Early Arrival

Call it a mother’s intuition.

A day before the Angels called up Jarrod Washburn from triple-A Vancouver to replace Allen Watson in their starting rotation, Mike Washburn asked his wife what she wanted for their 25th wedding anniversary.

“She said, ‘All I want is to see Jarrod pitch,’ ” Washburn’s father said. “I told her that we can’t go to Vancouver.

“She said, ‘Oh, he won’t be in Vancouver. He’ll be somewhere in the major leagues.’

“When Jarrod called the next day and told us he was pitching with the Angels in Kansas City, she about fell over.”

Washburn’s parents, along with 31 relatives, drove eight hours from Webster, Wis., to be on hand last week to watch what turned out to be one of the more bizarre and violent games in Angel history.

They saw Jarrod pick up his first major league victory in his first start and successfully escape the bean-ball incidents and ninth-inning melee.

“Crazy isn’t it,” Washburn said. “I’ve seen some things in my first two starts. But it’s baseball . . . funny things happen.”

Good things too. The Angel front office is delighted and surprised by the rapid success of Washburn, 23, who was the team’s second-round selection in the 1995 amateur draft out of Wisconsin Oshkosh, a Division III college.

“I always thought [Scott] Schoeneweis would beat him here,” said Jeff Parker, the Angels’ director of player development. “He’s a season ahead of schedule. I hope he’s here to stay.”

Schoeneweis, the Angels’ other top pitching prospect, is still in Vancouver, without his golfing partner. Schoeneweis, 24, was the Angels’ third-round pick in the 1996 free-agent draft.

The left-handers are expected to be the foundation of the Angels’ rotation for years to come.

After selecting Darin Erstad with their first pick in ‘95, Bob Fontaine Jr., the team’s director of scouting, knew the Angels needed a pitcher, preferably a left-hander. They liked what they saw of Washburn, even though they didn’t get to see much of him because there was a lot of rain in the Midwest that spring.

“He was a left-hander with a strong arm and there aren’t a lot of them around, period,” Fontaine said. “There were rumblings that he might go in the first round, so we were glad to get him.”

Fontaine said he wasn’t concerned that Washburn only faced Division III competition.

“When you have a good arm and you have a good athlete, it doesn’t matter where you are,” Fontaine said.

Washburn played nearly every sport for Webster High, which had a graduating class of 28 his senior year. He was point guard on the basketball team, quarterback on the football team and ran nearly every event in track. He threw in the low 90s in high school, but had trouble locating the plate. He still has occasional bouts with wildness. He walked six in his debut against Kansas City.

Once signed by the Angels, his minor league tour also included stops in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Boise, Idaho; Lake Elsinore and Midland, Texas.

“I didn’t have any timetable on getting to the big leagues,” Washburn said. “I just knew I wanted to go out there and improve, and get some off-speed pitches. I didn’t have anything but hard stuff until I got to the minors.”

Washburn’s breakthrough season came in 1997, pitching for Midland. He was 15-12 and struck out 146 in 189 innings, but he doesn’t like to dwell on his time in Texas.

“You definitely need to be mentally tough to be in the minors, especially when you have to go through places like Midland,” he said. “The wind blows out, the grass is short, the ground is hard. It’s great if you’re a hitter, I guess. I can see why Troy Glaus [the Angels’ first-round pick in ’97 who was recently promoted from Midland to triple-A Vancouver] likes it.

“There’s also nothing to do there, unless you like to look at a bunch of oil wells.”

Nothing to do? This coming coming from a guy who grew up in Webster, Wis., population 623.

“At least at home I can go fishing or hunting,” he said.

At home in Webster, which is tucked away in the northwest corner of Wisconsin, Washburn is a celebrity. The night of his major-league debut, townsfolk were driving all over Wisconsin searching for a sports bar carrying the game.

“He might be famous here, but hopefully he’ll never change,” Mike Washburn said. “He’s not a big-city person. He’ll be home for two months and people won’t even know he’s here. He might go into town for gas and that’s it. He likes the quiet and solitude of the woods. He’ll raise his family here.”

“Living in a small community has helped Jarrod relate to people. In a small town, you get to know everybody. He likes everybody. He’s not standoffish and he’s not in awe of anybody.”

And he still knows how to make his mother proud.

“When Jim Edmonds came off the field in Kansas City after making a good catch, Jarrod waited for him on the dugout steps and greeted him,” Mike Washburn said. “I know that made his mother real happy.”

After the season, Washburn will return to Webster and marry his high school sweetheart, Kerrie Main.

“Things are going about as well as they could be going right now,” Washburn said. “I hope nothing changes.”