Salmon Bears It to Bitter End

The happy days have come and gone. They might come again next year. They might not.

For now, the Angels cross days off the calendar, the merciful end of this enormously disappointing season 19 days away. Tim Salmon, the elder statesman, pulled out his World Series video not long ago. He was smiling then. In this bummer of a summer, smiles do not come easily. Maybe a replay could help.

“Right now, it’s a grind,” Salmon said. “We’re playing some teams in it, and you can see the excitement. We have to manufacture the excitement now. Then, it was natural. I was trying to do something to spark it in myself.”

The Angels beat Cy Young Award candidate Tim Hudson and the Oakland Athletics on Monday, 3-1, guaranteeing that they would not be mathematically eliminated by the A’s during this series.

After Hudson pitched six shutout innings, Shawn Wooten homered in the seventh and the Angels scored twice in the eighth, the go-ahead run on a single by Garret Anderson and the final run on a bases-loaded walk to Wilson Delgado. Francisco Rodriguez earned his seventh victory, matching the total of erratic starter Aaron Sele.

With 18 games left, the A’s lead the American League West by 1 1/2 games over the Seattle Mariners -- and 14 over the Angels.

For a sign of how far they had fallen, the Angels didn’t have to look beyond the sports section in Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle. On the back cover, the A’s -- the Angels’ division rivals -- took out a full-page ad announcing Monday’s sale of playoff tickets. Inside, the San Francisco Giants -- the Angels’ World Series’ rivals -- took out an ad explaining their procedure for buying playoff tickets.

The Angels have World Series videos to replay, rings to wear, and October all to themselves. The front office will start planning today for a busy winter. General Manager Bill Stoneman and his chief lieutenant, Gary Sutherland, are in Oakland. So are Assistant General Manager Ken Forsch and triple-A Salt Lake Manager Mike Brumley.

The group will meet with Angel Manager Mike Scioscia and his coaches today and Wednesday, assessing the Angels’ weaknesses and whether they can be repaired from within. By coincidence or otherwise, the group got a look at Oakland shortstop Miguel Tejada, a probable free-agent target.

The Angels wonder what level of production to expect from Salmon next year. His statistics -- a .262 batting average, 16 home runs and 62 runs batted in -- are comparable to those produced by first baseman Scott Spiezio and catcher Bengie Molina.

Molina is signed for next season, at $1.9 million. Spiezio plans to test free agency and might expect a similar salary, in Anaheim or elsewhere.

But Salmon is signed through 2005, at $9.5 million next year and $9.75 million in 2005, and for that the Angels expect something more along the lines of his typical season -- an average between .280 and .300, 25 to 30 homers, 90 to 100 RBIs.

Salmon turned 35 last month. He is not ready to concede those numbers are no longer within his reach, not with the lineup ravaged by injury.

“I would say this is just a bad year,” said Salmon, who has avoided the disabled list but who sat out three consecutive games because of back stiffness. “It’s not a fair year to make that assessment, because of everything that’s been happening. Things like continuity in the lineup play into it.

“I always believe, when the team is successful, everybody will be successful. The team hasn’t been successful, so everybody’s going to drop.”

And then he paused, shaking his head.

“That doesn’t hold true for Garret. Up and in, he hits it out. Down and away, he hits it out,” Salmon said. “Not all of us can do that.”