Very Calmly, Angel Fans Get Excited

Maybe it’s those fountains in center field at Edison Field or the beach balls bouncing through the stands or what Larry Bowa describes as the generally more “forgiving and patient nature of the fans.”

“I know we’re in a pennant race,” the Angels’ third base coach added, “but the atmosphere just doesn’t seem like it.”

Bowa, of course, was exposed to a different environment as the shortstop on the tough and talented Philadelphia Phillie teams of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and as a coach on the 1993 National League champions.

In Philly, they boo Santa Claus. In Anaheim, they only boo when there is no sushi.

In such placid and pleasant surroundings, Bowa and Manager Terry Collins have preached the need for true grit. They are not the first to don the periwinkle and worry that the relaxed atmosphere translates to a relaxed performance.

The ’98 Angels have displayed admirable resiliency while using the disabled list 17 times. Bowa, however, worries that the killer instinct has not always been there, that the Angels have not been burying lesser teams.

Maybe that changed in a 13-2 drubbing of the Detroit Tigers on Thursday and in the three of four victories over the Tigers and Chicago White Sox heading into the weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

This was the last chance to inflate the cushion, to muster all of their grit in preparation for 10 games with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians--possible playoff rivals--on their home turf.

The Texas Rangers have just run that gantlet, and now it’s the Angels’ turn, starting with five games in Yankee Stadium, where--in a season of invincibility--the Yankees have been feeding off the zealots with a killer instinct that makes Bowa envious.

“They’re as good a team as I’ve seen in a long time,” he said. “They can beat you 1-0 or 12-11. They can beat you with pitching, power or defense. And the one thing I admire most is their professionalism. They keep grinding. They smell blood and they go for the jugular. They have a group of guys who don’t back off. It’s something you can’t really teach. They did their homework when they put that team together. Of course, you’ve got an owner who wants to win as much as the guys on the field, and that sends a strong message. I’d love to play for that kind of owner.”

There are all kinds of messages, and maybe that was another.

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Cecil Fielder, the released Angel, continues to snipe.

“As it looks on paper, the Rangers definitely have got a better ballclub,” he told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s up to them to take control of the division. . . . You look on paper, you wonder how Anaheim is holding on. You look at who the Rangers are putting out there, you say, ‘How are they not stretching out?’ ”

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Ken Griffey Jr. might have fallen out of the home run derby, but here’s a measure of his respect: Alex Rodriguez, who bats ahead of him in the Seattle Mariner lineup, is the only American League player with 25 or more homers and 80 or more runs batted in who has not been walked intentionally.

Griffey, of course, has long insisted that he is more interested in the long haul than the long ball, his ultimate goal being to match the 19 years that his father played in the big leagues.

“It’s a special thing,” he said again this week. “Something that would be nice to do for an achievement, not a hyped-up race.”