His First Running Joke of Year, and Only One Gets It

Walked into the Angels’ clubhouse and Garret Anderson was sitting down, the old man already needing a break.

He was reading a newspaper, obviously making it difficult for him to embrace me and ask how The 7-Eleven Kid was doing.

“This is so exciting,” I told him, “a chance for you and me to spend another year together.” I’ve never seen a grown man shiver like that.

“I just hope you spent some time in the off-season improving your quotes,” I said, “and being nicer.”

“I’m not going to change for anyone,” Anderson said. “I’ve read enough of you to know people change for you, but not me.”

I told him, of course, we’d be speaking daily from now on, and he dropped the newspaper, picked up his glove and moved more quickly than he’s ever done in left field, proving I still have what it takes to motivate our local heroes.

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WALKED INTO the visiting clubhouse before Saturday night’s game and the only guy in the room was Dodger Jeff Kent.

We both had the same reaction. “First time I come to a game early and I run into you,” Kent said while dropping his head on a table.

“First Dodger player I run into this season, and it’s you,” I said.

Kent shook his head -- groggy, I guess from banging it on the table.

“I see where you signed for another year with an option,” I said. “That means you and I will be together for at least two more years.”

Kent dropped his head to the table once again, and if he’s not playing Monday because of a concussion, I’m sorry.

I told Kent by the time we’re done working together, he’ll want me to be his presenter when he enters the Hall of Fame, and I wish you could’ve seen the look on his face. You wouldn’t believe it, because it was a big grin.

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IT TOOK a year, and although it’s taking a lot longer with Anderson and he really doesn’t have all that much time left from what I can see, Kent gets it.

He’s still a grouch, but to show you how far he has come, Kent will appear this morning on the father/daughter gabfest on 570 at 9:40 a.m., and it’s like what he told Brad Penny when he walked by, “Can you believe I’m going to go on this guy’s radio show?”

Then Kent turned to me and said, “That means I don’t have to talk to you today,” and he seemed pretty pleased when I didn’t argue.

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I’VE ALWAYS ignored the Freeway Series because it features so many subs, but fans voting on ESPN.com gave the Angels the 13th-best chance of winning the World Series among all teams, and the Dodgers the 14th-best shot, and so I stopped by Angel Stadium, because all this time I thought the Angels were much better.

A lot of fans, though, are enamored of the Dodgers, probably because they’ve heard of these guys and remember watching them when they were in their prime and still good.

I asked Manager Grady Little how good the Dodgers’ senior citizens might be this year, and he said, “When it comes to the trading deadline and Sept. 1, we’re going to be in position to win.”

We disagreed, of course, showing you it really doesn’t make any difference who is the Dodgers’ manager.

“If you guessed how things were going to go last year,” Little said, “you would have been ... “

“Right,” I said. “I predicted the Dodgers were going to be dogs, and they were. This year I’m picking the Giants. What team in the West concerns you?”

“We have a lot of respect for everyone,” Little said, and laying down the ground rules early, I told him I’m not one for politically correct answers, and so he said, “The San Francisco Giants.”

So we both have our eyes on the Giants, my concern being whether Barry Bonds plays 100 games, while Little said his concern was his team’s training room, and keeping the team’s veterans out of it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers finished third behind the Giants and Padres; I remain skeptical on how much Nomar Garciaparra has left.

The Dodgers still don’t have a left fielder, Kenny Lofton isn’t much younger than Dwyre, it’s only a matter of time until Odalis Perez flips out again, and I have a feeling it’s not necessarily going to be “Game Over” when we see Eric Gagne.

As for the Angels, Tim Salmon is a nice feel-good story, but at age 37 coming off a couple of serious injuries, it’s probably much ado about nothing.

The Angels don’t have anyone besides Vladimir Guerrero to deliver the three-run homer, which was their glaring shortcoming a year ago, although I do like the addition of inning-eater Jeff Weaver and look for better seasons from Orlando Cabrera and Kelvim Escobar.

A lot is riding on the potential of Casey Kotchman, Jeff Mathis and Juan Rivera -- maybe too much -- and the physical wherewithal of Darin Erstad and Anderson.

But I still have the Angels winning the division, winning the pennant and the World Series, and call me Rex Hudler if you like, but even playing in a tougher league, I have the Angels winning at least a dozen more games than the Dodgers.

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LITTLE SAID he doesn’t get annoyed with Garciaparra’s routine of tugging at his batting gloves incessantly but said he doesn’t like to see Little Leaguers doing it. And “if my grandson starts to do it, I’ll knock him upside of the head.”

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CONGRATS TO Ben Howland and UCLA. We did it.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.