NEW YORK (AP) - It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon in mid-October and the fans at Anaheim Stadium were going crazy. Their beloved Angels were one out away from advancing to the World Series for the first time.

Sixteen years later, the team and its followers are still waiting.

And the pain lingers.

"I don't want to be melodramatic, but I think it haunts everybody in this organization," Angels vice president Tim Mead said Monday. "It's a part of history you can't let go of until you have another chapter.

"As long ago as it was, it's at the forefront of people's minds when describing this organization."

The Angels, in the playoffs for the first time since the collapse of 1986 and only the fourth time in their 42-year history, have an opportunity to alter that description.

The challenge is daunting. After winning the AL wild card, the Angels face baseball's dominant team of the past seven years, the New York Yankees, in a best-of-five series starting Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

After overcoming a 6-14 start to win a franchise-record 99 games, the Angels are pleased just to be back in the postseason.

"It's really been sweet, especially since we've been close a few times, had some tough collapses," said outfielder Tim Salmon, whose spent 10 years with the team.

The biggest collapse was in 1986.

With a 3-1 advantage over the Boston Red Sox in the best-of-seven AL championship series, the Angels held a 5-2 lead entering the ninth inning.

"The electricity in that stadium was like nothing I've ever seen," recalled the 44-year-old Mead, public relations director of the Angels at that time.

Hundreds of security personnel were on the field to try and control the crazed fans when victory came.

It never did.

"They were maids and porters - just bodies," Angels executive Kevin Uhlich remembered with a laugh. "The City of Anaheim just put bodies out there to keep people off the field."

After Mike Witt retired the first two batters, the Red Sox got a runner and Don Baylor homered to make it 5-4.

Manager Gene Mauch lifted Mike Witt, bringing in left-hander Gary Lucas to face the left-handed hitting Rich Gedman, who was 4-for-4 against Witt in the game.

Lucas hit Gedman with a pitch - his first hit batter in four years - and Mauch brought in Donnie Moore, his closer.

The managerial moves, even though they made sense, are still being questioned. And understandably so, since Henderson hit a two-run homer to put the Red Sox ahead 6-5.

The Angels tied the game in their half of the ninth but the Red Sox won 7-6 in 11 innings.

The teams then headed East, where the Red Sox beat the Angels 10-4 and 8-1 to advance to the World Series, where they would lose in seven games to the New York Mets after blowing a two-run lead in the 10th inning of Game 6.

Moore was never the same after that.

"Donnie was just a great guy, a compassionate man. That just destroyed him," Uhlich said.

"I don't think any of us have ever seen anybody go through what he went through the next year," Mead said. `He was just crucified. His family stopped coming to the ballpark."

Moore was soon out of baseball, and committed suicide in the summer of 1989.

"Every time I see Dave Henderson, it's always a reminder," Salmon said.

Angels designated hitter Brad Fullmer, who grew up in Chatsworth, Calif. - about 50 miles from Anaheim - remembers watching the Henderson homer on television.

Fullmer was 11.

"I wanted to the Angels to go to the World Series. I was disappointed," he recalled. "It just wasn't meant to be, I guess. If you come within one pitch, you should win the game."

Angels manager Mike Scioscia, a catcher with the Dodgers at that time, was also watching on TV.

"You feel the exhilaration on one side and the pain on the other," he said. "I remembered the year earlier, when Jack Clark hit the home run against us."

That was another unforgettable postseason homer, one that propelled the St. Louis Cardinals past the Dodgers in Game 6 of the NLCS and into the World Series, where they lost to Kansas City.