Moose Jaw Can Have That Effect on You

Four dozen baseballs, ticketed for various charities, were on a table in the Angel clubhouse last week, waiting to be signed by every player. Shawn Wooten grabbed a pen and dug in, but the Angel utility player hesitated after a few autographs.

“I’m just killing the value of these baseballs,” he said.

Typical Wooten. His self-deprecating sense of humor, along with his pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming demeanor, have quickly endeared him to his teammates and coaches.

Not that the Angel clubhouse was in great need of ventilation, but Wooten, a stout and sturdy power hitter who has played considerably at first base, would be a breath of fresh air in any big league locker room.

He’s a 28-year-old rookie who spent eight years climbing from the depths of the minor leagues, enduring one release, three knee surgeries and countless disappointments, and now that he’s finally here, he’s savoring every moment.

“Think about it--five years ago I was in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, playing independent-league baseball, making $1,500 a month Canadian for a team that didn’t have bats and baseballs,” Wooten said.

“My dream was to make it to the big leagues, but I was about as far away from that as you could be. . . . Now I’m here, swinging the bat well and getting more at-bats than I expected. How can I not be excited?”

After spending the last six weeks of last season and the first five weeks of this season with the Angels, the 5-foot-10, 225-pound Wooten is finally growing accustomed to being a “big league baseball player.”

It seemed a little awkward, almost embarrassing, at first. When he got his first big league paycheck last August, netting about $7,500 after taxes for two weeks of work, Wooten was shocked.

“You see the numbers and hear about what you’re going to make, but it’s still overwhelming,” said Wooten, whose $200,500 salary is a shade over the major league minimum.

“I was used to getting $750. I said, ‘You guys must have made a mistake. There’s one too many zeros on this.’ I’m getting more used to it now.”

Just as he’s getting more comfortable at a new position. Wooten, a former West Covina South Hills standout who was a high school teammate of Oakland star Jason Giambi, played third base and catcher in the minor leagues.

But he has started 10 games at first base this season, is hitting .394 and providing power--three home runs in 33 at-bats--from the right side.

He made a backhand, diving stop of a hard grounder by Jim Thome to start a force play in the Angels’ 3-1 victory over Cleveland on April 25, and last Tuesday turned a difficult 3-6-3 double play in a 6-4 win over Chicago.

His only problem has been digging balls out of the dirt. Three times this season, infielders have one-hopped throws, and three times Wooten failed to make the play.

“I’m still scratching my head about those,” Wooten said. “I’m not bad at digging balls--I’ve played third all my life. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve missed three and should have gotten all three. There’s no answer. Those are plays that have to be made at this level.”

Wooten won’t win a Gold Glove at first base. He made the team because of his power and versatility--he can play first or third and gives the Angels the luxury of having a third catcher.

But even Wooten is surprised by how much time he has had at first. It appeared Wally Joyner would share the position with Scott Spiezio, but Wooten has started more games there than Spiezio.

“He’s earned everything he’s gotten,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s been through a lot and had a rocky road to get here, but he’s certainly showed he’s a major league hitter.”

That road was pothole-free until Wooten’s third year in the minor leagues. He was an 18th-round pick of the Detroit Tigers in 1993 after a superb two-year career at Mt. San Antonio College, and two years later, he started 1995 at double-A Jacksonville.

But Wooten was overwhelmed, batting .129 in 20 games, and was demoted to Class-A Lakeland.

“I hung my head, complained, and blamed myself, instead of just playing the game,” Wooten recalled.

One night he failed to run hard on a fly ball, and then-Manager Dave Anderson fumed. A week later, Anderson didn’t think Wooten ran full speed on a groundout. In late June, Wooten was released.

“They wanted to make an example out of me,” Wooten said, “and they did.”

Wooten went home, and a few weeks later, his junior college coach, Art Mazmanian, got a call from a friend in Moose Jaw looking for a player. Mazmanian recommended Wooten, and Wooten headed north.

He spent a year and a half in Moose Jaw, where he was voted Prairie League most valuable player. He hit .373 in 1995 and .305 in 1996. He played third, caught and pitched a few innings in relief. He also rekindled an old flame.

“One of the things I realized in Moose Jaw was that I love the game,” Wooten said.

The game didn’t always reciprocate. Wooten needed reconstructive knee surgery after the 1995 season and contemplated retirement.

“My dad told me to give it one more try, that even if you only play 10 days in the big leagues, it will be worth it,” Wooten said.

Father knew best. Wooten played 1996 in Moose Jaw and was signed the following winter by the Angels after an open tryout. He began 1997 at Class-A Cedar Rapids and gradually worked his way to the big leagues, an experience that has been bittersweet.

Just before Wooten was called up last summer, his father, Bob Wooten, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“When I first heard, I thought, ‘Oh . . . I won’t live to see Shawn make the major leagues,’ ” Bob Wooten said. “But the doctors said it could be fixed.”

He recently completed his eighth round of chemotherapy, and the cancer has been eradicated. He was in Edison Field when Shawn hit his first homer, against Oakland on April 16, and has attended most of the games Shawn has started at home.

Shawn gave Bob game balls from his first hit and first homer, and he recently gave him a framed game jersey.

“It’s all overwhelming for him too,” Shawn said. “I want to make him happy because he’s going through a battle I can’t imagine going through, and I admire him.”

With one exception. Bob Wooten smoked for 40 years, even puffing a cigarette or two a week after learning he had cancer. Shawn has been on him for months, trying to get him to quit, but took drastic measures last week.

“He said if I don’t quit by the time he finished his last road trip, he’d take back the game balls and the jersey,” Bob Wooten said.

So what did he do?

“I quit.”

Which is something Shawn, thanks to his dad, never did.

“I got something last year that I worked my entire life for, to wear a big league jersey, and that’s as much my dad’s as it is mine,” Wooten said. “He coached me, he was always there, and he always said to never give up.”