Skaggs tribute a real gem

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Tyler Skaggs’ shoes were lined up in neat rows in his locker. Casual shirts hanging on the rod were pushed to the left, his white pants and red batting practice top pushed over to the right. His glove was on the shelf, waiting to mold itself around the familiar touch of his hand. His chair faced sideways, ready for him to plop down and pick out a pair of shoes or chat with the player next to him.

At any moment, it seemed, Skaggs would burst into the clubhouse at Angel Stadium on Friday and infuse the room with his usual upbeat energy. Instead, on the night before his 28th birthday, his teammates and Angels fans remembered the too brief life that ended July 1 when he was found dead in the team’s hotel in Southlake, Texas, due to undisclosed causes. Results of an autopsy are expected to be released in October.

The Angels’ raw, aching wounds were torn open again Friday, their first home game since his death. They got a few hours’ respite thanks to the combined nohitter pitched by Taylor Cole and Felix Pena and Mike Trout’s six RBI performance in a 130 rout of the Seattle Mariners, a wondrous ending to what could have been a sorrowful night. But they still have a hole in their hearts and they’re more concerned about keeping his memory alive than pondering why he died.

“At this point, I don’t really care. His loss is his loss and there’s an emptiness to the cause,” manager Brad Ausmus said before the game. “So I’m not in any rush to find out. All I know is Tyler Skaggs isn’t here and there are a lot of friends and family who cared about him a lot. The reason he died isn’t what hurts. The fact that he died is what hurts.”

All of the Angels wore replicas of his uniform with his name and number 45 on Friday and they spread them on the mound after the nohitter. A jersey was placed in the dugout as a gutwrenching memorial to the joyful man who used to wear it. “It’s kind of unreal at times that he is no longer here,” said Ausmus, who would add after the game, “It was partly Skaggsy’s nohitter.”

The jersey will accompany the Angels the rest of this suddenly solemn season, and his locker will remain untouched at home. As it should be.

“Nobody asked me about it. It’s the natural thing to do,” said general manager Billy Eppler. Work has been no refuge for Eppler. The depth chart he habitually updates has sat unopened, and his conversations often wander. “I think in some respects sometimes keeping busy can kind of help. I don’t really know if that’s the right way to go about it because you do need to grieve,” Eppler said. “Everybody has those moments.”

Those moments were plentiful Friday. “It’s tough to come back and walk past his locker, but we’ve never gotten away from it,” outfielder Brian Goodwin said. “We’ve had some time to deal with it and get our thoughts together and do the best we can to remember him how he was, but it’s one of those things where time heals, but it never seems like it’s enough.”

Outside, on the pitcher’s mound at the brick plaza entrance to the stadium, the tribute fans had created when they first learned of his death grew in size and variety. Caps and baseball cards that had faded in the sun were joined by paperwrapped bouquets of fresh red roses, scrawled notes, and bright new red caps with messages written on the bill.

Memorial candles weighted down slips of paper that praised Skaggs’ kindness in throwing a ball to the letter writer and to lament that Skaggs was “just starting to do wonderful things.” Fans paused as they walked from the parking lot to the entrance gate, adding to the pile or takings photos of its haphazard glory.

Sadly, fans had practice at this: They did the same for pitcher Nick Adenhart, who was killed with two friends in 2009 when the car in which they were riding was struck by a drunken driver. Having to offer one such tribute was horrible. Having to do it twice was unthinkable, but they came together respectfully to honor another young life that ended too soon.

Inside the stadium, Andrew Heaney and Mike Trout carried out a framed Skaggs jersey on an easel and deposited it behind the mound, and a 45second moment of silence was observed. Skaggs’ mother Debbie used her index finger to etch her son’s initials in the dirt before she threw a firstpitch strike to Heaney. Trout, who had worn Skaggs’ 45 in the AllStar Game last week, hit a home run in his first atbat that was measured at 454 — yes, 45 again — feet. As Trout trotted around the bases he appeared to look up at the suite where Skaggs’ mother, wife Carli, stepfather and stepbrother were watching.

Infielder Zach Cozart, who’s scheduled to undergo seasonending shoulder surgery next week, thought back to hanging out with Skaggs the night before the pitcher died. Their conversation was nothing special. There was no reason to think they wouldn’t pick it up the next day or next week. “Stuff like that kind of haunts me because it’s so sudden and tragic. It was just, like everybody’s talked about, he runs the music. Ran the music on the team,” Cozart said, correcting his instinctive use of the present tense.

“We’re always putting in requests to him, for him to play the music and stuff that the guys want to listen to on the bus. It was cowboy weekend. Seeing him, I can just picture him in his getup and stuff. Knowing that’s the last time I saw him, it’s tough.”

The Angels have adopted one of Skaggs’ favorite catch phrases, “We’re nasty,” as their unofficial motto, posting it in their clubhouse on the wall opposite his locker. They will remember him as funny, a good teammate, and a constant companion forever.

“I’ll always have good memories of Tyler,” Cozart said. “From a baseball perspective, being here hasn’t — the injury and everything — hasn’t been great. But I’m so grateful I got to play with him and be a part of this team with him.”