No Matter Who’s Hurt, Expectations Remain

It is early Tuesday afternoon, and Edison Field is being pelted by rain. Terry Collins sits in his office in a virtually empty clubhouse preparing for the storm. His Angels would open their American League campaign in a few hours without shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who is out until midseason at least, and center fielder Jim Edmonds, on the disabled list through the first 10 games, maybe more.

Misfortune has been the Angels’ constant companion. They will celebrate their 40th anniversary together next year, but in April of 1999 it doesn’t change the $80-million worth of expectations created by the signing of Mo Vaughn.

If not the favorite in the American League West, they remain the co-favorite. It is something of a new phenomenon in Anaheim, but a familiar role for the team up the freeway.

The Dodgers realize it is time to put up or shut up, and this is where the Angels are.

The manager accepts it. His players, who ended the 1998 season amid a flurry of internal sniping, will have to, or it could be a tumultuous summer in the aftermath of a winter in which a cautious Disney stepped up big.

This is the way it is, this is the expectant environment as Collins sits in his office long before Vaughn sprains an ankle in the first inning of his first regular-season start as an Angel and is forced to leave in the sixth inning, a numbing and frightening reminder of the club’s star-crossed history and an event Collins could not even dare contemplate in the afternoon solitude of the clubhouse as he is asked about the personal pressure this year.

“Been there, done that,” he says. “In Houston I was determined to make it work, to make it successful. We could have won, should have won. Nothing has changed, but I’m not going to go out there saying we’ve got to win because if we don’t win I’ll lose my job. You know what, I’ve lost my job once. That part of it doesn’t scare me anymore. I mean, my last year in Houston I knew what I was facing and I think I let it get to me. I told myself I’d never let it happen again.”

In Houston, he said, he pushed too hard, asking players to do things of which they weren’t capable. He tried to keep the owner happy, the general manager, the players.

“I forgot about the job I had to do, which was manage the team,” Collins said. “It’s been great here with Tony [Tavares, the club president] and Billy [Bavasi, the general manager]. I know they want to win. I know what we’re facing this year.

“We’ve had a good team the last two years. You add a player of the stature and productivity of Mo Vaughn to the middle of the lineup, you’re going to be a lot better. We said all along that we couldn’t afford to lose a couple of front-line guys. Well, we’ve lost a couple, but that can’t change the way we go about things. The expectations are still there.”

Collins has never finished lower than second in three years with the Astros and two with the Angels, who have generally responded to his vigor and voice. If some players tune it out at times, where doesn’t that happen?

Some players need to be patted, some paddled. Collins reminded his team in a meeting Monday that everyone is different, a fact forgotten last September when the seeming nonchalance of Edmonds became the focal point of clubhouse fury amid the late collapse.

If that was frustration talking, the Angels have an enforcer in Vaughn to help Collins deliver the message this year--and he didn’t waste time.

Vaughn held a players-only meeting before the opener, insisting he wasn’t motivated by any sense of clubhouse friction, any hangover from September, but merely picking up where he left off in Boston.

“We’re going to win together, hang together and we’re going to police each other,” he said before locking the doors. “We’ll iron out any problems that develop.

“The best thing we had going in Boston was guys getting on guys. We didn’t have to worry about the manager. His job is running the game.

“We’re going to push ourselves, punish ourselves.”

The early schedule is punishing in itself. The last thing the Angels can do in the absence of DiSarcina and Edmonds, and now the potential absence of Vaughn, is feel sorry for themselves in an opening week of three games with Cleveland and four in Texas.

“We’ve obviously got to win as many games as we can early,” pitcher Chuck Finley said. “We can’t be lollygagging around .500 in August. That ain’t going to cut it. If that happens, a lot of us are not going to be around.”

Maybe even Collins. His contract expires this year. It’s an issue the Angels should address before it becomes a potential distraction.

The manager sat in his office and said the loss of DiSarcina and Edmonds represented an obvious frustration to the start of a season of high hopes, but “we still have to respond and we still have a team capable of winning. I learned managing in the minors where you always had players being called up that you can’t worry about what you don’t have. You can only control what you do. We still have Mo, we still have Percy [Troy Percival], we still have a Tim Salmon in good health and we still have our pitching in tact.”

Does he have Mo? More will be known today. This much is certain: Sometimes the best trades are those that aren’t made. Had the Angels traded one of their four front-line outfielders, the early loss of Edmonds--and now possibly Vaughn--would have been magnified.

“We’re still solid,” Darin Erstad said. “We’re going to have enough offense.”

Vaughn, of course, was essential to that. He brought a big bat and back. The Angels have missed some of both, but Collins, looking ahead before Vaughn tripped down those dugout steps Tuesday night, said he doesn’t want Mo to feel that he has to do too much, that everyone has to pull on the rope.

Unity is critical, chemistry elusive.

“I see the potential for a few scrapes and mix-ups, but that’s good,” Finley said of the clubhouse composition. “I hope the guys continue to have an aggressive nature.

“Our problem has never been effort, it’s been the disabled list.”

DiSarcina. Edmonds. Now Vaughn?

The curse lives. The Angels will be expected to as well.