Snow Trying to Weather Storm : Angels: Rookie’s batting average has plummeted to .215.

ANAHEIM — Angel first baseman J.T. Snow stares across the room. He searches for the right words, trying to make some sense out of all this, only to sigh in exasperation.

Nearly two months have passed since the comparisons to Wally Joyner, the questions of whether he could hit .400 with 40 homers, and if his Nov. 13 wedding plans might interfere with the announcement of the Rookie of the Year award.

In those days, Jack Thomas Snow Jr. was the biggest craze in Southern California since the introduction of fish tacos. Everyone wanted him for the 11 o’clock newscasts . . . to pose for magazine covers . . . to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

“It seems like a long time ago,” Snow said softly. “I knew I wasn’t going to keep hitting .400 or keep hitting all those homers, but I didn’t think this would happen, either.”

These days, Snow is batting .215, buried deep in the Angel lineup at the No. 7 spot, and pleading to the heavens that his torment will soon be over.

“This has been the toughest, most difficult thing I’ve ever had to go through in my life,” Snow said. “I’ve never struggled like I am now.

“I’m not saying everything’s always come easy to me, but nothing like this has ever happened.”

Snow, who spent the first three weeks of the season making everyone forget about Jim Abbott, Joyner and Bryan Harvey, wonders what has gone wrong.

Could his .407 batting average with six homers and 17 runs batted in the first 15 games of the season really be a fluke?

Is it possible he could be as bad as the statistics have revealed the next seven weeks--batting .111 and lowering his season average to just a few points above the Mendoza line?

Will the Angels’ patience with him dissipate, sending him off to triple-A Vancouver until he regains his swing?

“Everything has run through my mind at one time or another,” Snow said, “and the things that didn’t go through my mind, other people would bring up. I was lost, completely and totally lost.”

Chili Davis said: “It became a thing where we were all feeling for J.T. He’s so young, he didn’t know what to do.”

Said shortstop Gary DiSarcina: “The guy was in the big leagues for three weeks, and everybody was saying he was the next Wally Joyner. Then, he goes into a slump, and there’s no place for him to hide.

“How fair is that?”

Snow, who prevented everyone but his fiancee, Stacie Peters, from seeing how the slump was eating away at him, maintained the same demeanor each day in the clubhouse. He remained just as gracious and accommodating during the slump as he was while winning American League Player of the Week awards. His family and friends never suspected a thing.

The most difficult aspect of this ordeal, he says, is that it’s occurring in his hometown. It’s one thing for Angel fans to talk about his slump, but quite another to be barraged by friends and relatives about it.

“Playing in your hometown has been a lot tougher than I thought it would be,” Snow said. “Everybody is always seeing me, whether it’s coming to the game at home or watching them on TV while we’re on the road. It’s almost like it gives everyone the right to give me advice or make suggestions.

“This last month has just been ridiculous with everyone telling me what I’m doing wrong. I mean, it’s gotten so bad that I got a message in my hotel room (Tuesday) that said, ‘I’m so-and-so from L.A., I’m a hitting instructor, and I know what you’re doing wrong. Give me a call and I’ll help.’

“That just blew me away, some stranger calling me like that. It’s like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’

“I threw the message away, but I’m sure I’ll be getting more.”

Snow isn’t the type of person to tell people to shut up. He knows they mean well, but he just can’t take any more advice.

So recently he initiated a policy. He listens only to the man who has won seven batting titles: hitting instructor Rod Carew.

Oh, Snow appeases friends and relatives by pretending to listen, but in truth they’re wasting their breath.

There’s another ultimatum he intends to follow: No more reading the sports pages or looking at the scoreboard when he steps to the plate. He doesn’t want to know his batting average.

Snow was tempted to break the commandments Tuesday in Toronto when he lined two doubles into right field in his first two at-bats. After all, it was his first multiple-hit game in three weeks, and the first time he had two extra-base hits in the same game since April 24.

“After looking at the box scores the last two months and seeing my average slide every day,” Snow said, “there’s nothing more I wanted to do than pick up the paper. But I couldn’t do it. I knew it would be a double-standard just to read on the days I do well.

“I’m starting to get the hang of not looking at the scoreboard, either. When you’re in the minors, most of those places don’t even have a scoreboard, so you don’t have to worry about looking at your average. But up here, man, there it is in big, bright lights.”

It will take time for his average to become respectable. Yet for the first time since late April, he’s starting to feel good about himself again, believing the worst is behind him.

“I was standing on second base after my second double the other night thinking, ‘That’s the way I was hitting before,’ ” he said. “ ‘That’s the way I know I can hit. I mean, I did it once, so there’s no reason I can’t do it again.’

“I know I’m not going to get to .250 in three games, but I’m starting to feel relaxed and aggressive up there. Maybe I’m on my way back.”

Angel Manager Buck Rodgers, who has had several heart-to-heart talks with Snow and dropped him from third to seventh in the lineup to ease the pressure, is convinced Snow will return. Perhaps it was not the true J.T. Snow the first three weeks of the season--the one who hit five homers in a span of six games--but this isn’t the real J.T. Snow, either.

“I think he realizes it’s just a matter of time,” Rodgers said, “and he knows we’re going to give him a chance to do it. I don’t think he’s out of it, yet, but he’s got the right approach now.”

The Angels, who begin a stretch of 20 consecutive games against division rivals tonight against Seattle at Anaheim Stadium, realize just how vital Snow is to their success. The Angels are 19-3 this season in games in which Snow has scored at least one run, and 16-2 when he has an RBI.

“He took the focus off everybody,” DiSarcina said, “and was as responsible as anyone for our start. I’m sure this isn’t easy for him because it’s the first time he’s ever had to go through something like this, but it’s unbelievable the way he’s been able to handle it.”

Really, Snow says, this is nothing that a few hits won’t resolve.

“I was thinking about it the other day,” Snow said. “If this is really the worst thing that ever happens in my life, I’ll have lived a pretty darn good life.

“I know I can lick this thing, and I’m going to have fun doing it.”