Ex-Angels hero Scott Spiezio hasn't taken a flyer on baseball

Why should anyone believe him now?

Scott Spiezio has said all the right things before, appeared more than contrite, and that didn't turn out so great.

The former Angels hero was released by two major league teams in a whirlwind 44 days last year, the price of ugly public incidents. He had wrecked his car in Newport Beach after a drinking binge and later punched a friend who tried to help him.

Now the 12-year major league veteran is with the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League, a baseball netherworld rife with "Thirsty Thursday" promotions and overzealous stadium announcers.

It is here, the 36-year-old Spiezio hopes, that over the next month he can show major league teams that he has changed -- by what he does, not what he says.

"Instead of me saying, 'This is what I'm going to do,' " Spiezio said, "I can say, 'This is what I did.' "

The utility player homered in his first game last week but was hitting only .188 through Wednesday. Still, he knows teams will be more interested in how he behaves off the field.

After years of pushing away friends and family members who tried to help him overcome his drug and alcohol problems, Spiezio said he has finally embraced a support network capable of nurturing him back to the major leagues.

There's his wife, Jennifer, who will accompany her husband on the team bus to outposts such as Chico, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., in an attempt to help him resist the urge to drink.

There's Pastor Jeff Pries from Mariners Church in Irvine, a former first-round pick of the New York Yankees whose sermons and batting practice arm are both lively.

And there's Flyers Manager Phil Nevin, a no-nonsense mentor who won't stand for distractions as his team chases a second consecutive league title.

"He knows that one slip-up here -- I'm not going to allow anything because we have a good thing going," Nevin said.

Before a recent Flyers game against the Chico Outlaws, Spiezio resembled the happy-go-lucky player he was with the Angels, bouncing around behind the batting cage with a smile affixed to his face.

"I don't even know how to describe the difference in his well-being, just being able to play baseball and have the camaraderie with the men down there in the locker room," Jennifer Spiezio said. "It's been really good."