Collins Having Fun and Not Managing

His three-year tenure as manager in Houston ended with him getting fired. His three-year term as Angel manager ended with his forced resignation. No wonder Terry Collins, who is now Tampa Bay’s third-base coach, has no burning desire to jump onto the hot seat again.

“It doesn’t matter to me any more,” Collins said Friday, when asked if he’d like to manage again. “I’ve done it. I’ve had my chance. I just want to stay on the field as long as it’s still fun.”

The Devil Rays have baseball’s worst record, and they’ve already ousted an owner and a manager this season, but this is still fun for Collins, especially compared to his job as the Chicago Cubs’ advance scout last season.

Collins, who resigned toward the end of the Angels’ turmoil-filled 1999 season, spent the first 62 days of the 2000 season on the road.

“I thank [Cub Manager] Don Baylor for giving me a chance to stay involved in the game, but that was not me,” Collins, 52, said. “That is a tough job, and I tip my cap to the guys who do it.

“All you have is your suitcase and your reports. After awhile, every report starts to look the same. You sit in the stands and you can’t enjoy the game because all you’re doing is writing.”

Two months into the season, the Angels are still having trouble adjusting to the new strike zone. But it’s not the high strike that is causing so many problems. It’s the outside strikes, which were not supposed to be strikes but have been called for too many strikes, in the Angels’ estimation.

“The width [of the strike zone] hasn’t changed--that’s my argument,” said batting instructor Mickey Hatcher, who was ejected from Thursday night’s game against Baltimore for questioning umpire Bill Welke’s zone. “If you’re going to give width and height, that’s tough for the hitters.”

Even more bothersome to Hatcher: “I went out there and [told Welke] that we have a new strike zone. He said, ‘We don’t use that strike zone.’ ”

That bothered Manager Mike Scioscia too.

“We’re still waiting for the turbulent waters to settle into a concrete strike zone,” Scioscia said. “It’s a human exercise, and there are going to be differences [from one ump to the next], but hopefully they won’t be of a magnitude they are now.”

It seemed bizarre enough when Tampa Bay left fielder Greg Vaughn’s bat snapped in half while he was swinging in the on-deck circle in the third inning Friday night, and the jagged barrel flew into the seats, 13 rows behind the Angels’ third-base dugout.

But how’s this for amazing? The bat struck a college teammate of Angel shortstop David Eckstein, the former University of Florida infielder and Sanford, Fla., native who had 40-50 friends and relatives in Tropicana Field. Brian Haught, a former Florida outfielder, was hit in the left shoulder by Vaughn’s bat but was not seriously injured.

“Unbelievable,” Vaughn said. “Even though I’m from [the University of] Miami, no hard feelings. Thank God no one got hurt.”

Scioscia’s sentiments, exactly.

“That bat could have killed somebody,” Scioscia said. “I saw a shadow flying over and thought it was a bird. Then I saw Vaughn standing there with the bat handle in his hands.”

TODAY

ANGELS’

JARROD WASHBURN

(2-4, 5.11 ERA)

vs.

DEVIL RAYS’

PAUL WILSON

(2-5, 6.62 ERA)

Tropicana Field, 1:15 p.m.

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

Update--Washburn will look to maintain the momentum he gained in his last three starts, in which he limited the White Sox, Tigers and Indians to seven earned runs on 17 hits in 21 innings. Wilson has given up 47 runs this season, second most in the league, but the right-hander is coming off his best start of the season, a six-inning, two-run, five-hit win over Detroit.