For Green, Puck Stops Here

Steve Green made a very smart decision at a very early age.

“I was 9 when I decided to play baseball,” Green said. “I didn’t like waking up at 6 in the freezing winter to go play hockey.”

Not the conventional decision for a French Canadian boy from the Montreal suburb of Langueil but a smart one nonetheless. Green played in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium as a member of the Academie du Baseball Canada and in Toronto’s Skydome as a member of the Canadian Junior Olympic team, and the Angels believe he has the potential to return to major league stadiums.

Green, at 21 the youngest player at Class-A Lake Elsinore, pitched the first two shutouts in the California League this season, striking out 10 in one game and nine in the other. The right-hander is 2-4 with a 4.35 earned-run average in nine starts, with 45 strikeouts in 51 innings.

The Angels, who selected him in the 10th round of the 1997 draft, want him to develop his curve and changeup. They have no concern about his fire.

“He’s got that Canadian makeup,” minor league director Jeff Parker said. “I don’t know if you want to call it a hockey mentality, but he’s a very competitive young man who doesn’t want to give up the ball when it’s time to go. He wants to throw a complete game every time.”

Said Green: “I want to go nine innings. If it’s tied, I’ll go 10. I only play once every five days. I want to play the whole thing.

“I think it is a hockey thing.”