“Smaller A” better than the “Big A”

By Ron Kantowski

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008 | 3:14 p.m.

NOW:

The last time I was at Anaheim Stadium they didn't have a water feature in center field.

I think it was 1989, when UNLV was playing football at Cal State Fullerton -- or at least some high school field in Santa Ana. I think it was called Eddie West Field. If I remember correctly, when you kicked a field goal, and it went long, it wound up in the exercise yard of the county jail.

The "Big A," which is what a lot of people still call Anaheim Stadium, or, if you insist, Angels Stadium of Anaheim, is the '"Smaller A" now that the Rams are playing football in St. Louis. In this case, smaller is better. Although I can take or leave the water feature in center field -- I kept expecting a bunch of kids to come roaring around a track with their hands in the air, like at the Matterhorn down the street at Disneyland.

But the rest of the $100 million remodeling job, which began in 1996, is fantastic. The Smaller A looks and feels like one of those new ballparks, except it's not downtown with a bunch of trendy bars, restaurants and boutiques across the street.

That's OK. We got tickets in the sixth row, down the right-field line, for $17 on the Internet. So what if the Halos were playing the A's? The Angels are so far out in front in the A.L. West I thought they might let Clyde Wright pitch against against the (not very) Athletics.

Clyde Wright didn't pitch. Don Mincher didn't play first base. The A's won 2-1. The game lasted only three beers -- two hours and 20 minutes, they said on the radio.

Despite the low score we saw two home runs -- one each by the No. 9 hitter on both teams. One of them wound up in the right-field bullpen. None wound up in the county exercise yard.

Before the game started, they showed Bo Belinsky's picture on the scoreboard. Bo threw the first no-hitter in Angels history. He looked young and vital then, nothing like he looked when he moved to Las Vegas to sell cars toward the end of his life, and we got to know him a little bit.

They also showed the Rally Monkey on the scoreboard, before the bottom of the eighth and ninth.

It was a good night.

THEN:

"When I lose, I drink, and when I win, I celebrate." -- Bo Belinsky.

"If I'd known I was going to pitch a no-hitter today, I would have gotten a haircut." -- Bo Belinsky, 1962.