ANGELS: ONE GAME FOR THE TITLE : Story of Angel Outfield a Three-Star Production : Baseball: Anderson, Edmonds and Salmon developed into a dependable unit, which helped the team move up in the standings.

By JOHN WEYLER

Oct. 2, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ANAHEIM —

The Angels have managed to keep the dream alive and today, they’ll have a chance to put a different spin on the spin-out of 1995.

Sunday, they beat Oakland and forced a one-game playoff with Seattle, again using and an offense powered by--sorry, we’ve got to say it--the Angels in the Outfield.

C’mon, where else but in a Disney film could this happen?

The kid in left, with a gait so fluid he could have starred in “Chariots of Fire” without the slow-motion cameras and a swing so sweet it must be computer generated, rises out of the minors to become an overnight sensation and a candidate for Rookie of the Year.

The hometown hero in center with the square jaw and the aw-shucks smile swears he hasn’t made any deals with the devil. Before the season, however, his manager said 15 home runs would be “too much to ask.” He thought he might be able to hit 20. He surpassed his expectations in July and finished with 33.

And what about that most-valuable leading man in right, with the Chris O’Donnell blue eyes, Jimmy Stewart humility and Gary Cooper work ethic. When someone says, “Action,” he provides it, day in, day out. But where’s the strut and chest thumping that invariably accompany star status in real life? Heck, the guy doesn’t even refer to himself in the third person.

It all sounds like pure pulp-fiction-turned-screenplay.

But it really happened, and for Angel fans, it was the feel-good feature of the summer. During Sunday’s 8-2 victory, Angel outfielders drove in six runs and scored four.

The combined performance of Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon certainly went beyond the wildest dreams of the Angels. The trio--which figures to be in place for a long time if the Disney folks are willing to fork out the dough for a three-star production--wasn’t even assembled as a group until two months into the season when former left fielder Tony Phillips was moved to third base and Anderson summoned from his understudy role in the minors.

Anderson, 23, hit .323 with 16 homers and 69 runs batted in during 105 games. Big-league pitchers learned to respect him in a hurry. During one eight-game trip through Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto in mid-July, he hit .520 with four homers, drove in 11 runs and scored 11.

For much of the season, Edmonds, 25, was a bona fide candidate for the league’s Most Valuable Player. He had a 23-game hitting streak and scored at least one run in a club-record 13 consecutive games. He struggled down the stretch--a reflection of nearly everyone around him--but finished with a .292 average, 120 runs scored, tying the club single-season record set by Don Baylor in 1979, and 107 RBIs, which ranks sixth on the Angels’ all-time single-season list.

The play of the strong, silent type in right is no surprise, of course. Salmon, 27, was Rookie of the Year in 1993 when he hit .283 with 31 homers and 95 RBIs. He hit .287 with 23 home runs and 70 RBIs in 42 fewer games in a strike-shortened 1994 season. This year, he slugged his way into Most Valuable Player contention with truly awesome numbers: a .332 average, 34 homers and 105 RBIs.

With a glove, none of them will make anyone forget Willie Mays, but their defensive prowess as a unit has been another pleasant surprise and clearly bodes well for the future.

Salmon, who throws so well that baserunners don’t often test him anymore, is a solid outfielder. Edmonds, who leads the team with eight outfield assists, lacks the speed of some center fielders, but his instincts, ability to read fly balls in the gaps and fence-scaling acumen more than make up for it. Anderson may be the weakest link, but he’s clearly the most gifted athlete and shows the flashes of brilliance you would expect from a guy with the quickness and speed of a deer.

“I’m not sure if it’s the best outfield I’ve ever seen,” said Gary Pettis, former Angel outfielder who is now roving base-running instructor, “but it’s certainly the best young group I’ve ever seen. What these guys have accomplished, the numbers they’ve put up offensively and the way they’ve played defensively too, at their age, it’s truly remarkable.”

Can they get any better?

“These are three relatively young players with a lot of athletic ability,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “Any time you have great tools and you add maturity and experience, then you would think they would get better.

“Offensively? Well, considering some of their numbers this year, that might be asking a lot. But certainly in terms of consistency.”

Let’s have them look across the outfield and see if they can reveal each other’s secrets to success.

LEFT OUT?

Anderson started the season on the major league roster but was sent to triple-A Vancouver on May 15 with a “you-need-to-play-every-day” pat on the shoulder.

When the Angels recalled him and put him in the starting lineup a month later, he made sure he would play every day. By mid-August, his batting average had peaked at .360.

“Garret’s ability is a little overwhelming, really,” Edmonds said. “If he can stay on top of his game mentally, stay focused and positive both in the outfield and at the plate, there’s no limit to what he can do. It’s a shame he didn’t have a full year to show what he could do. It would have been an unbelievable rookie season.”

It was certainly impressive in any case. Anderson hit safely in 58 of his last 75 games and put together a 14-game hitting streak in early August, tying him for the longest by a rookie this season with Toronto’s Shawn Green.

Teammates have compared his swing to that of Ken Griffey Jr.

“I’ve been watching that swing for the last three years, so I’m not really surprised by the way he hit this season,” Edmonds said. “With that swing, he has a big advantage. If he’s in a positive frame of mind, he can put a good swing on the ball every single time and that’s all you can hope for. That’s the key to consistency.”

Edmonds sees some of himself in Anderson. They both were accused of having less-than-Puritan work ethics in the minors. And they both have to battle a tendency to let a bad at-bat in a key situation blur their focus.

“That was his rap in the minors, that maybe he was a little lazy,” Edmonds said. “I think I had that label for a while too, but it’s easy to get caught up thinking that maybe you’ll never get out of the minors. Maybe you don’t put out the kind of effort you should every day, but there’s not much incentive to work hard if you feel like you’re stuck there.

