Salmon Goes on Disabled List

Tim Salmon has been thinking a lot this past week about September 1992, when he tried to play the last two weeks of the season with a sore left wrist and felt as if he were swinging one-handed.

After sitting out 10 days, the right fielder went three for 34 before being benched by then-manager Buck Rodgers the final few days of the season. It took the entire winter for Salmon’s wrist to feel right again.

Salmon doesn’t want that feeling to return this season, and that’s why he went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, retroactive to May 4.

The Angels recalled outfielder Reggie Williams, who is batting .324 with four homers and 18 RBIs in 17 games for triple-A Edmonton, to replace Salmon. He is expected to join the team today.

“I need to get it healthy,” said Salmon, who sprained the wrist while attempting a sliding catch May 4. “It doesn’t do us any good to come back hurt and be battling it all year. I need to take the time now, get it healthy, and come back and play a full season.”

Salmon was hoping to take batting practice Tuesday afternoon in Yankee Stadium, but didn’t even try to swing. He was sore Monday after taking 25 swings off a tee and off soft toss Sunday.

“Maybe I tried to do too much too soon,” said Salmon. “I’m going in the right direction, but right now, swinging a bat was a step backward.”

Salmon, who will return to Southern California today to be examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum, said he knew he couldn’t play for several days, so he figured it would be best to go on the DL.

“It’s tough, because you know the team needs you,” said Salmon, who is hitting .347 with a team-leading seven home runs and 25 RBIs. “You feel that pressure that the team needs you, but you also need time to heal. I don’t want to be playing the injury game all year.”

*

Second baseman Randy Velarde, who has sat out five games because of a stiff lower back, took early batting practice wearing a back brace Tuesday and regular batting practice without the brace. He said there was no pain, but his back remained too stiff to play Tuesday night. He’s hoping to return tonight or Thursday night.

“It was like I was playing pepper out there,” said Velarde, who also took ground balls and threw. “I couldn’t be offensive with the bat. I was defensive. There’s no pain, but it was like stepping on the brake and the gas pedal at the same time. There was no fluidity.”

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And now for some rare good news on the Angel injury front. It has been almost six weeks since shortstop Gary DiSarcina had a metal rod surgically attached to a broken bone in his left forearm. When asked to describe how he feels now, compared to how he felt six weeks after breaking the bone in February, DiSarcina said:

“It’s like night and day. Everything is better--the pain, the range of motion, the strength. I’m doing things now, like fielding grounders backhand, that I wouldn’t have even thought about doing before. It’s getting better.”

TODAY

ANGELS’ CHUCK FINLEY (1-3, 5.92 ERA)

vs.

YANKEES’ DAVID CONE (4-0, 1.34 ERA)

Yankee Stadium, 4:30 PDT

TV--Fox Sports West. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Yankee right-hander Roger Clemens, sidelined because of a strained left hamstring, was hoping to come off the disabled list and start against the Angels on Thursday night, but it now appears the five-time Cy Young Award winner won’t pitch until Saturday at the earliest. Hideki Irabu is the tentative starter for Thursday night. Few pitchers have fared as well against the Yankees as Finley, the left-hander who has a 15-8 record and 3.67 ERA against New York. Yankee second baseman Chuck Knoblauch returned Tuesday night after missing three games because of a bruised lower left leg.