Phillips Back, Angels Aren’t

At a quarter past 2 on a sweltering day in Anaheim, into the home team’s dressing room walked Tony Phillips, reporting for work. Arrested, suspended and reinstated over a span of 11 days, Phillips was an Angel halfway between heaven and hell, back from baseball’s limbo.

A teammate, pitcher Mark Gubicza, came over to say hello. So did a couple of Angel equipment kids. Tony and his attorney then went into a room with two of the ballclub’s executives, who shut the door.

In another part of the stadium, Terry Collins, the manager of the Angels, began to scrawl names on Thursday night’s lineup card. HENDERSON 7, he wrote, indicating that Rickey Henderson would bat first and play left field. PHILLIPS DH, he wrote next.

Upon emerging from a heart-to-heart talk with his superiors at around 3 p.m., Tony Phillips, designated hitter, denigrated player, appeared contrite as he took a seat, still in his street clothes. He said, “I’d like to talk a little bit about my emotions right now, and how I really feel.”

And then he did.

He talked for a while--apologizing repeatedly for saying yes to drugs--until eventually it was time to let actions speak louder than words.

“I’ll go out there and play,” Phillips said, “and take my medicine, and take my lumps. I’ve never been one to run away from a situation. I always head straight ahead, and that’s what I’m going to do. I see no reason to run and hide.

“The quicker I’m around the guys, the sooner this situation’s going to be resolved.”

And back to the guys he went.

Phillips is a chatterbox by nature, and the Angel clubhouse had seemed muted without him. Most of the players enjoyed having Phillips around. When he was pinched Aug. 10 in a motel drug bust, Tony’s teammates seemed not to know what to say, how to respond. They forgot to condemn drug use, forgot it because the user was one of them.

Some of them have said that what happens “on the field “ is the only thing that matters. This is a cowardly point of view. Kids at anti-drug clinics might as well laugh in an Angel’s face. Why should a Little Leaguer take an anti-drug speech seriously, if all a big league player cares about is what happens on the field?

Saying the right thing, it can be as difficult as doing the right thing.

“Be careful what you say,” Jim Edmonds, an Angel outfielder, called over to Collins as his manager spoke before Thursday’s game. “Whatever you say, it’ll come out negative.”

The players were happy to have Phillips among them again. That was as far as they could see.

He was their friend, their colleague.

“He is one of my favorite all-time people I have ever been around in my life,” pitcher Mark Langston said.

Phillips was a hitter who fouled up.

A teammate called Phillips “one of the family,” and pointed out that everybody makes a mistake.

The parent company, Disney, didn’t buy that. Phillips was suspended, albeit with pay. But baseball is a league of its own, with laws of its own. The team had to take Phillips back. Release him? Nice advice, but impractical. The commissioner’s office could take punitive action against the Angels, impose fines, strip the team of draft choices . . . baseball knows how to play hardball.

Bizarrely, about all the Angels could do with Phillips was play him.

No way Collins could have him go sit in a corner. There was no sense cutting off a nose to spite a face.

“I felt it was important for Tony to get right back in the hunt,” the manager said.

So, back in the hunt Tony got. First time up, he ripped a double down the right-field line.

He heard jeers when his name was announced. But he was in no position to resent it. Phillips brought this on himself.

“I’m not feeling real comfortable in this situation that I got myself into, and I’m extremely, extremely embarrassed,” Phillips said. “I just want to take this opportunity to express my regrets for this situation, for which I caused great embarrassment and hurt to my teammates, to the Anaheim Angels, and most importantly, my wife and my two daughters.

“I intend to do whatever it takes for this situation not to occur again.”

He had better mean what he says. And the teammates of Tony Phillips had better help him do what he says.

Not on the field. Off.