TV Blackout Puts Salmon in the Dark

As if these times haven’t been trying enough for Tim Salmon, with one season-ending knee surgery down and one shoulder surgery to go, the baseball gods bestowed upon the Angel outfielder an especially frustrating fate Saturday.

On crutches and stuck in his Phoenix-area home, Salmon could not watch the Angels’ pennant-clinching, 5-4 victory over the A’s on television because the game was blacked out in his market, Fox showing the Dodger-Giant game instead.

Salmon followed a pitch-by-pitch account of the game on the Internet and got updates when Fox cut away from the Dodger-Giant game, but he was unable to witness live Vladimir Guerrero’s two-run home run that tied the score in the sixth, Darin Erstad’s two-run double that tied it in the eighth, and Garret Anderson’s run-scoring single that won it in the eighth.

And Salmon had to wait for ESPN’s “SportsCenter” highlights to see the bouncing group around closer Troy Percival after the final out, and the scene in the Angel clubhouse afterward.

“That was some serious torture,” Salmon said by phone Sunday. “When we won it, I knew what was going on in the clubhouse, and I wanted to be there so badly. Then the guys started calling me, [Manager Mike] Scioscia called, and I could feed off their energy and excitement over the phone.”

Several players called Salmon individually, and with many players and coaches celebrating in the team hotel bar Saturday night, a cellular phone with Salmon on the line was passed around the room, so the Angels could speak to the 12-year veteran who was a key member of the 2002 World Series-champion team.

“They were pretty pumped, and it made me feel good,” Salmon said. “The last month, being here, I’ve felt so disconnected. To hear those guys really pumped me up. They let me know how much I was missed, and that really picked up my spirits, because there’s nothing worse than sitting home when your team is celebrating in the clubhouse.”

Salmon vowed Sunday that he would not let that happen again this month -- he plans to travel with the Angels throughout the postseason, crutches and all.

“I’m going to go against my doctor’s orders -- he said he didn’t want me traveling,” Salmon said.

If surgery for four tears on his left shoulder goes as well as the procedure on his left knee, Salmon, who is signed for $9.75 million next season, could be part of such celebrations in 2005.

Salmon thought that he would have to undergo a complicated cartilage-replacement surgery on his knee, but during the early September procedure, doctors determined that was not necessary.

Doctors did discover more damage underneath the kneecap that did not show up on the MRI test, “but they cleaned it out, and they said I should get a lot of relief,” Salmon said. “It’s a four-month rehabilitation, and instead of being on crutches for eight weeks, I’m on for four weeks. I should be able to start walking this month.”

That will enable Salmon to undergo shoulder surgery at the end of October, a full month or more ahead of schedule. With a possible 10-month recovery for the shoulder, Salmon, expected to miss most or all of the 2005 season, could return by August.

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Scioscia didn’t announce his playoff rotation Sunday, but the Angels are expected to go with Jarrod Washburn in Game 1, Bartolo Colon in Game 2, Kelvim Escobar in Game 3 and John Lackey, who is 0-4 with a 6.89 earned-run average in six career starts against the Red Sox, in Game 4, if necessary.

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Television dictates the starting times for playoff games, and the Angels and Red Sox got an odd draw. They’ll play a 1 p.m. game Tuesday and a 7 p.m. game Wednesday in Anaheim, meaning that the teams will travel overnight to Boston Thursday for the off day before Game 3 on Friday in Fenway Park.

“If they set the games at midnight, we’ll show up and play,” Scioscia said. “We’re not going to get caught up in that.”

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Second baseman Adam Kennedy will undergo a second MRI test on his injured right knee this week, but it appears likely that he will need surgery for a torn ligament.