That Trip a Pain in Big Apple

The subject was the Angels’ 6-3 loss to the Yankees in New York Wednesday, and Manager Terry Collins was taking the blame.

“We were not ready to play,” Collins said. “That’s my fault.”

If Collins wants to plead mea culpa for a trip to New York that featured collapsing stadiums, 7 a.m. wake-up calls and cross-town bus trips, go right ahead. But he’d be better off saving it for yanking a pitcher too soon or calling a rally-killing hit-and-run.

If anyone’s at fault here, it’s umpire Al Clark. He was scheduled to work the 1989 World Series game that was canceled because of an earthquake in the Bay Area. He was scheduled to work a game at the Kingdome that was canceled because of falling tiles. Guess who was assigned to this week’s Angels-Yankees games?

“I think there’s a cloud following me around,” Clark said.

Then again maybe it’s the Angels, who seem to have more problems in New York than Kurt Russell.

“It’s always something there,” pitcher Chuck Finley said.

Even when they play there and win, strange things happen, like the time someone threw a knife that grazed Wally Joyner’s arm as he was walking off the field after a 1986 victory over the Yankees.

Even when they try to leave New York, bad things happen, like the time their bus veered off the road and crashed into a grove of trees in New Jersey on the way down to Baltimore.

The good news is no one was hurt when a 500-pound chunk of Yankee Stadium came crashing down into the seats Monday because it happened before the ballpark was open to the public.

But from that moment on, the Angels might as well have phoned in a forfeit and headed home. Ballplayers are creatures of habit. They love their little routines. And there was nothing routine about this trip to New York.

Let the Yankees worry about the effect the structural problems will have on the rest of their schedule. It’s their stadium and their issue. But for this matchup with the Angels, they at least got to spend the extra time in their homes, and got to stay sharp by playing an exhibition game against their Double-A affiliate Tuesday.

How would the Angels feel if this one waste of a game costs them a spot in the playoffs just because they were in New York at the wrong time?

Given their history, they should be grateful that--unlike the bus crash and the five-inch blade thrown at Joyner--at least this New York incident didn’t pose a threat to their health.

But it did threaten to turn their brains into mush.

They sat around in their hotel rooms, many of them fighting off a flu bug that has worked its way through the team. Those who felt fine couldn’t go sightseeing on Tuesday because they had practice. They couldn’t be sure they were going to play at Shea Stadium on Wednesday, because the forecast called for rain and the Mets would have priority on their home field for a game that night against the Cubs.

“The two days we didn’t play, the weather was great,” Collins said. “The day we played it was raining.”

The Mets and Cubs also had dibs on the good locker rooms, so the Angels had to take a 7:30 bus to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, where they changed before taking a bus down to Shea Stadium in Queens for a pregame routine of . . . nothing.

With rain falling, the tarp was pulled over the infield and the Angels were confined to a bare-bones locker room for an hour.

The Angels clubhouse at Edison Field, replete with two big-screen televisions, would be a perfect place to spend a rainy morning. With its dark lighting, wood paneling and booming sound system, they could probably use it as a nightclub and charge a $10 cover on weekends.

At Shea there was nothing.

“We just sat around,” Tim Salmon said.

Now you could argue that the spoiled players of today ought to go without clubhouse amenities more often to be reminded of how good they usually have it. But no athlete should be denied the opportunity to warm up, especially since the Angels hadn’t played a game since Sunday.

“No batting practice, no fielding,” Salmon said. “Cold turkey.”

And the Angels played like a bunch of cold turkeys.

They shouldn’t be cold when they go back to New York in August for what now will be five games in four days to make up for the two games missed this week. Yep, five games in the sweltering heat of a New York summer.

“It’s just going to make it a little tougher,” Salmon said.

As if Angel trips to New York weren’t tough enough.