BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Perez Can’t Wait to Get to the Stadium

Angel first baseman Eduardo Perez paced his hotel room Tuesday afternoon, anxiously stealing glances at the alarm clock, until he could take it no longer.

He has spent plenty of opening days in Cincinnati, watching his father, Tony Perez. But this was different.

This was the first opening day of his major league career.

“I finally ended up walking to the stadium,” Perez said. “I mean, I had to release that energy somehow.”

Perez, who produced two hits and drove in a run in the Angels’ opening-day victory over the Minnesota Twins, perhaps has more pressure on him than any player in the Angel lineup. He is the reason J.T. Snow is in Vancouver. The reason the Angels moved Damion Easley to third base. The reason Bo Jackson and Dwight Smith are platooning in left field.

“I didn’t plan on any of this,” Perez said, shrugging. “I didn’t care where I was playing, as long as I was playing. It wasn’t like I was the one making the decisions to send anyone down.”

Instead, it was Perez’s elbow that caused the reshuffling of the roster. The Angels moved Perez from third to left field after he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow in October. He experienced inflammation of the elbow in January, and the Angels immediately signed Jackson and Smith. In spring training, the elbow flared up again, and the Angels moved him permanently to first base.

Snow became the odd man out.

“I’ve shown him by my actions that he’s our first baseman, and that’s all there is to it,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “If Eddie can be just half as consistent as Timmy (Salmon) last year, he’ll be fine.

“Really, there shouldn’t be any pressure, because he’s the guy we’re going with.”

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Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina should be getting used to this by now, but there it was again Tuesday, another new face at second base.

Harold Reynolds became the Angels’ fifth different opening-day second baseman in the last five years.

“There have been so many over there,” DiSarcina said, “it’s like it’s not even a person. I’ve never had that luxury of knowing my second baseman.”

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Twin left fielder Pedro Munoz opened his season in style, slamming a 473-foot homer into the center field seats off Mark Langston. It was the longest home run hit to center field in the 12-year history of the Metrodome, and only eigth feet shy of the longest one hit to any field. . . . Reliever Bob Patterson shed his offensive lineman number, 66, and replaced it with No. 28 for this season. “I wanted to make sure I made the team before I did anything,” Patterson said. . . . Salmon became the first Angel to make two consecutive opening-day starts in right field since Dan Ford in 1980 and 1981. . . . The Angels will tinker with their lineup tonight, with Chris Turner starting at catcher and Rex Hudler at second. Rodgers also said he will start Spike Owen at third on Thursday, resting Easley.