ANGELS INSIDE LOOK: LOSS TO SEATTLE IN '95 STILL STINGS.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - The Angels played their home opener against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium, but it wasn't the first time the two teams met during the day. Earlier in the afternoon, the Angels and Mariners played on ESPN Classic, circa 1995.

There aren't many current Angels remaining from that one-game playoff shown on the cable network, and that's probably a good thing considering they lost 9-1 to Randy Johnson and the Mariners.

The loss ended a season for the Angels during which they led the American League West most of the way, lost the lead in September but rallied to tie the Mariners atop the division in the final week.

That set up one one-game playoff and the matchup between Johnson and Angels pitcher Mark Langston. The game was tight until the seventh inning, when the Mariners scored four runs to build a 5-0 lead. They added four more runs in the eighth before the Angels' Tony Phillips ended Johnson's shutout bid with a solo homer in the ninth.

The Angels players that were there that day include Tim Salmon, Troy Percival and Garret Anderson, all who prefer to forget that October day in Seattle, particularly Salmon, who struck out four times, including the final out of the game.

``He was filthy that day,'' Salmon said of Johnson. ``But I had a great year that year (.330, 34 homers, 105 RBI). Going into that game, the way we came back that last week, we knew we were going to win that game. I didn't care who was pitching.

``The way things were unfolding, I was thinking, there's no way this is happening. It just seemed unfair. We had this fairy tale set up, then it didn't happen.''

There are those who believe that victory saved the Mariners franchise. The team had been a perennial loser and might have been moved to Tampa Bay and become the franchise that is now the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Mariners even beat the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs in 1995 and began getting the support from the community they needed to have their current ballpark, Safeco Field, built.

For the Angels, though, the loss just added to a long list of failures. But this one seemed to sting more than others.

``After that game I broke down,'' Salmon said. ``I felt I let the team down. At the time I was the hottest hitter on the team. To end the season like that ...''

Percival did not pitch in the game but hasn't forgotten that day.

``It was the loudest place I've ever played,'' he said of the Kinddome. ``Every strike (Johnson) threw, the crowd would just explode. ... But I don't think I realized the magnitude of it at the time. It was my first full year and I was thinking we'd be in the playoffs every year. It wasn't until my eighth year that I got there.''

Because the Angels eventually did get to the playoffs and won the World Series in 2002, looking back at '95 is easier to do for those who were there.

``If we never won the World Series, that game would have been a dark cloud on my career,'' Salmon said. ``That's what made the World Series so great. It was that year, particularly that game.''

That year, Anderson finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year balloting, but he came out of that game in the eighth inning when then-manager Marcel Lachemann sent up pinch hitter Dave Gallagher to bat for him.

On Tuesday, Anderson agreed to a four-year, $48 million contract extension, showing just how much things have changed since then for him and the organization.

``(It's changed by) leaps and bounds,'' Percival said. ``We had to take a couple steps back to take leaps forward. We went with the farm system from the standpoint of rebuilding and getting to a point where we could sign some of these free agents. And yet we didn't have to break up the core of the team.''

The only member of the coaching staff still with the club is bench coach Joe Maddon, who was coaching first base that fateful day.

``To me, the biggest difference with the organization between then and now is the stability in the manager's chair,'' Maddon said, referring to manager Mike Scioscia, who is in his fifth year with the club. ``We had wonderful people as owners and general managers, and some great managers, but we didn't have somebody sitting in that chair for that long.''

Joe Haakenson, [phone]

joe.haakenson(at)sgvn.com

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TIM SALMON

One of only a few current Angels that remain from 1995 playoff team.