Despite New Status, Sparks Won’t Relax

Steve Sparks has moved into the high-rent district this season, in more ways than one.

Not only has the knuckleballer’s salary jumped from $200,000--a previous career-high--to $1.35 million, his Tempe Diablo Stadium locker is on rotation row, a bank of cubicles traditionally given to Angel starting pitchers, and his new neighbors are Chuck Finley, Ken Hill and Tim Belcher.

This is what happens when a journeyman right-hander gets called up at midseason, goes a surprising 9-4 with a 4.34 earned-run average while patching a gaping hole in an injury- plagued rotation, and the manager all but assures him the fourth spot in the rotation before camp even opens.

It’s certainly a different view for Sparks, who had appeared in only 53 big league games in 11 professional seasons before 1998 and sat out all of 1997 because of elbow surgery, but it’s not one he plans to grow too comfortable with.

“I had a good year in 1995 [with Milwaukee] and went into camp the next year knowing I made the rotation, and that was a mistake,” said Sparks, 33. “I pitched poorly at the beginning of the [1996] season and went back and forth between triple-A and Milwaukee three times. So I know not to relax.”

Even after winning his first three starts last June, over Texas twice and Los Angeles, Sparks always took the mound thinking he had to pitch well to retain his starting spot. It gave him an edge that brought out his best, so there’s no need to change now.

“If you start feeling secure in your job . . . there’s a lot of talented people in this clubhouse,” Sparks said. “I’ve got to work hard to keep contributing.”

Sparks’ primary job is to eat up innings to preserve the bullpen and keep the Angels in games, but he did it so well last season he earned two starts against Texas in September with the American League West title on the line.

Just as the memories of 1996 are fresh in Sparks’ mind, so are those two losses to the Rangers, in which he gave up seven earned runs in 5 1/3 innings in two games.

“That burns in you the whole off-season,” Sparks said. “I’m confident if that situation arises again, we’ll come out on top.”

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks: Jason Dickson, who opened the 1997 and ’98 seasons in the Angel rotation and made the ’97 All-Star game, was moved to the locker formerly occupied by reliever Mike James.

But just because James will miss at least half the season and reliever Pep Harris the entire season because of arm injuries, and Dickson was much more effective in 1998 as a reliever (3-0, 0.87 ERA in nine games) than a starter (7-10, 7.11 ERA in 18 starts), the Angels “are not looking at Dickson as a reliever,” Manager Terry Collins said.

“If he throws in this camp like he did in 1997, you’ve got to start him. He knocked our socks off that year. But he also pitched well out of the bullpen, so we know he can do that.”

Dickson will condition himself for a starting job this spring, extending his innings with each appearance like other starters, but if a relief role is his only option with the Angels, he’ll gladly accept.

“I’d rather start,” Dickson said, “but pitching in the big leagues is pitching in the big leagues, whether you’re a starter or reliever.”