Easley Isn’t Flashy, but He Adds a Spark

He doesn’t have the spine-tingling home runs of J.T. Snow.

Damion Easley does have shin splints.

You won’t find him among the league’s stolen base leaders, like Chad Curtis.

No, Easley, who suffered a bruised foot during batting practice Wednesday in New York, is just happy for those days when he can run without pain.

And he doesn’t have the sheer ability of Tim Salmon, who was picked by two national publications as the minor league player of the year last summer.

But Easley, largely overshadowed the first five weeks of the season by Angels who are faster, stronger and more dramatic, is quickly developing his own niche.

“They’re the glamour guys,” Easley said Friday after the Angels’ 4-3 victory over Oakland. “I’m just the consistent guy that gets on base for them to drive me in.”

Easley is the guy who comes into the picture if you read past the first chapter.

And then he steals your heart.

His night’s work Friday included a two-for-two performance at the plate, two walks, two runs scored, one run batted in and one stolen base.

His two-out, eighth-inning double that knocked home Greg Myers turned out to be one of the crucial at-bats of the game, given that Oakland would squeeze two runs out of Julio Valera in the ninth.

“You never know which runs are going to win it,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “That two-out double by Damion Easley . . .”

The two walks shouldn’t be underestimated, either. Going into the game, Easley, 23, had walked only three times in 75 plate appearances. He nearly matched that in one night.

“Me and Rod (Carew, Angels’ hitting coach) talked about that in New York,” said Easley, who bumped up his batting average to .315. “I’m trying to have a specific zone, a specific area I want the pitches to be in. If not, I’ll take the pitch.”

Said Carew: “I think a lot of times he’s too anxious to hit. We’re going to let him use the middle of the field now. . . . The middle of the diamond, and not pull the ball. It gives him more space to hit it into.

“And you make the least amount of mistakes when you stay in the middle of the diamond.”

Apparently, Easley is listening. He took the two walks his first two times up--both against A’sstarter Kelly Downs, who yielded Easley’s first major league hit last Aug. 16--and then singled in the seventh and doubled in the eighth.

Both balls were struck into center field.

“That’s what’s good about him,” Carew said. “He listens. He doesn’t mind me getting on him and reminding him all the time.”

And if the spotlight focuses on others while Easley makes his adjustments, so be it.

“I can handle (publicity) if it happens,” he said. “If it doesn’t, my job is to play ball first.”