Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. - An Angel with enough miles on his wings to know better, Tim Salmon still could not help himself. A looming World Series title will do that to a man. In the ninth inning of Game 7 of this all-California World Series, with the Anaheim Angels first, precious championship resting last night in the hands of flame-throwing closer Troy Percival, Salmon found himself doing the unthinkable: The right fielder was counting outs. He was counting down the last strikes needed to close out this puppy.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Free-agent first baseman Wally Joyner proved yesterday that money isn't everything, choosing to end a bitter relationship with the California Angels and accept a much smaller contract from the Kansas City Royals.Joyner signed a one-year deal that will pay him $4.2 million and retained the right to become a free agent next year. He could have re-signed with the Angels for four years and close to $16 million, but instead said farewell in a teary news conference at the Fontainebleau Resort.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- The California Angels became the first team to take the field in baseball's ersatz exhibition season last night, and their 1995 replacement debut was not without a little added pressure.It was tough enough to play test pilot for Major League Baseball's replacement scheme, but to do it against a top-quality major college program was a potential disaster in the making.The Angels took on Arizona State University before a crowd of 2,100 in a benefit game at Tempe Diablo Stadium, no doubt aware that a significant portion of the baseball-loving public was hoping that the alternative Angels would prove that replacement ball was not even up to college caliber.

The Anaheim Angels may be living under a 38-year curse -- the circumstances of the early months of the 1999 season certainly point in that direction -- but there is another way to look at the rash of injuries that kept them from getting out of the gate in the American League West.They are a sleeping giant.The New York Yankees might have to agree. The Angels just swept a three-game series at Yankee Stadium for the first time in 15 years, and did it with a combination of solid pitching and timely hitting.

Pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, released last Friday by the California Angels, will report to their Double A farm club at Midland, Texas, Friday, according to Valenzuela's agent, Tony DeMarco.Valenzuela, 30, was 0-2 with a 12.15 earned run average in two attempts at winning the fifth spot in the starting rotation. He was placed on the disabled list June 13, a day after his second start, when an abnormality was found in his cardiogram.Further tests found "crimping" in an artery leading to his heart, a condition that was not deemed serious.

It's truly a wonderful life these days. Angels are everywhere -- in movies, on TV, in books and sometimes right in our own back yard.Gay Henricksen of Annapolis says she has an angel. Albert Gorsuch of Westminster and Jane Howard of Upperco say they do, too.Since October, a growing number of Baltimore-area residents have been traveling to Hanover, Pa., to share their heavenly stories in a sort of Angels Anonymous format. In a few months, the group has expanded from 30 people to almost 200, outgrowing the shop where the meetings started.

Los Angeles -- Liane Haynes believes in angels.The 35-year-old banquet manager from Burbank doesn't think her faith is flaky, funny or odd. Angels guide her and work miracles in her life, she says, and that's that.In contrast to some enthusiasts, Ms. Haynes' only angel-related item is her good friend Alma Daniels' book, "Ask Your Angels" (Ballantine; $10). But nature abhors a vacuum, and into her cherub-free space glide the angels themselves."I don't see them in visions like some people do, but I believe there are people here on Earth whose bodies the angels step into," she said.

Chicago -- It could have been, really should have been, a mismatch. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had just endured flights longer than their contrived team name. They had flown 5,000 miles in 30 hours, and boy, were their pitching arms supposed to be tired. These red-capped zombies were playing their third consecutive game in a different time zone. After losing in New York on Sunday and winning at home Monday, they had to face the rested and ready White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago last night.

Jane M. Howard of Upperco is calling for angelic consciousness."Let the energy of angels inspire us to be a blessing in someone's life," said Ms. Howard, who is organizing the second national Be An Angel Day to encourage kindness.She is asking people to plan angelic acts Aug. 22. Last year, groups from 22 nations participated in what she hopes will become an annual event."The whole focus is on how we can be ministering spirits to others," Ms. Howard said. "We must be like angels -- God's selfless servants -- and be a blessing in someone's life."

Tonight's TV includes a two-hour "Angels" special, but Charlie is nowhere in sight. (Then again, on "Charlie's Angels," he never was.) The evening's best bet: On a slow night, the season finale of "Roseanne."* "Angels: the Mysterious Messengers." (8-10 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- "For many of us," Patty Duke says at the beginning of this two-hour special from the producers of "Ancient Prophecies," "angels are real." She also points out that "one in 10 popular songs contain the word angel," a claim that is neither particularly credible nor marginally meaningful: Does "Teen Angel" or "Earth Angel" equate to an enhanced spirituality?