Vaughn Looks for Swagger

Whenever Mo Vaughn runs into the great players from the great teams of the past, he makes sure to ask them what made their teams great.

And through years of conversations with the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Brett, Reggie Jackson and Don Mattingly, Vaughn has seen common threads through those dominant teams.

“Regardless of talent, the one thing I’ve learned is that a bunch of nice guys is not going to make it as a team,” Vaughn said. “You’ve got to have a bunch of crazy individuals to win in this game, guys who care only about winning and doing their jobs.

“It is the truth, nice guys finish last. Some of those Yankee teams hated each other, but you need those attitudes. Good teams walk with a swagger. . . . It’s not all about talent. It’s about chemistry.”

Chemistry has been a major problem for the Angels this season. Though they haven’t always been nice to one another, could they have been too nice in general?

“I don’t know,” Vaughn said, “but I don’t know if these guys understand how good they are. Sometimes you need someone to bring that out in you. You’ve got to walk with a little air about you, whether you’re 0 for 20 or 20 for 20. If you walk to the plate the same way, you’ll always have an advantage.”

There is one story about Rose that Vaughn especially likes. When Rose played for the Philadelphia Phillie team that won the 1980 World Series, he would get to the clubhouse early and greet each player as he walked in.

“He’d tell every guy, ‘You’ve got to do this today, you’ve got to do this today,’ ” said Vaughn, who has vowed to take more of a leadership role next season.

“I did some of that down the stretch in Boston last year. I’m not a loud, boisterous leader, I’m a behind-the-scenes guy. The reason that worked so well in Boston was I was there for a long time and knew those guys so well, and I had the backing of the manager.”

*

Tim Salmon, a cheater? The team’s clean-cut, family-values-promoting chapel leader bending the rules? Say it ain’t so.

Then again, former Angel designated hitter Chili Davis used to joke, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,” and Salmon was certainly trying Saturday night when he made what second base umpire Dale Scott ruled a diving catch of Dan Wilson’s drive to the gap in right-center in the second inning.

The only catch was Salmon didn’t make the catch. As he dived to try to backhand the ball, it hit his glove and bounced to the turf, and Salmon scooped it up with his bare hand.

The ball was hidden behind Salmon’s glove, blocking Scott’s view of it, and the umpire raised his fist, signifying out. But Salmon didn’t fool fans in the right-field bleachers, who booed vociferously without even seeing a replay.

Of bigger concern to the Angels was Salmon’s left wrist, which he sprained in May. Salmon, who sat out 2 1/2 months because of that injury, appeared to twist the wrist on the play, but he remained in the game and hit a two-run double in the fifth, knocking out a panel on the left-field scoreboard.

*

Edgar Martinez’s homer off Chuck Finley in the fourth inning marked the 17th straight game in which the Mariners have hit a home run, breaking a team record that was set in 1995. . . . The Angels were fined $5,000 by the American League for closing their clubhouse before a game on Sept. 3, the day Terry Collins resigned as manager.

Today

ANGELS’

RAMON ORTIZ

(2-3, 6.51 ERA)

vs.

MARINERS’

ROBERT RAMSAY

(0-1, 8.22 ERA)

Safeco Field, Seattle, 1:30 p.m.

TV--Channel 9 Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090)

* Update--Ortiz ended a string of four consecutive shaky starts when he gave up three runs on four hits in five innings in a 7-5 victory over Tampa Bay Tuesday night. He’ll be squaring off against another rookie in Ramsay, a left-hander who is one of four rookies in the Mariner rotation.