Vaughn Has a Different Look

Something was missing from Mo Vaughn’s face Monday. It was that scowl that seemed permanently attached to the Angel first baseman last summer, the one that matched the mood in an Angel clubhouse filled with tension and turmoil.

“I’m just excited to play injury-free and with a smile on my face,” Vaughn said before the Angels’ season opener against the Yankees. “I wake up every morning knowing I’m physically able to play off my instincts rather than worrying about things.”

Vaughn’s biggest concern for much of 1999 was the left ankle he severely sprained on opening night when he tumbled into the first-base dugout pursuing a pop-up.

He would have been better off resting for a month, but Vaughn came back after 15 days and hobbled his way through a season that was subpar (.281, 33 home runs, 108 runs batted in) by his standards.

The physical scars from 1999 were nothing compared with the emotional ones. During an 11-game losing streak that knocked the team out of the division race in July, the Angels began criticizing each other in a public display of dissension that eventually cost Manager Terry Collins and General Manager Bill Bavasi their jobs.

Vaughn declared those wounds, as well his ankle, healed Monday.

“You’re going to see a different mentality this year, a different way of approaching the game, and it’s all because of the manager,” Vaughn said of Mike Scioscia, who made his managerial debut Monday night.

“It’s all about his personality and the way he gets us prepared for anything that’s going to come up. Our mentality is to wreak havoc as a unit, to stay together. We have fun, but between the lines, your mind better be on what it’s supposed to be on, or he’s going to have a problem with you. That’s good. That’s refreshing.”

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One luxury of having four front-line outfielders in 1999 was the Angels could move Darin Erstad to first base as a late-inning defensive replacement in close games in which they led.

But with the trade of Jim Edmonds to St. Louis and the Angel outfield set with Erstad in left, Garret Anderson in center and Tim Salmon in right, Scioscia said Vaughn will remain at first in such situations.

With Scott Spiezio available to spell Vaughn, it’s also doubtful Erstad will get occasional starts in the infield, which is fine with him.

“It will be less stress on my body to play one position,” said Erstad, who split 1999 between first and left. “When you play a whole game at first, you do so much squatting, you have to get down on every pitch, and you’re sore for a couple days afterward.”

What’s bad for the lower back can’t be good for the hamstrings. Could Erstad’s hamstring problems the last three years have been related to his infield/outfield shuttle?

“That’s one theory, it could be,” Erstad said. “Who knows? I guess we’ll find out this year.”

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

KENT BOTTENFIELD

(18-7, 3.97 ERA)

vs.

YANKEES’

ROGER CLEMENS

(14-10, 4.60 ERA)

Edison Field, 7

TV--Fox Sports Net. Radio--KCTD (1540),

KIK-FM (94.3), XPRS (1090).

* Update--Bottenfield will make his Angel debut after the March 23 trade that brought the right-hander and second baseman Adam Kennedy from St. Louis for Edmonds. Clemens has a career 25-8 record and 2.49 earned-run average against the Angels, but the Angels roughed up the five-time Cy Young Award winner for five runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings of a 5-3 Angel victory last Sept. 6.

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.