Collins Controls Anxiety

Regardless of his tenuous contract situation, and how many games in a row the Angels lose, and how few runs they score, and how far back they fall in the division, Manager Terry Collins refuses to come to the park every day and worry about losing his job.

He did that in Houston late in the 1996 season, and look where it got him: fired.

“Every night in Houston was pressure-packed for me,” Collins said. “I let my job be an issue there, and I’m not going to let that happen here. . . . I’ve always tried to keep things in perspective. Whether we win or lose 10 in a row, I come to the park thinking tonight’s game is the most important. I enjoy being around these guys.”

Collins was heavily criticized in Houston for being too intense, too tightly wound, and there have been similar concerns among some Angel players.

Asked if he has to walk a fine line between pushing and prodding and motivating a struggling team and being too overbearing, too demanding and breathing down the players’ necks, Collins said: “That’s a good question, and I don’t know if I have an answer.

“I’ve always believed that the players have to understand that we’re in this together. I am on their side. When they do well, we do well. . . . I believe this will pass. We’re not going to sit back and wait for it to pass. We’re going to continue to work, to push execution, to demand it. That’s what our jobs are.”

*

Big things are expected from Mo Vaughn, the Angels’ $80-million man, and Vaughn expects big things from himself. But in the last 16 games, Vaughn has come up big--truly big--only once, homering in the eighth inning to tie the score of a game the Angels eventually won over the Arizona Diamondbacks last Saturday.

In that 16-game span, Vaughn is 12 for 58 (.207) with three RBIs. He ended a 0-for-12 skid with a seventh-inning single Friday night.

“Every time I don’t drive in a run I feel like I let the team down,” Vaughn said. “But I’m not going to try to change my game and try to do more, because that’s when you always do less. I’m not going to try to carry the team.”

Sometimes it seems as if the Angels, who are still without cleanup batter Tim Salmon, rely too much on Vaughn. The designated hitter usually thrives on pressure situations, but when your cleanup batter (Garret Anderson) goes hitless in 30 at-bats--Anderson ended his slump with an infield single Friday--the No. 3 hitter doesn’t get too many choice pitches.

*

After reading newspaper accounts of how Toronto Manager Jim Fregosi refused to allow Angel volunteer coach Sam Suplizio on the bench for a three-game series at SkyDome this week, an American League official phoned the Angels on Friday and ordered Suplizio off the bench for good.

Suplizio has attended about 50 games a year for several years, always sitting on the bench until this week, but league rules limit the number of coaches on the bench to five.

Many teams have allowed opponents to invite minor league instructors or guest coaches to sit on the bench, as long as they ask permission, but the league has decided to crack down on that practice in the wake of the Fregosi-Suplizio dispute.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

OMAR OLIVARES

(6-4, 3.22 ERA)

vs.

YANKEES’

HIDEKI IRABU

(3-3, 4.94 ERA)

Yankee Stadium, 4 PDT

TV--Fox Sports West

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090), KCTD (1540)

* Update--The Angels avoided Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens again, which is good considering the right-hander has a 25-7 career record and 2.37 ERA against the Angels, but it’s not as if that really matters. The way the Angels are hitting, they’ll have trouble scoring against their double-A affiliate when they go to Erie, Pa., for an exhibition Monday. Omar Olivares, who has been the Angels’ most consistent starter this season and threw 6 2/3 shutout innings in a 2-0 Yankee Stadium victory on May 13, probably will have to duplicate that to have any chance today.