Salmon Has Bronx Tales to Tell

NEW YORK —  Tim Salmon wasn’t looking too forward to Monday night’s game.

“Honestly, I was mapping out this start 10 days ago at home,” Salmon said. “I was trying to figure out if the Big Unit was throwing.”

The Big Unit, of course, is Yankees left-hander Randy Johnson, a pitcher few players, Salmon included, look forward to facing. Salmon entered Monday with a .167 career average (nine for 54) and 22 strikeouts against Johnson.

But Salmon, 37, now starts only against left-handers, and if Johnson was pitching, he knew he’d play one last game, barring a return for the playoffs, in Yankee Stadium before he retires after this season.

Sure enough, Johnson started Monday and Salmon started at designated hitter in what will probably be his last appearance on baseball’s most hallowed grounds, where his major league career began on Aug. 20, 1992.

“Every player remembers the day he was called up -- that’s the magic of the big leagues,” Salmon said. “It was really cool to do it here. When you think of all the places to experience your first game, no place else has more history, more tradition.”

Salmon got his first hit here on Aug. 22, 1992.

“Single up the middle off Melido Perez,” Salmon recalled.

The next night, Salmon hit his first of 297 career home runs.

“Off Scott Sanderson, hooked it around the foul pole,” Salmon said. “Two-strike pitch ... he tried to sink it in on me.”

Salmon’s Yankee Stadium farewell wasn’t memorable -- he went hitless in three at-bats before being pulled for a pinch-hitter in the eighth. He had more fun before the game, when he toured Monument Park for the first time since 1992.

“You’re focused so much on playing all those years, you don’t take time to take those things in,” Salmon said. “Today was a time for reflection.”

Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, Salmon said, “are the parks I’ll remember most,” but soon Yankee Stadium will be a memory -- ground-breaking for a new stadium, much to Salmon’s dismay, is Wednesday.

“Oh my gosh, how do you do that? How do you build a new stadium here?” Salmon said. “It’s like moving a burial ground. How do you take all the memories from here and move them over there? This is a monument. It’s tradition.

“You’re walking up to the same plate Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig walked up to. You’re looking at the same background, and you have the same perspective as the legends of the game did.”

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Left fielder Garret Anderson (lower-back tightness) sat out his third straight game, and third baseman Maicer Izturis (tight right hamstring) missed his second straight game Monday, but they are expected to return tonight.... Darin Erstad (inflamed right ankle joint) took another step toward returning Monday, running from first to third several times aggressively.... Two of the Angels’ top prospects, double-A shortstop Brandon Wood and Class-A pitcher Nick Adenhart, were among the 24 players named Monday to the U.S. Olympic qualifying team that will compete in Cuba from Aug. 25 to Sept. 5.... The Angels’ Sept. 3 game at Detroit has been moved from 10 a.m. PDT to 5 p.m. to accommodate ESPN.