Outfield Mishaps Sideline Rookie

Angel outfielder Mike Colangelo can tell you everything about his first--and to date, last--major league game one year ago today, right up to the moment Arizona’s Steve Finley lofted a fly ball.

Colangelo’s first at-bat? A single. The pitch? Fastball. “Right down the middle,” Colangelo said. “I lined a shot to right-center.” Colangelo’s recall is perfect. He was tracking Finley’s seventh-inning fly ball at Edison Field. A sure out. He never saw center fielder Reggie Williams. He never heard him coming.

Williams made the catch and slammed into Colangelo.

That’s where Colangelo draws a blank.

“I remember everything about the day right up to the point where Reggie and I met,” he said.

For the rest, he has to go to the videotape.

Colangelo has had time to review the collision, and dissect the moment thoroughly. He suffered a concussion and a torn ligament in his left thumb. The aftermath, though, has been the most painful part.

Having taken up semi-permanent residence on the Angels’ lengthy casualty list, Colangelo wonders whether he’ll ever get another opportunity.

Until that day, Colangelo had flown through the Angel system, going from Class-A Cedar Rapids to the major leagues in a little more than a year. Now, he is grounded. He sits at his home in Dumfries, Va., hoping “You want fries with that?” isn’t his future.

Nothing has been the same since he and Reggie “met.” Colangelo was supposed to be out three weeks. He missed the remainder of the season. This season ended in spring training, when he underwent shoulder surgery.

The closest he comes to a baseball field these days is when he has a TV remote in his hand.

“Watching games on TV, that’s the hard part,” said Colangelo, 23. “It is so tough to watch a game that I haven’t seen that many. I’ll watch SportsCenter or read the paper to see how everyone on the team is doing. I want to be there.”

Colangelo is a career .500 hitter, having gone one for two in his one game. But that’s not exactly what he wants to tell the grandkids years from now.

“There was nothing I could control,” he said. “These were fluke injuries. They didn’t happen because of a lack of conditioning or a lack of intensity. It’s been a lack of luck.”

That’s one department where the Angels lead the league.

Colangelo’s injuries couldn’t have come at a worse time for him.

The Angels’ front office was gutted last fall, and, with a chance to impress the new regime, Colangelo hoped to win a spot as a reserve outfielder.

“I never got a chance to prove myself to the new management,” Colangelo said. “I couldn’t play to my ability because my shoulder was aching, and then I was done. It was bad enough that I missed one season. Now, I’m going to miss two.

“The old management watched me for two years, all the way up to the major leagues. They knew what I could do. But this spring, everyone started with a clean slate, for good or bad. They wanted to see what they had in the organization.”

Colangelo wasn’t back in that mix long. On March 3, he injured his right shoulder trying to make a diving catch. He underwent surgery March 17 and doctors found more damage than expected. Colangelo’s season was over again.

“I wouldn’t worry so much about who’s doing the judging,” Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “We’re watching his rehab progress. When he’s physically ready, then we will try to find him a spot for winter ball.”

Whether that is possible remains to be seen. Winter league teams are looking for players to help them win, not players on the mend.

Colangelo goes to physical therapy and lifts light weights three days a week. That leaves far too much time for sitting around.

“I’m driving my wife crazy because I’m so antsy,” Colangelo said. “I try not to go outside. If I did, I’d pick something up and throw it, and I’m not suppose to do that right now . . . It’s not like I can go out and get a hit. Those are the ways I usually deal with problems.”

He has hit at every level since the Angels drafted him in the 21st round in 1997. He missed the 1997 season because of a wrist injury, then tore through the system.

He started the 1999 season at double-A Erie, where he hit .339. He was promoted to triple-A Edmonton and hit .362.

“We put him in places we thought would challenge him and he kept hitting,” said Jeff Parker, the Angels’ former director of player development. “Cream rises, and he rose rapidly.”

He landed in the Angel clubhouse, where triage was being performed daily. Outfielders Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon missed large parts of the 1999 season and the Angels desperately tried to plug those holes. Colangelo and Williams, who also started the season at Edmonton, were two of the solutions.

Colangelo was called up on June 12 and stuck into the next day’s lineup as the leadoff batter.

Colangelo singled in his first at-bat and he also threw out Andy Fox at second base from the warning track in the third inning.

Then came Finley’s fly ball. Colangelo moved in as the ball tailed toward him. Williams came charging.

“When I hit him, I heard something snap,” Williams said after the game. “I didn’t want his season to end. He never moved, and I was like, ‘Oh God, I don’t want this.’ I could strike out 20 times or get sent to the minor leagues, but don’t let this happen to him. It was unreal.”

Colangelo remained face down for about 10 minutes. Paramedics were called and he was placed in a protective neck brace and taken to UC Irvine Medical Center.

“To come in your first game in the major leagues and have something like that happen has got to be disheartening,” Stoneman said. “Then to be knocked out again in spring training, that’s a couple of bad years.”

Colangelo has seen the play on tape. “I’ve watched it a few times,” he said.

“If that didn’t happen, things could have been a whole lot different,” Colangelo said. “That collision cost me a whole season and then some. Time is valuable. The hard part part is knowing that while I’m sitting here, someone else is out there getting better. He’s getting at-bats and getting hits, all the things I wish I could being doing.”