Torii Hunter prefers to lead by example

He is the undisputed team leader of the Angels now that veteran pitcher John Lackey is gone, the player who commands the most respect on the field and in the clubhouse, but center fielder Torii Hunter feels a little uncomfortable attaching that label to his chest.

“I don’t want to say I’m the leader,” Hunter said upon arriving Monday at Tempe Diablo Stadium. “Maybe I’m a Shaolin monk.”

Once the laughter among reporters interviewing Hunter subsided -- it took a while -- the 11-year veteran and nine-time Gold Glove Award winner was asked where he had heard such a term.

“I’d watch it on all those karate movies when I was a kid,” said Hunter, who underwent a physical Monday and will join the Angels for their first full-squad workout Tuesday.

“They’re the old monks with the long eyebrows and the long mustaches, the ones you train, and then they come back and try to kill you later on, like these young guys [in baseball]. You train them, and they try to get you out of the game after a while.”

In his third year with the Angels after signing a five-year, $90-million contract before 2008, Hunter won’t change his style.

“You lead by example,” he said. “I don’t go around saying, ‘I’m the leader of the club, you have to do this,’ but if these guys come to me and ask for counsel, yeah, I can give it to them.

“I’ve been there, done that. I’ve had the highs and lows. I can help position players, pitchers. But I can’t go around saying, ‘I’m the leader of the clubhouse, take your shoes off!’ That’s not my style.”

When it comes to being a leader, Hunter tries to follow the examples of Hall of Fame members Kirby Puckett and Paul Molitor, who mentored Hunter when he came up with the Minnesota Twins.

“They were so cool, so down-to-earth, they just pulled you aside and said, ‘You might not want to do this or that,’ ” Hunter said.

“You knew who the leaders were in the clubhouse. If you needed some information or help, you went to the wise men.”

Hitting the wall

Hunter said he still has nightmares about crashing into walls in Dodger Stadium in late May and in San Francisco in mid-June, violent collisions that caused a sports hernia injury that sidelined him for five weeks last summer and required surgery in November.

Now 34, Hunter, who is known for his aggressive and acrobatic defense, said he will be more selective about when and where he runs into walls.

“If I can make the play, I’ll do what I have to do to get to the ball, but I will try to be more careful,” said Hunter, who hit .299 with 22 home runs and 90 runs batted in last season and is fully healed from surgery.

“Some walls you don’t want to run into; some you don’t mind running into. I will be more conscious of running into walls because I want to be there for my teammates.”

Soggy spring

A third consecutive day of rain affected the team’s workouts Monday, forcing pitchers into the covered batting cages for bullpen sessions and wiping out fielding practice for pitchers and catchers.

“There’s no good day for three straight days of rain,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

The Angels will hold their first full-squad workout Tuesday, but first baseman Kendry Morales, who is completing his required work papers for employment in the U.S., and outfielder Bobby Abreu, who is tending to a personal matter, might not arrive until Wednesday.

Fanfest tickets

Tickets for the popular All-Star game prelude known as FanFest go on sale Tuesday. With Angel Stadium as the host site for the July 13 game, the five-day FanFest will be at the nearby Anaheim Convention Center July 9-13.

FanFest is an indoor baseball theme park featuring more than 40 attractions, including interactive exhibits, clinics and free autograph sessions that this year will include Angels legends along with members of the baseball Hall of Fame.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to mlb.com, angelsbaseball .com or call 1-888-FanFest. Tickets also will be available for purchase at Angel Stadium.

mike.digiovanna @latimes.com