Bass’ Respite Happily Over

Outfielder Kevin Bass is four for seven in his last two organized baseball games . . . of course, it has been a year and a half between games.

Bass, 37, who has more than 13 years of major league experience, is attempting an improbable comeback after sitting out 1996 because no team wanted him.

His quest for an Angel reserve job began on the right foot Wednesday, when Bass went two for four with a double and two runs batted in and made a nice running catch in right field to lead his team to a 5-2 victory in an intrasquad game at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Bass was two for three in his last game, as a member of the Baltimore Orioles against the Detroit Tigers Oct. 2, 1995.

“To get another chance--you can’t ask for anything more than that,” said Bass, who played for Angel Manager Terry Collins in Houston in 1994. “I take nothing for granted. You never know when your last game, your last at-bat, is going to be, so I play as hard as I can.”

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Jim Abbott’s 1997 debut didn’t go quite as swimmingly. Abbott, trying to rebound from a 2-18 season, walked three batters in the fourth inning before getting out of the jam. He looked better in the fourth, giving up a single before retiring three straight. He threw 40 pitches in all, 18 for strikes.

“The first time out, you’re just trying to get your bearings out there,” Abbott said. “I was erratic the first inning but felt a lot better, a lot more aggressive, in the second. It takes time to get your rhythm and mechanics down. I didn’t expect to be razor sharp.”

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Right-hander Shigetoshi Hasegawa struck out two and retired another on a grounder in one inning Wednesday and impressed Angel coaches with his command and breaking pitches. “I was real comfortable,” Hasegawa said. “The mounds here are very nice. In Japan, they are very sandy. There’s no ditch [for] your landing foot [like it] is here.” . . . Left-hander Allen Watson also was impressive Wednesday, retiring all six batters he faced in two innings. George Arias and Jorge Fabregas each had two hits. . . . The Angels Wednesday agreed to terms on 1997 contracts for pitchers Robert Ellis, Mike Freehill, Pep Harris, Darrel May and Jeff Schmidt and outfielder Orlando Palmeiro.