Angels

ANAHEIM - There was the pinch-hitter (Jerry Hairston Jr.) who replaced the player (Brett Gardner) who had run for the designated hitter (Hideki Matsui) and eventually went into leftfield. Which meant there was no designated hitter and the Yankee pitchers would either have to bat or be lifted for a pinch-hitter. There was the Yankees first baseman (Mark Teixeira) following the Angels rightfielder (Bobby Abreu) to second base just in case he made a mistake running the bases. Which he did and was promptly thrown out when he found himself in no man's land between second and third.

The California Angels are not the best team in the American League, but yesterday they were the most noteworthy. First, the Walt Disney Co., the new owner of the team, signed general manager Bill Bavasi to a contract extension believed to be four years. Then, Bavasi informed lefthander Jim Abbott (1-15, 7.79 ERA), the losingest pitcher in the majors, that he was being optioned to the minor leagues. That was followed by - of all things - the Angels' 6-5 over visiting Kansas City, which broke California's six-game losing streak.

Tony Kushner's Angels in America is a massive and magnificent play, and Wilma Theater ends its season with a massive and magnificent production of Part One: Millennium Approaches . This is the first of two, each about 3½ hours long; the second, Perestroika , will open Wilma's 2012-2013 season. Written in 1991, the questions are obvious: Now that the millennium is behind us, now that AIDS is no longer the doom-laden plague in America that it was 20 years ago, now that the Soviet Union is dismantled and perestroika has been accomplished, does the play hold up?

The clues are right there for everyone to see. The Dodgers have made their first offer to free-agent lefthander Fernando Valenzuela. They have agreed to go to arbitration with lefthander John Tudor. They have, in short, exhibited all the classic symptoms of a team about to trade a pitcher. But if they do, Phillies general manager Lee Thomas said last night, it's doubtful it will be to Philadelphia. "We're going to meet again, but I don't think we can do anything," he said.

Touring productions of Broadway plays are often criticized as stripped-down versions of the real thing. But although the Angels in America that opened last night at the Zellerbach Theatre has indeed been stripped down from the New York version of Tony Kushner's two-part, seven-hour, two-time-Tony-winning saga, don't worry. In this case, it's the tourer that's the real thing. In the published scripts of both parts - Millennium Approaches, which runs alone at the Zellerbach through tomorrow, and Perestroika, which will open on Friday and play in repertory with Millennium for the balance of the two-week engagement here, Kushner is clear about how his work should be staged.

I wonder sometimes how overwhelmed Mary must have been at the magnitude of mothering a special child. Overwhelmed by mothering; there's not a mother anywhere who hasn't felt it. I can imagine Mary looking up to the sky for comfort, relief and guidance. She, of course, had angels to reassure her. My story of motherhood and angels doesn't begin in a manger. It begins in a hospital room 17 years ago with a mother overwhelmed by cancer and filled with fear and uncertainty because she didn't know who would raise her 9-year-old daughter when she died.

Manager Ken Macha quickly asked for a Steelers score. Starter Tim Hudson talked about eating potato chips on his couch and changing his offseason workout routine. What a strange ending to Oakland's disappointing season. Rookie Nick Swisher singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, and host Oakland defeated playoff-bound Anaheim yesterday, 3-2. The Angels won their first division title in 18 years and fourth overall by beating the Athletics Saturday, 5-4, taking all the drama out of the season finale.

The Texas Rangers moved into a tie for first place in the American League West with the kind of win they are used to, a comeback. They beat visiting California, 10-6, last night, tying the Angels in the standings with their 17th come-from-behind victory of the season. Mickey Tettleton homered twice and Ivan Rodriguez had three hits, including a two-run double that drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth, as the Rangers rallied from 4-0 and 5-2 deficits. "This club doesn't roll over and die," said Rangers first baseman Will Clark, who had a two-run homer and is 9-for-14 in his last four games.

Travis Hafner hated to leave Anaheim so much, he was the last guy out of the shower in the Cleveland Indians' clubhouse. Hafner hit three homers to match a major league record with five in two games, leading the Indians to a 14-5 rout of the Angels yesterday. "This is just a place that I'm really comfortable playing in and it's got a good backdrop," he said. Hafner, who went deep in the third, fifth and ninth, was the second player to hit three home runs yesterday, joining St. Louis' Albert Pujols.

If you ever wanted to whomp the Beatles upside the head for their glibness, their faddish immersion in Eastern cultures, or just for, well, being the Beatles, The Fab Four Reach the Pearly Gates is the show for you. This Fringe Festival piece by New Paradise Laboratories, the folks who brought you last season's mesmerizing Stupor, might well be titled Beatles, Schmeatles for all the respect the boys from Liverpool are shown by a trio of punkish, bespectacled...