Angels Embrace Decisions

When the Angels resume play against the Seattle Mariners in Safeco Field on Tuesday night, they will hear the same song they’ve heard before hundreds of previous games, the song they probably tune out most nights, but one that will have much more significance from now on.

“We hear the national anthem so many times, it becomes one of those things you take for granted,” first baseman Scott Spiezio said. “I usually try to take some time during the anthem to think as much as possible of the people who have given their lives in wars. In the future, every time I hear the anthem, it will definitely mean more, and I’ll stand proud.”

The Angels won’t stand on the top step of a dugout to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” until next week because Commissioner Bud Selig, in the wake of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, postponed all games through the weekend. Six Angel games in Edison Field--two against Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday and four against Oakland Thursday through Sunday--will be made up in the first week of October, extending the regular season by a week and delaying the start of the playoffs.

“It was a wise thing to do,” Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “[Today] is a national day of prayer and remembrance, and it’s probably going to continue beyond [today].”

But baseball, the Angels believe, will also be part of the healing process.

“Baseball definitely belongs in the background now,” second baseman David Eckstein said. “But it is the national pastime, and it’ll be important to show that they might have struck a blow against us, but we’re going to go on with our lives. But we’ll never forget what happened.”

The postponements will have virtually no impact on the Angels’ season. They are 31 games behind Seattle and eliminated from the American League West race, and they are 14 games behind Oakland in the wild-card race with 18 games remaining.

Seattle, with a magic number of two, was expected to clinch the division title in Anaheim this week. Now, the Mariners probably will do it against the Angels at home next week, not that there will be much of a celebration.

With any luck, the A’s will have wrapped up a playoff berth before starting a three-game series against the Angels Sept. 25. The Angels are essentially playing out the string, but that does not mean the final three weeks of their season will be without meaning. They’re part of a bigger picture now.

“This is a necessary thing now; we have to allow the country to make sense of everything,” right fielder Tim Salmon said of the postponements. “But bringing baseball back will also be important. It’s part of the fabric of our society, and it will play an important part in bringing normalcy back. Baseball will help bring the nation together.”

Salmon said he was “shocked, disturbed and stunned”’ by the attacks.

“I had to tell my kids as they went to bed Tuesday night that a lot of kids were going to bed without their moms and dads,” he said.

But the games--and the national anthem that will become such a bigger part of them--will eventually go on.

“We hear the national anthem every day of our lives as baseball players,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You’ll see guys take more note of it now. The reminders will reflect on their faces as they stand for the anthem.”