Salmon Puts Angels in Uncharted Waters

After a century of New York Yankee lineups, three decades of designated hitters, another live-ball era, over-the-top expansion and arbitrary strike-zone shrinkage, the Angels have taken for themselves an offensive identity.

When Tim Salmon homered to left-center field Sunday night against former teammate Chuck Finley, the Angels became the first American League team to have four players hit 30 home runs.

With 32 games to play, Salmon has 30, Garret Anderson and Mo Vaughn have 31 and Troy Glaus has 37, the latest in the second inning, also against Finley, in the Angels’ 10-9 victory at Edison Field.

“To do that is awesome,” Vaughn said. “You’ve got a lot of guys out there slugging, doing what they do. It’s unbelievable to accomplish that. The best thing about it, you’ve got four guys that have squared the ball like we have all season. Now, if we can get [Darin] Erstad hot, we could get five.”

Erstad, who has 21 home runs, laughed and said, “Hey, I’m already in uncharted waters.”

The National League has had six teams accomplish the feat, beginning with Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Dusty Baker and Reggie Smith for the Dodgers in 1977. Since then, the asterisk-laden Colorado Rockies did it three times, the Dodgers again in 1997 (Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Todd Zeile) and Atlanta in 1998.

The Angels reached the record perhaps only a couple of weeks ahead of Toronto, which has Carlos Delgado and Tony Batista with more than 30 and two players, Jose Cruz Jr. and Brad Fullmer, with 26.

“I can’t believe that this is the first team to do it in the American League,” said Kent Mercker, who has played with seven teams in 11 seasons. “This offense doesn’t quit. Usually on a good offense, from a pitcher’s perspective, there’s two guys you have to worry about. This offense has almost nine. There’s not a part of it where you can take a deep breath.”

The Angels’ 30-homer men typically bat third through sixth, from Vaughn to Salmon to Anderson to Glaus.

“After the other three got there,” Salmon said, “I’ve been hearing about it for the last week. I’m glad it happened at home and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

The home run has helped define the Angels, who rank second in the major leagues with 199. They have scored runs to offset a young, patchwork starting rotation, and often enough to put themselves in races for the AL West title and the AL wild card.

“It starts a tradition,” Vaughn said. “That’s what you want to be involved with. You step out on the field and you’re part of something. We’re slugging and slashing and doing some damage to the baseball. You don’t have to rely on one guy. It’s a great day for the Anaheim Angel organization.”

Salmon, whose career high in home runs is 34, said he found similar merit to the new identity.

“I think it’s important,” he said. “It’s nice for the people who put their necks on the line, especially after last season, with people talking about dismantling [the roster] and all. It’s nice to prove we can be potent. It’s important for everybody to do what we’ve done.”