Anderson Is No Hit in Endorsements

TEMPE, Ariz. -- He is well-spoken, photogenic, involved in the community. He was the Angels’ lone All-Star last season, the cleanup hitter for the World Series champions, the man who drove in the game-winning runs in Game 7.

However, in a winter in which Garret Anderson figured to be deluged with endorsement opportunities, the left fielder said he did not receive a single one.

“Unfortunately, nothing like that popped up in the off-season,” Anderson said. “I live in a big market. There’s a lot of other, bigger fish in the pond.”

Anderson finished fourth in voting for the American League most valuable player award, the highest finish for an Angel since Doug DeCinces placed third in 1982. Anderson charged the baseball writers who voted for the award with inconsistency in selecting Oakland’s Miguel Tejada over Texas’ Alex Rodriguez.

Anderson said his statistics (.306, 29 home runs, 123 runs batted in) were comparable to those of Tejada (.308, 34 HR, 131 RBI) and said both sets of statistics paled in comparison to those of Rodriguez (.300, 57 HR, 142 RBI).

If a good season for a good team is the standard, Anderson said, he ought to have finished just behind Tejada. If the best season is the standard -- and it should be, Anderson said -- Rodriguez should have won. The Rangers finished in last place.

“You’ve got to basically pray to be on a first-place team and have a good year,” Anderson said.

*

Pitcher Ramon Ortiz, who arrived in camp six days late because of delays obtaining his visa in the Dominican Republic, worked out for the first time Thursday. Friends and fans mobbed him at the airport when he returned home after the World Series, he said, and the Dominican president invited him to the nation’s capital to extend congratulations in person.

The winter was a bittersweet one, however, because the health of his father, Alfonso Urena, continued to decline. His father has a chronic lung illness, and Ortiz said he struggles to talk and can no longer walk without assistance.

“I didn’t go to my [family] house too many times,” Ortiz said. “I didn’t want to see my father like that. It’s very difficult for me.”

Ortiz’s contract, which will pay him $2.1 million this season, allows him to pay for his father’s medication, oxygen and visits to doctors. Ortiz said that care costs him 1 million Dominican pesos -- about $45,000 -- a year.

“Thanks be to God,” he said. “If I don’t have money, my father dies.”

*

To an office or factory worker, Brad Fullmer never would gripe about his salary. But look around the Angel clubhouse: Troy Glaus and Jarrod Washburn got raises of $3 million each, Ortiz, Kevin Appier, Adam Kennedy, Troy Percival and Scott Spiezio raises of $2 million each and Bengie Molina and Scott Schoeneweis raises of $1 million each.

Fullmer, trapped in an economic vise, had no other offers when he accepted a 73% pay cut -- from $3.75 million to $1 million -- to return to the Angels. The designated hitter can become a free agent again next fall and can only hope the market rebounds.

“As far as the game goes, it’s not a lot,” he said. “It’s less than what I deserve. It’s less than what I should make. But it’s how it is. I’m not going to not work hard and play hard because of it.”

*

With the full squad assembled for the first time Thursday, Manager Mike Scioscia did not play the World Series highlight video or display the championship trophy for his team, stressing that spring dawns with every team tied for first place. Athletic trainer Ned Bergert followed his annual orientation by distributing to players a fact sheet about ephedrine, the legal but controversial stimulant included in a product allegedly taken by Baltimore pitcher Steve Bechler before his death Monday.... The Angels signed first baseman-outfielder Robb Quinlan and pitchers Mickey Callaway, Rich Fischer, Bobby Jenks and Francisco Rodriguez to one-year contracts, all at or slightly above the minimum $300,000.