Suggestion Is Right Out of High School

Angel pitcher Allen Watson, who led the major leagues with 37 homers given up in 1997, had a suggestion for all those baseball officials scrambling to reschedule the Yankee-Angel games that were postponed after a 500-pound joint fell from the upper deck in Yankee Stadium Monday.

“We should reschedule them at my high school,” said Watson, who played at Christ the King High in nearby Queens, N.Y. “We had no fence. The guys could play 550 feet deep. I wouldn’t give up any home runs.”

Designated hitter Cecil Fielder, the former Yankee who was booed on opening day in Yankee Stadium last season after his spring-training trade demand was not met and was expecting to be greeted harshly by Yankee fans Monday night, had his own theory for the mishap.

“I did it,” he confessed with a grin. “It was my fault the stadium came down.”

The bizarre circumstances surrounding Monday’s postponement sparked stories of other cancellations, like the time in 1988 when Angel Manager Terry Collins settled into the dugout for a game in 1988 as manager of the triple-A Albuquerque Dukes.

“My starting pitcher was warming up, and as he dug his foot around the mound there was a hole about a foot deep in front of the rubber,” Collins said. “Turns out the day before the game they found out the distance between the mound and the plate was short, so they moved the rubber six inches back.

“But they didn’t fill the hole with clay, so they had to cancel the game. We were ‘mounded’ out.”

Chuck Finley recalled an Angel game that was canceled when the lights malfunctioned in Anaheim Stadium, but that hardly topped this one.

“It just goes to show you,” Finley said, “that anything can happen in New York.”

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Angel right-hander Ken Hill, who has not given up a run in 14 innings, and Yankee left-hander David Wells, both scheduled to pitch Monday night, will pitch in Wednesday’s game. But Collins said he will likely shuffle his rotation so Finley, the team’s ace, can pitch on four days’ rest Friday against Tampa Bay in Edison Field. . . . The Angels will work out today in Yankee Stadium after the Yankees play a six-inning exhibition game against the Norwich (Conn.) Navigators, their double-A affiliate. . . . Bill LeSuer, the Angel muscle therapist who was doused with various food and toiletries as part of a prank after Sunday’s 12-1 victory in Cleveland, was still feeling the effects Monday. “I showered three times [Sunday] night, and the minute the water hit my hair in the shower [Monday] morning I smelled like a Sizzler dumpster,” LeSuer said. “It was brutal. I was nauseous. I will never eat salad dressing again.”