be an Oakland Coliseum situation, where we have to look to play somewhere else.”

The Oakland A’s opened the 1996 season in Las Vegas because the $100-million renovation of Oakland Coliseum was not completed in time. Ed Alvarez, the A’s executive vice president, said the club thought the stadium would be ready by mid-March. He said crews also worked around the clock the month before the opener.

“There were just too many loose ends that we had expected to come together,” Alvarez said. “Mainly it was the remnants of construction. The stadium was too cluttered. It wouldn’t have been suitable to have a large crowd of people there.”

The Angels have no such contingency plans at the moment. None are needed, according to Uhlich. Still, a lot of work remains in the $100-million project and the schedule allows for few unforeseen problems.

“Obviously, if worse came to worse, we would have looked at playing somewhere else,” Uhlich said. “We’ve had the usual problems with a project this size. The drawings for the stadium were done in 1966. Pipes and wiring weren’t located where they were supposed to be. We didn’t know what was there until we tore into the walls.

“But there has been a lot of careful planning put into this and we are on schedule.”

That will come as a relief to some players.

“I heard rumors that we would be playing in Las Vegas,” pitcher Troy Percival said.

For the moment, the Angels don’t appear to be leaving for Las Vegas. Don Logan, the Las Vegas Stars’ general manager, said he has not been contacted by Angel officials.

“I know [Angel] General Manager Bill Bavasi well and, even though it may not be a baseball issue, he would have called me,” Logan said.

Still, Percival and pitcher Chuck Finley visited the stadium last month and were shocked at the amount of work remaining.

“It looked like a fallout shelter . . . that had been hit,” Finley said. “When I first saw it, I thought ‘We’ll be at Cal State Fullerton pulling [fans] in.’ But they say it’s going to be ready.”

Said Percival: “There were no walls in the locker room. It was gutted. It was amazing they could take a structure that huge and pretty much start all over.

“I thought there was no way they were going to get this ready. There were no walls, no nothing. I think I only saw one guy working in there. But it was between noon and 1, so maybe they were at lunch.”

Much has been done since. But a lot is left to finish.

The press box, suites and concession stands behind home plate are unfinished. Seats behind home plate still need to be put back. The dugouts and clubhouses need to be refurbished. New sod, for the infield and outfield, is expected to arrive next week.

There is also a gaping hole in the view level where the football press box used to be. Uhlich said concrete will be poured and seats installed before the season.

Some of the stadium’s light standards must be reinstalled. It was a lighting problem that finally forced A’s officials to move to Las Vegas. Alvarez said the temporary lights that were installed were not suitable.

Angel officials said they do not anticipate the same problem.

When the work is completed, safety inspectors must also OK the stadium for use. Fans will still notice more destruction than construction, particularly in the outfield where the three-deck structure has been reduced to one level.

The capacity will be reduced from 64,593 to between 26,000-30,000 for this season. That will increase to 45,000 in 1998.

“What fans will experience this year is a lot of the demolition work,” Uhlich said. “The thing that will hit them is they won’t be looking at 20,000 empty seats in the outfield. On nice days, they will be able to see Mt. Baldy.

“But the fans’ experience really won’t change until 1998.”

Angel officials point out that the grand opening is set for the 1998 season and hope that fans will be willing to endure some discomfort this season.

Uhlich, in fact, was in Kansas City this week meeting with HOK officials, who have handled much of the renovation. They were putting together the bid packets for the final phase, which will be done next off-season.

Those plans now feature a multiple-scoreboard structure in right field. It will include a Jumbotron, a message scoreboard, a game-in-progress board and an animation board. The outside of the stadium will also undergo a face-lift. Work on the suite and the Diamond Club lounge behind home plate will also be completed then.

The stadium’s original Big A scoreboard, which officials initially said would be moved back inside the stadium, will remain in the parking lot.

Some work will continue through this season, mostly on the club level. Half the club level will be closed during the season--the third base side will be open for the first half, the first base side for the second half. That, plus the loss of terrace level seats behind home plate, has forced the relocation of season-ticket holders.

Most ticket holders will be moved back to those seats. Others will be given “the best seats possible,” according to Disney Sports Enterprises spokesman Bill Robertson.

Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this story.

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Big A Builds Toward Debut

Construction workers are continuing their race to get Anaheim Stadium ready before the Angels return March 29 for the final two games of the Freeway Series against the Dodgers. Here’s what remains to be done:

1. Sod the field.

2. Complete press box behind home plate.

3. Replace field level seats behind home plate.

4. Install seats where football press box was located.

5. Place temporary scoreboard in left field.

6. Position lights behind home plate and in outfield.

7. Restore outfield fences and screen behind home plate.

8. Finish refurbishing dugouts and clubhouses.

Work in Progress

Even after the season begins, construction will continue at Anaheim Stadium. The details:

During the Season

* Construct suites on the club level.