Angels, Mariners Stage Comedy of Errors

ANAHEIM — It was Little League Day at Anaheim Stadium Sunday and eight of the 10,000 young ballplayers in attendance were stationed in the field alongside an Angel at each position during the national anthem.

They should have been allowed to stay.

The big leaguers needed all the help they could get on this afternoon.

Both teams put on a clinic on how not to play the game and, five errors, three wild pitches and a lot of just plain lackluster play later, Seattle had a 12-7 victory.

Much of the game looked like one of those blooper highlight films. Balls hit to the outfield were dropping like flies. It was a regular litany of laughs, unless you’re Angel Manager Buck Rodgers, who doesn’t get much joy out of seeing the game he loves reduced to this level.

“There were a lot of white shirts and it was probably a little difficult to pick up the ball,” said Rodgers, seeking to give his players the benefit of the doubt. “It was very hot and sometimes when it’s real hot or real cold, you tend to get caught up in a different performance level. It’s not unusual to see a lack of concentration in game like this.”

Seattle center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., one of the players many of the Little Leaguers came to see, set the tone for the day in the second inning when he charged a line drive by Damion Easley, only to watch it sail over his head. Griffey managed to make a bad play worse by nonchalantly jogging back to the wall to retrieve the ball as Easley sped around the bases for what was ruled a triple.

The cavalcade of errors got under way in earnest in the third inning as the Mariners scored six runs.

Mackey Sasser opened the inning with a ground-ball double off the glove of J.T. Snow, who awkwardly retreated and made a staggering stab at the ball.

“I should have had it,” Snow said. “My first step was back because I thought I could field it on a high bounce. But when it hit the dirt, it sort of took off. Still, I should have caught it and I was surprised they didn’t give me an error.”

It would have been the first error of his career, but the rookie first baseman only had to wait a few minutes for his first official miscue.

Griffey followed Sasser with a nubber up the third-base line that pitcher Julio Valera couldn’t field. Then Sasser scored and Griffey took second on a wild pitch. Two singles and two outs later, Valera picked up David Valle’s roller and threw wildly to first. Snow snagged the ball and then dived back to make a swipe at the bag. He tagged the base before Valle’s arrival and umpire Jim Evans signaled an out . . . until he saw the ball in the dirt and reversed his decision.

“The ball didn’t come out until I rolled over after slapping the bag,” Snow said, “but he told me I didn’t have possession. Oh well, it was my first (error) in the big leagues, but it won’t be my last.”

Rich Amaral kept the inning alive with a double to right and then Omar Vizquel drove in two more runs when he singled to center. Chad Curtis caught the ball and then drop-kicked it in toward second base. Curtis wildly gestured at second baseman Easley, but by the time he picked it up and threw to second, Vizquel was already standing there.

“It was a terrible performance, but it wasn’t so much the conditions,” Curtis said. “I think it has more to do with the fact there were 30 hits. As a fielder, you tend to get tired, both mentally and physically.”

The inning ended when Luis Polonia somehow avoided a collision with third baseman Torey Lovullo and shortstop Gary DiSarcina to snag a pop fly by Sasser.

The Mariners, apparently unwilling to let only Angels march in this faux pas parade, got back into the act in the fourth inning. With two out and Lovullo on third, Tim Leary bounced a pitch about five feet in front of the plate. The ball found its way to the backstop and Lovullo found his way home.

Just when it seemed things could get no worse, Lovullo made a nice backhand grab near the line and then pulled Snow off the bag with the throw for the Angels’ third error of the game.

Russ Springer added a wild pitch in the ninth and then, in the bottom of the inning, left fielder Sasser put the whip cream--and the cherry--atop this Sunday. He ran down Curtis’ fly ball on the warning track in left-center, only to drop it out of his glove. He failed to pick the ball up on two attempts and Curtis ended up on third.

So Sasser had the topper: two errors on a single fly ball.

The Mariners, however, were able to laugh this one off. The humor was lost on the folks in the home team’s clubhouse.

“We’ve lost six of the last eight and we’re not playing so good right now,” Polonia said. “I think we’ve got some guys who are trying too hard and we’re putting too much pressure on ourselves.

“And this game was a disaster,”

It was the kind of ugly performance a lot of people expected from the Angels, a team hoping to build a future by letting their young players learn from their mistakes.

Presumably, they learned a lot Sunday.