“Garret knows what he can do and he’s confident in his ability most of the time, but he can get down on himself. I think the biggest pitfall for anybody is letting offensive problems hurt your defensive concentration because that will definitely catch up to you in this league.”

Anderson, blessed with that natural swing, hasn’t had to deal with any prolonged slumps.

“I think Garret has more ability than any of the young players in this league,” Edmonds said. “He’s got awesome tools. He just has to use all his tools.”

GETTING CENTERED

Growing up in Fullerton, Jim Edmonds had friends with season tickets, so he never had to climb the fences with his buddies to sneak into Anaheim Stadium. Now he makes a habit of climbing Big A fences . . . with 30,000 people watching.

Long fly ball to center? Roll the cameras. He went up the fence to steal a few home runs on plays that Hollywood couldn’t match without special effects. He made so many highlight-film catches that the spectacular began to border on the mundane.

The preseason decision to trade Chad Curtis and move Edmonds to center has paid dividends commensurate with a high-risk gamble. Edmonds played the first 94 games without an error and ended the season with one.

“That’s what’s really surprised me,” Salmon said. “As far as spectacular plays, he has to rank up there with anybody in the majors, but he’s really getting the job done day in and day out.

“We still need to work on communication, but the total package is awfully good. He may not coordinate as well as Chad did, but he’s playing better center field than Chad ever did.”

Before the season, Salmon was wondering if Edmonds could match Curtis’ offense. Home runs were not the issue, he said. “Jimmy just needs to drive the ball more.”

Always open to suggestion, Edmonds spent the first half of the season turning baseballs into bleacher-seat souvenirs at an incredible pace.

“Yeah, he’s gone a little bit beyond my expectations,” Salmon said, laughing. “Heck, he’s gone beyond everybody’s expectations, except for maybe his own. I’ve always known he had power, but power is one thing and utilizing it against major league pitching is quite another.”

Salmon also knows that Edmonds’ 1996 goal--especially in light of the late-season slump--will be to prove this season wasn’t a fluke.

“Let’s face it, Jim has had a simply awesome year and for him to come back and do it again, well, that’s going to be very tough, maybe even a little unrealistic,” Salmon said. “Everybody knows him and pitchers will make adjustments. He won’t see as many good pitches next year.

“Jim is a good enough hitter to overcome all of that, but his goal has to be to come back and put up consistent numbers, even if they’re not as good as this year. I think you would have to consider that a success.”

Salmon, a former Rookie of the Year, understands the pressure that follows precedent. Edmonds will be walking a fine line as he attempts to avoid the land mines laid by great expectations.

“He needs to concentrate on having quality at-bats and forget the numbers,” Salmon said. “You can’t control the outcome, the ball is either caught or it isn’t, but you can dictate your approach. If you take care of the preparation, you can feel good about whatever numbers are there because you know that you’ve done your best.”

THE RIGHT STUFF

The staggering offensive numbers--which include a career-best 316 total bases (second on the Angels’ all-time list) and career highs in runs (111) and extra-base hits (70)--say a lot, but two other statistics say more about Salmon’s season: He drove in at least one run in 59 games and played in all but two.

Teammates call him “Fish,” but his name in the movie should be “Rock Steady.” While the rest of the team tugged at their collars and struggled at the plate through much of September, Salmon just kept swimming upstream, battling the flow.

Still, he insists he has holes in his swing and doubts that opposing pitchers fear him as they do some of the league’s better hitters.

“Yeah, right,” Anderson says, a grin splitting his face. “You want to know about his offensive skills? Look at the numbers, man. He knows what he’s doing. He has a very good idea of what he wants to do and he goes up there and pretty much does it.”

Salmon eats, sleeps and works baseball. He goes to bed at a certain time, eats certain things at a certain time, shows up at the park at a certain time, has a certain protein shake at a certain time . . . well, you get the picture.

“He just comes out here and takes care of business,” Anderson said. “That’s what I like best about his game. He’s the ultimate professional. I’ve been picking up bits and pieces from everybody around here and I try to absorb as much as I can. You can’t always pinpoint exactly where it all comes from, but when I look at his approach, I know that’s the answer for me.

“You just can’t afford to have a lot of mood swings in this game. You don’t want to be up and down, you try to keep the same feelings every day. It’s tough, especially with what we’ve been through, but he does it and I challenge myself to do it too.”

Even when the Angels were still a few games ahead in the AL West, Salmon laughed out loud at the notion he would be even considered for Most Valuable Player. He thought the idea was so ludicrous he wouldn’t even say it would be an honor.

“He’s no rah-rah type and he’s certainly not a spokesman for himself,” Anderson said. “He just lets his numbers speak for him. I’ve known Tim since ’90 and nothing has changed him that I can see, his success, or anything for that matter. All he’s concerned about is winning.

“There’s just nothing extra about him, he’s just a straight-up person who you know when you meet him. I really like the way he seems to keep everything in perspective. That’s something we all should try to do.”

Angel fans may have had a little trouble on the perspective front last month, but there’s hope on the second of October. And even if the Angels come up short today in Seattle, the Angels in the outfield will back next year. Who knows, maybe the team will be here after the regular season in 1996.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

That Was the Week That Was

The seven-game stretches when Angel outfielders couldn’t be stopped:

Garret Anderson

July 14-20

*--*

AB R H HR RBI BA 34 10 12 4 11 .353

*--*

Jim Edmonds

July 13-19

*--*

AB R H HR RBI BA 32 11 13 4 14 .406