VISIT TO WHITE HOUSE LEAVES ANGELS AMAZED.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - For one day, they were the ones in awe.

The Angels visited the White House on Tuesday, a reward for their World Series championship last autumn, and the trip was proof nothing can humble a bunch of well-paid, seen-it-all athletes like the Oval Office.

They brought baseballs for President Bush to sign. They grinned sheepishly when he gently mocked some of them in a 10-minute Rose Garden ceremony. Then, for about 15 minutes, they sat with the president in the Oval Office, just a bunch of ballplayers and a former baseball owner talking ball.

It was, several Angels said, a surprisingly casual exchange. Yet, even though Bush is regarded as a down-to-earth fellow, that still couldn't mask the sensation of where they were and the company they were keeping.

That sensation enveloped Tim Salmon as he peered over Bush's shoulder while the president addressed a crowd of family, team officials and politicos in the Rose Garden.

``Standing behind him, the phrase that came to mind was `the weight of the world on your shoulders,' '' Salmon said. ``This man has the weight of the world on his shoulders. It made me think of the significance of what he's been through this term.''

It was easy, several Angels said, to forget where they were and who they were with. And then, all of a sudden, it would hit them.

``We're sitting in probably the most powerful place in the world, talking to the most powerful man in the world,'' relief pitcher Ben Weber said. ``It gives you chills. So yeah, it was cool.''

Bush, who owned the Texas Rangers from 1989 until his election as governor of Texas in 1994, sprinkled his 10-minute address with the verbal backslaps and attaboys typically heard when champions visit the White House, and he urged the Angels to uphold the responsibilities of being champions by ``making the right choices in life.''

Bush called general manager Bill Stoneman ``a good, steady fellow,'' and manager Mike Scioscia ``a good, steady guy.'' He congratulated new owner Arte Moreno, sitting in the front row, on his recent purchase of the team and paid tribute to original owner Jackie Autry.

He made light of shortstop David Eckstein's notoriously thrifty ways by noting Eckstein purchased a new suit for the occasion (for the record, Eckstein said he purchased several new suits in the offseason, but Tuesday was in fact the first time he wore that particular suit).

All the while, the Angels standing behind Bush peered down at his crib sheet. As first baseman Shawn Wooten noted, while most of his address was painstakingly scripted, he did ad-lib a good deal of material.

In one such moment, he singled out pitchers Weber and John Lackey for their Texas roots.

``You've got a boy from west Texas on your team,'' Bush said of Lackey, an Abilene native who won Game 7 of the World Series. ``No wonder you're world champs.''

Lackey nearly fell off the podium.

``That catches you off-guard, because you're already in awe of the place,'' Lackey said. ``It's just kind of a Texas-pride thing. Everybody from there is proud of it. He was just giving the love back to the state, rather than me.''

Weber kicked himself for momentarily forgetting Bush would have an intimate knowledge of the state's geography. He told Bush he was from better-known Beaumont instead of smaller Port Arthur. He heard about it almost immediately after the ceremony.

``People in Port Arthur were (upset) I dropped a Beaumont,'' Weber said. ``I could have dropped a Port Arthur on him. But I thought, `I better give him Beaumont.' But he was governor of our state.''

The morning that started with a police escort through rush-hour traffic on the Beltway ended when Salmon, Scioscia, Troy Percival and Scott Spiezio visited press secretary Ari Fleischer and presented him with a framed newspaper clipping of the Angels' elimination of the New York Yankees. Fleischer, who is resigning, is a notorious Yankees fan.