Published in the Daily Breeze
April 13, 2008

Torii Hunter didn't need to be prodded out of the dugout for the curtain call, but he also didn't stand there like he had just won the World Series.

When he took his first bow as an Angel on Monday night, capping a two-homer game in which he gave the Angels a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth and then hit a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, he showed something about his sense for timing. He has so far succeeded in finding the delicate balance of playing for the spotlight yet not standing in it for so long that no one else can get time in it.

The Angels had 14 home runs through the first 10 games, four of them coming from Hunter. His dramatic grand slam was reminiscent of a Reggie Jackson moment, but with one glaring difference. After the game, Hunter didn't talk about himself in an arrogant manner. That is not his style, but what he has already done has made an impact of that nature.

It's easy to see why he's a good fit for this team.

Hunter doesn't even have to hit 30 home runs in 2008 to make this kind of mark, but at this rate, he might do it anyhow.

“That's me as a human being,” Hunter said, who hit the team's first game-winning grand slam since David Eckstein beat Toronto on April 27, 2002.

"I've been in the big leagues too long to put any pressure on myself. I want the team to trust me. I want the fans to know me. I'm going to do what I do. Whatever I did in the past, that's what I'm going to be. Ain't gonna be nothing more or nothing less.”

That statement helps illustrate how it can already be seen why Hunter fits.

The Angels have won divisions by violating the American League's two-bat minimum law, most dramatically illustrated by Boston's David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.

But the Angels have lost in the playoffs in recent years because power is required against power arms and elite teams fashion playoff bullpens to resemble firing squads. Hunter alleviates the need for the Angels to be entirely dependent upon picking and clawing for runs in ways not limited to his power ability.

His bat automatically makes Garret Anderson and Gary Matthews more effective, placing them in better hitting positions and removing the demands of protection, allowing them to effortlessly slide into the support roles they are better suited to. It allows Casey Kotchman and Mike Napoli to supply whatever power may come without asking them to be more than they are.

Hunter also means no more in-house solutions, from the now valueless Juan Rivera to the incomplete hitter and player Kendry Morales is, a $3 million bonus player with a triple-A job and an aluminum bat swing.

Hunter's outfield range helps hide the fact that Vladimir Guerrero has been losing a step a season since about 2005. Guerrero's arm strength still plays but his release and accuracy have diminished.

Hunter removes the need for Anderson to cover the gap, which means all Anderson and Guerrero have to do is what they can still do just fine, namely cover the lines and the turf behind them and hit.

Then there are the subtle benefits. Hunter spent time catching up with Cleveland left-hander C.C. Sabathia on several occasions this week. It doesn't take much to imagine how Hunter would be encouraging Sabathia to join him in Anaheim when the Cy Young Award winner becomes a free agent this winter.

Memo to the Angels' pro-side scouting staff: If I were you, I would make sure somebody is sitting on every start Sabathia makes, so when the time comes for that Bartolo Colon-style contract (adjusted for inflation), you are certain that all parts are in good working order. Of course, teams cannot officially do anything of the tampering nature, but no laws can govern what players tell each other.

Sabathia, who is from Northern California, shares another passion with Hunter. Both care intensely about helping increase the number of black players in the major leagues.

The Angels already are a place where who can play matters more than color and race. Perhaps this is why the Angels are plentiful in black players: Hunter, Anderson, Matthews, Chone Figgins and Howie Kendrick. Color blindness with respect to talent evaluation is a wonderful thing.

All of those players, as well as Guerrero and left-hander Darren Oliver, will wear No.42 on Tuesday in honor of Major League Baseball's Jackie Robinson Day.

So, as the Angels watch the balls sail out of the park here in the early weeks, it's easy to forget that this is still a team built upon strangulation baseball, forcing and seizing upon the mistakes brazen base running creates. Manager Mike Scioscia would call it true baseball, but it's something generally lost in the predictable, mechanical, station-to-station world of the modern majors.

Of course, power makes everything easier. Hunter's early dynamic has spread it around.

Even the fundamentalist baseball preacher Scioscia craves power.

“I think we will probably have a higher slugging percentage this year than we did last year,” he said, though he showed last year that he could win in the regular season without much more than Guerrero.

Hunter doesn't need to hit tons of home runs to make the Angels a more powerful team. It was only 20 years ago that Kirk Gibson won the National League MVP Award with the grandiose total of 25 home runs.

If Hunter does hit 30, fine. But it won't change the fact that the Angels made a wiser move investing in Hunter than in trading players and making a long-term investment in Miguel Cabrera.

He might be younger and more explosive, but he also is more expensive and a bad knee away from a fine career as a designated hitter.

Besides, who can take a curtain call with a bad knee?