Angels Are Ready to Lift a Great Wait

For so many summers, the ritual was painfully familiar. Garret Anderson played left field for the Angels. Tim Salmon played right field. September would end, and so would the Angels’ season. The two men would shake hands, wish each other well and hope the next season would be a better one.

Wait till next year? This is the Angels’ year, and today could be the day.

No current major league player has waited longer than Salmon to play in October. And, other than Salmon, no current player has spent his career with one team and waited longer than Anderson to play in October.

The old pros took matters into their own hands Friday. Salmon got the Angels on the scoreboard with a home run in the first inning, Anderson put them ahead to stay with a home run in the third, and the Angels sliced their magic number to one with an 8-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

Years of frustration and weeks of anticipation have come down to this: Win, and they’re in. With a victory today, the Angels clinch their first playoff berth in 16 years.

“It’s kind of like waiting for Christmas,” Salmon said.

The New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves include the playoffs on their calendar every year, just like Christmas.

“I’ve looked at guys like Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter. Every year, it’s the same,” Salmon said. “You start to wonder if it’s still special to them or if they start taking it for granted.

“It’s going to be special for me. It’s everything I’ve ever played for and worked for.”

Rookie John Lackey, too young to fully appreciate the journey, starts for the Angels today. When John Candelaria started the Angels’ last playoff game, in 1986, Lackey was 7.

Salmon replaced Von Hayes as the Angels’ right fielder in 1992. Anderson got his first major league hit, off Ron Darling, in 1994.

“It’s always nice to win with the organization you came up with,” Anderson said. “We’ve endured a lot of stuff.”

And so, even with the Angels one game behind the Oakland Athletics in the American League West, Manager Mike Scioscia said he would grant his players a temporary respite from the focus on the division title upon clinching a playoff spot.

“It’s important to celebrate achievement,” he said. “There’s so much effort and energy that goes into it.”

On Friday, the Angels celebrated the brilliance of Ramon Ortiz, who held the Mariners to one run over seven innings to win his fifth consecutive start. Ortiz (15-9) joins Jarrod Washburn in giving the Angels two 15-game winners for the first time since Chuck Finley and Mark Langston won 16 apiece in 1993.

But Anderson and Salmon were the ones in the spotlight, and deservedly so. Walk around the clubhouse, and plenty of guys can tell you about the Mariners clinching in the Angels’ faces here last year. Anderson and Salmon can tell you about the Mariners clinching in the Angels’ faces here in 1995, in the Kingdome, after the Angels had coughed up an 11-game lead and then lost a one-game playoff to Randy Johnson.

Salmon will be happy to hand this tag to David Segui of the Orioles: Most career games without a playoff appearance. Anderson ranks fourth on that list, behind Salmon, Segui and Jeff Cirillo of the Mariners, one game ahead of Todd Hundley of the Cubs.

But Segui also has played for Montreal, Seattle, Toronto, Texas and Cleveland. Cirillo stopped in Milwaukee and Colorado before landing in Seattle. Dodger fans can count Hundley as one of their own, but so can Met fans and Cub fans.

Salmon never left, signing a four-year contract extension in 1997 and another last year. Anderson never left, signing a four-year contract extension in 2000.

For all the days they wondered whether they would eventually have to choose between playing in October or playing for the Angels, today could be the day that rewards them. Turns out it was not one or the other.