Tim Salmon Sticks His Nose Into His Brother’s Sport--and Breaks It

Angel right fielder Tim Salmon always has professed that his first love is football, but after a family Thanksgiving pickup game got a little too rough, well, it might be time to stick to baseball.

Salmon underwent surgery Wednesday in Phoenix to repair a nose broken Thanksgiving morning while playing football with his brother--USC defensive back Mike Salmon. He had scheduled surgery to remove polyps from his nose at the same time.

“The boys left the house at about 8,” said James Salmon, Tim’s father, “and when they got back, Tim had a red circle at the bridge of his nose. All I said was, ‘Oh my God.’

“No one said a word about it. I could tell no one was real thrilled talking about it, so I didn’t press it.”

Salmon, the unanimous winner of the American League’s rookie- of-the-year-award, previously sustained a fractured jaw and broken nose from two separate beanings during his minor league career. He sat out the last three weeks of the 1993 season because of a broken finger.

This was his first football injury.

“And I’ve got a pretty good idea it will be his last, too,” James Salmon said.