Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 22, 1993 TAG: 9305220048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By DAVE CUNNINGHAM KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: ANAHEIM, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
"The sound of glass breaking as we were hitting the trees. That's what I remember most," California coach John Wathan said, reflecting on the Angels' bus crash that happened one year ago Friday.
"And then seeing the guys from the other bus come on board to help us get out through the windows," he added.
Just before 2 a.m. on May 21, 1992, one of two charter buses carrying the Angels to Baltimore swerved off the road, mowed down a stand of trees, crashed into a guard rail and overturned.
Twelve members of the Angels' traveling party were injured, as was the driver, 38-year-old Carl Venetz of New Jersey.
"I think I was in shock," Wathan said. "I remember Kirt [Daniels, KMPC radio producer] saying, `We've got to get off the bus now,' and I said, `Why?'
"And I remember a feeling that we were going to go under water for some reason. I don't know if that's a big fear of mine or what, but I don't like drowning. As it turned out, there was a creek below us, and had the tree not stopped the bus, we would've rolled into that creek."
Angels traveling secretary Frank Sims was still picking glass out of his body as he lay in a hospital bed several hours after the crash.
"This is 10 times as bad as being shot down in my plane in World War II," said Sims, who had internal injuries. "It's a wonder we weren't all killed."
Former Angels broadcaster Al Conin remembered a moment of relief.
"Somebody cut my pant leg halfway up because they thought I was bleeding," Conin said. "I had this red stuff all over my pants. But they looked at my knee, and it was OK. It was pizza sauce. There was pizza sauce all over the place."
But there was also blood.
The most serious injuries were suffered by Angels manager Buck Rodgers, who sustained fractures to his right elbow, rib cage and left knee.
"Buck looked awful bad," Sims said. "I had some blood on my hands. I don't know where it came from. I saw Buck bleeding, and Bobby Rose was bleeding from his forehead. Buck was crumbled under the seat, lying awfully still. I don't know if he was knocked out or not."
Rose said "it was the scariest thing I've ever been through in my life."
Although all the victims survived, some of their lives took radically different courses because of that crash.
Rodgers will never regain full range of movement in his arm and leg.
Rose, an infielder who suffered a severely sprained ankle and multiple cuts, wasn't able to revive his career in the big leagues. He's now playing baseball in Japan.
First baseman Alvin Davis, hospitalized after the crash with a bruised kidney, also went to Japan and is now out of baseball.
The legal battles arising out of that fateful night may drag on for years, according to Mark Rosenthal, an attorney who is handling the Angels' lawsuit against the bus company.
The driver was charged with reckless driving - some players thought he fell asleep at the wheel, but that was never proven - and faced a criminal trial. He was acquitted.
He told the New Jersey state troopers who investigated the crash that he veered to avoid debris in the road and lost control.
Rodgers filed his own lawsuit, seeking approximately $19 million in damages for himself and his wife, who nursed him through the flashbacks and painful rehabilitation.
Sims also filed a lawsuit, seeking as-yet unspecified damages.
Owners Gene and Jackie Autry are going to court in New Jersey on behalf of the ballclub. Rosenthal says they will seek damages "in the millions of dollars."
Rose and Davis, the players whose careers were most affected, are also believed to be preparing lawsuits, according to Rosenthal.
by CNB