- This was arguably the best turnaround we'd ever seen.
Not just in baseball but in all of sports.
- At a certain point you just had to ask yourself,
is this real?
- There was nothing mystical about it.
There weren't angels, but something was going on.
- [Voiceover] 30 for 30.
(slow guitar music)
- Angels entered the '94 season with one
of the worst rosters imaginable.
- I mean, they had a catcher that could barely run,
they had a pair of outfielders who constantly collided
with each other.
And their star pitcher Whitt Bass,
I don't think he could even read.
And to top it all off their manager was a liability.
I mean, It's almost like he was fighting
with his team, in a way.
And he actually fought his team.
- He was, he was kind of mean at times.
One time he threw something and it- I don't know
if you can remember but the bat hit me in the head.
- I still don't understand how he wasn't fired.
- And in the midst of a historic losing streak,
one strange day in July, the Angels start
to turn things around.
- [Voiceover] That sports fans is a play you're going
to see run in baseball highlights for years to come.
- Ben Williams, this guy had no business even playing
in the big leagues.
He was a terrible hitter.
He was a horrible defensive outfielder
and then out of nowhere he makes
the greatest catch in Major League history.
- That was when the whole season started
to make everyone believe in us
and made us believe in ourselves.
- I remember a play the next week
where Danny Hemmerling scored on an infield ground ball.
- Some moments in sports you remember
in slow motion and that Hemmerling play was one of them.
Because the ball was actually traveling in slow motion.
- Hemmerling hit that ball and somehow there
was 17 errors on that one play.
- Beat the previous record by 14 errors.
- It was the first time in Major League history
that a catcher, first baseman, and a pitcher all made
an error on the same play,
in which the pitcher also hit them in the face
with his baseball glove.
[Voiceover] And Mel Clark hasn't started a game
in this decade.
- When I was Double A, I looked up to Mel Clark,
but the Mel Clark in '94 wasn't the same guy.
He hadn't started a game in four years.
- Knox throws Mel Clark on the mound in July
and he posts a second half that ranks right up there
with the best of the decade.
- Ricky Vaughn in '96, Pedro Martinez in '99,
Henry Rowengartner in '93, Clark's numbers were better.
- I've never seen Clark have command of
a strike zone like that.
If it wasn't angels, I don't know what it was.
- Everyone wanted to believe that this was legitimate.
But it was clear something else was happening.
- [Voiceover] I have a statement that I'd like to read.
There have been reports that I've been using angels
to help the team win.
- Angels? That's the explanation.
I found that insulting.
- The only reason why the guy wasn't getting laughed out
of the room, was because it was the 90's
and there were a lot of bizarre things happening
in the world of sports.
- [Voiceover] If a hockey player can win the Masters,
if a golden retriever can play basketball,
if Michael Jordan can play with Bill Murray and Tweety Bird,
then maybe we can believe that the Angels
can actually win baseball games.
- And to show you the kind of hold Knox has on the press,
there's only one person in the room who questions the thing.
- George, does this mean you really think
that a kid sees angels at your games?
- The truth is the guy was making some really legitimate
points but no one listened to him cause,
the guy just sounded like a jerk.
- [Voiceover] At that point, everybody in California
was on team Knox.
- Well, I have to say, they made me a believer.
I believe.
- [Voiceover] We all believed.
- Oh, we just knew we were gonna win.
- But during this pennant run, everybody was so rapped up
in Angel fever that nobody took the time to ask,
why is this manager spending so much time
with two little kids?
- I think it was creepy.
- The angels could help the team,
when it comes to getting to the playoffs,
once it's time for the pennant they cannot help anymore.
That is the rule.
- What's the purpose of that rule?
That seems a little arbitrary.
- Al makes the rules.
- Who is Al and why does he spend his time helping
a baseball team instead of helping starving children?
- So Roger could be with his dad again.
- Coach spent a lot of time with those young guys,
but they said that one of the boys could see angels.
And I don't know if that's true, I just think
that Coach Knox was great and wanted
to help those little boys out.
- The following season, the team is back in last place.
Knox is fired by the All-Star break.
The Angels' dream is over.
- [Voiceover] Would you say the use of steroids aided
the California Angels during the 1994 season, Mr. Conseco?
- No doubt in my mind. Absolutely.
- [Voiceover] Mr. Bass, was the team using steroids?
- It was angels. I don't even know how to do steroids.
(click)
- Another weird thing about that season
is it seemed like they never played a road game.
- Thanks for watching.
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