Anderson comes alive after a little pep talk

It’s 7:10 on a Tuesday evening in Angel Stadium, the game that began at 7:06 now over, the Oakland A’s taking a 1-0 lead.

I joke, of course, the Angels’ anemic attack rallying early for two runs and one hit and then getting a big home run to win it, but only because I have this thing for old people.

That’s why I like spending time with Wooden, Dwyre and the wife. I enjoy talking to them because they’ve already lived their lives, and have so much to say, which explains why I began the night standing in front of Garret Anderson’s locker.

It was just time to get the old guy going.

But let’s face it, he’s almost baseball ancient. He’s sitting in front of his locker because I presume he has to -- celebrating birthday No. 36 a day earlier -- and if you’re going to have as much gray hair as he has right now, it’s probably good you have a job that requires you to wear a cap.

There was a time in Anderson’s life when he would run from me, but as everyone knows, he has slowed down, so he couldn’t avoid the question: “Are you finished as a baseball player?”

He said no, of course, but added, “I’m bad right now; I can admit that.”

He’s not so bad as he has been terrible, hitting .188 in June and doing so poorly Manager Mike Scioscia removed him from the lineup two days in a row.

“I happened to bump into Scioscia the other day and he said I’d be back in there, but I didn’t say anything,” Anderson said. “He knows I want to play every day, so I’m not going to beat him over the head. I need to go out there and prove that I belong in the lineup every day.”

The way he’s hitting right now, he could play for the Dodgers.

Anybody else, and I might make the sarcastic suggestion that Ned Colletti probably has his eye on teaming Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones and Anderson in the same outfield, but because Anderson is one of the most grounded and classy athletes in baseball, I’d never suggest such a thing.

But it does raise another question: Will the Angels pay him $14 million next season, or take advantage of the opportunity to buy him out of his contract for $3 million?

Hard to picture the Angels without Anderson in uniform.

It’s business, though, and the best baseball guess is the Angels will give him $3 million, and while that will free him to go elsewhere, the Angels will probably try to sign him to a new contract for something considerably less than $14 million.

“This is where I want to end my career,” Anderson said, “but that situation will be resolved in time. Right now, I just want to start hitting, and not for my contract, but for me.”

He said he’s thinking too much at the plate, so I suggested he stop -- coaching on the side a big part of what Page 2 does for some of our local heroes.

Anyone else struggling like Anderson might growl at such an intrusion, but he laughed, and said he was ready to break out.

“I can still hit,” he insisted, and everyone loves a dreamer.

A year ago Anderson went into the dumper inspiring speculation about his future, but after the All-Star break he averaged nearly an RBI per game while hitting .305.

“I can’t get my average up to .300 tonight, or hit 15 home runs in one game,” he said. “It has to be an accumulation over the rest of the season.”

But how about doing something tonight, I said, and maybe show everyone there’s a little kick left in the old-timer?

“I’m going to have fun with it,” he said with a smile, “and take that as a challenge.”

Then he took the field, singled sharply to right field in his second at-bat, and then with the Angels needing a lift late in the game, he hit a monster home run to right to give them a 5-3 win.

For an old man, that’s very important, allowing him to take his time while running the bases.

“My feet didn’t even hit the ground,” he said, suddenly a kid at heart.

MATT STEINBERG is going to be a senior at Corona del Mar High. His father is sports agent Leigh Steinberg, but rather than be an agent, young Matt would like to do something with his life, and so he’s considering becoming a sportswriter.

He tagged along with Page 2 on Tuesday to Angel Stadium, and when we ran into Gary Matthews Jr. and I said something about young Matt wanting to be a sportswriter, Matthews just kept on walking.

I checked with the kid, and he had no intention of asking Matthews what he’s done with his HGH stash, but I don’t know, maybe paranoia is one of the drug’s side affects.

SO THE Clippers have come to an agreement with Baron Davis, Elton Brand is next and if this keeps up, someone is going to make the argument Donald Sterling is trying to win. Or he must have been out of the country.

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Gregory Harbaugh: “My late father went to school with Coach Wooden at Purdue and covered him in H.S. for the Lafayette Journal Courier. We crashed a UCLA party in about 1974 in College Park, Md. I stood in the middle of a packed room, waiting to talk to Coach, shy -- for a long time. I saw someone coming over to me out of the corner of my eye. It was Mrs. Wooden. She introduced herself and said she could see in my eye that I was anxious to talk to her husband, but it would be very difficult. She said she’d be glad to talk to me. I told her my grandmother’s name was Nellie, she told me her grandson’s name was Gregory. We talked for what seemed like 15-20 minutes. It was one of the nicest moments of my life. I’ve been thinking how I might tell Coach this story. He’s always been the most influential man in my life -- next to my father. When I coached, I gave out copies of the Pyramid. If you could tell him this story and how kind Nellie was to me, I’d be forever grateful. It seems the Great Man and I share a lot of things in life, including a penchant for benching disrespectful players.”

Anything to bring a smile to the Great Man’s face.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.