Anderson Feels Whole New Pain

Injuries to his lower back and left knee have hampered Garret Anderson for much of the second half of the season, but Tuesday the Angel left fielder was dealing with a different ailment, a figurative pain in the neck caused by reporters questioning him about his back, a subject Anderson clearly had no interest in discussing in detail.

Asked before Tuesday night’s game how he felt at the plate, the normally self-assured Anderson said, “I guess how it looks. I’m not getting hits. I’m not doing the job. That’s what it boils down to. It doesn’t matter how I feel. It doesn’t matter what I say. It all sounds like an excuse. I’m not getting it done.”

Anderson sat out three games last week because of a stiff lower back and has been relegated to designated hitter for the last four games. He has one hit, an opposite-field double against Tampa Bay on Saturday, in 22 at-bats, including an 0-for-4 performance Tuesday, He is batting .279.

The 11-year veteran, who sat out 1 1/2 months in 2004 because of an arthritic condition in his upper back and is in the first year of a four-year, $48-million contract, has never hit lower than .285 in the major leagues.

But of bigger concern has been Anderson’s declining power; after averaging 30 home runs and 120 runs batted in for four seasons from 2000 to 2003, Anderson had 14 homers and 75 RBIs last season and began Tuesday with 15 homers and 90 RBIs, including four homers and 24 RBIs since the All-Star break.

Anderson’s struggles have not hampered the Angels’ division hopes. “As long as we win, that’s all that matters,” Anderson said.

But if the Angels are to do any damage in the playoffs, they’ll need production out of Anderson, who is batting third, in front of Vladimir Guerrero. Anderson will have five more games or so to find his stroke.

“He’s a good hitter, but right now he’s having some timing issues, and he hasn’t been 100%,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You can’t just turn it on and off. He has to find his rhythm to be productive. We need Garret.”

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All the griping by the Angels and Oakland Athletics about home-plate umpire Mike Everitt’s liberal strike zone Monday night stirred memories for several Angel veterans of one of the wackier games in recent Angel history.

Everitt was behind the plate in Tiger Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, for a 15-inning game between the Angels and Tigers that featured 33 strikeouts, 16 of them on called third strikes, many of them disputed.

Tempers ran so high that the chapel leaders for both teams, Angel outfielder Tim Salmon and Tiger third baseman Travis Fryman were ejected for arguing third strikes.

The last pitch of the game to left-handed-hitting Tony Clark, like so many of Everitt’s calls, appeared so far outside that former Detroit infielder Phil Nevin, in the on-deck circle near the third base dugout, said it was “closer to me than it was to Tony.... I almost swung at it.”

Everitt was a triple-A umpire at the time, filling in for a big league umpire on vacation. He became a full-time big league umpire in 1999 and remains the only umpire to eject the ultra-composed Salmon in the Angel veteran’s 13-year career.

“Every time [Everitt] is on a field I’m reminded of that,” said Salmon, who is sitting out this season while recovering from shoulder and knee surgeries but is traveling with the Angels.

“He was a young umpire then and has gotten a lot better; he’s doing the job. It’s funny, because it was one of those things I’ll never forget.”