It Takes Awhile, but Hit Becomes a Homer : Angels: Umpires weren’t sure at first if Salmon’s seventh-inning shot was a home run or a triple.

It may have been the longest home run in baseball history. We’re talking time here, not distance.

Actually, Tim Salmon’s seventh-inning drive to right-center traveled 378 feet into the air. Hardly of Ruthian proportions, but with a fortuitous carom off the top of the wall--and a great deal of confusion and debate--it was enough to bring the Angels even with the Royals, 1-1.

Salmon, who had yet to hit an opposite-field homer in the major leagues, went with this David Cone fastball and got just enough of it. The ball eluded the outstretched glove of right fielder Felix Jose, hit the top of the fence and bounced up against the tarp commemorating the Angels’ three division championships and the three “players”--Nolan Ryan, Rod Carew and Gene Autry--whose numbers have been retired. Then it bounded back onto the field.

The tarp is the same blue color and the same material as the fence. The tarp is eight feet beyond the outfield fence, but from the infield, it looks like one big outfield wall.

“I was just running,” Salmon said. “I just put a nice, easy swing and went for the gap. I thought it was over his head, but it just carried for me a little. I thought I saw it hit the back tarp, but I couldn’t be sure.

“It would have been my first career triple, but I’ll settle for the home run.”

Salmon sprinted around to third as Jose got the ball back into the infield and about half the people in Anaheim Stadium made a circling motion with their index finger. Unfortunately, none of them were American League umpires.

Home plate umpire Tim Welke jogged out to talk to second base umpire Durwood Merrill with Angel Manager Buck Rodgers hot on his heels. After a brief discussion, Welke signaled Salmon home from third, which was enough for Rodgers, enough to set off the belated-but-still-obligatory fireworks display and enough to light the fuse under Royal Manager Hal McRae.

McRae talked to his outfielders, yelled at the umpires and finally retired to the dugout with the score tied, 1-1.

“There were a lot of things that apparently were hard to see out there tonight,” said Rodgers, who was still fuming about what he thought was a incorrect call at first base on a Brian McRae bunt in the 10th inning, when the Royals scored a run that held up for a 2-1 victory.

“It hit halfway up the back wall and bounced back. Everyone in the dugout saw it even before the replay. Everybody in the park saw it. But one guy didn’t see it, so we had to talk a little about it.”

Salmon is hitting .316 on the home stand, but he had lost his power stroke of late. He had not driven in a run since May 3 and didn’t have a home run since an April 28 shot off Jim Abbott.

Friday night, Salmon proved he can still come up with the big swing when the Angels need the big fly. Of his six homers, five have come in the fifth inning or later, two in the ninth.

His fielding was also a factor. In the fourth inning, he dropped to the seat of his pants while running full speed toward the foul line in pursuit of a Harvey Pulliam blooper. Salmon slid under second baseman Damion Easley and still caught the ball.

One out later, the Royals strung together three consecutive singles to left and their only run off Angel starter Mark Langston.

Salmon has now homered off three pitchers--Cone, Abbott and Boston’s Roger Clemens--who will have a combined salary of $19 million this year.

Heady stuff for a rookie, but he says he wants to face the best and prove he belongs.

“That’s how you get better as a player,” he said. “I want to face the best pitchers when they have their best stuff. I like the challenge.”

But when he hits one out, he’d prefer not to have to sprint around the bases . . . or endure an ensuing debate.