Salmon Makes It Unanimous : Baseball: Outfielder is the runaway choice as Angels’ first rookie of the year, giving local teams a sweep of the award.

Mom always worried how the boys would adjust, being shuttled back and forth between homes.

Dad was concerned about the asthma and allergies his athletic sons had, the older having been advised never to play sports.

Little brother Mike feared that once older brother Tim saw in a mirror his mutilated face--hit by a pitch in 1990 that broke his jaw and knocked out nearly 30 of his teeth--he would give up his dream of playing professional baseball.

The family never could have envisioned what happened on Thursday, when Tim Salmon would be on the beaches of Hawaii, taking a telephone call informing him that he was the unanimous choice as the 1993 American League rookie of the year.

Salmon is the first Angel player in the franchise’s 33-year-history to win the award, and the celebration could be heard from his mother in Wichita Falls, Tex., to his father in Phoenix, to his brother on the football practice field at USC.

“To know what he’s gone through, and the sacrifices he’s made in life,” said his mother, Billie Sue Randall. “It’s just unbelievable.”

Said James Salmon, his father: “I can’t tell you how proud I am of him, how proud this whole family is. This has gone beyond our wildest expectations.”

Mike Salmon, his football-playing brother, said, “To know what he’s come back from, believe me, he’ll always be one of the biggest heroes I’ll ever have.”

It was Tim Salmon’s abilities to overcome all of life’s curveballs, his family suggests, that ultimately paved the way to a season that forever will be cherished. He batted .283 with 31 homers and 95 RBIs, and became only the fourth unanimous rookie selection in American League history in the voting of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America.

Chicago White Sox pitcher Jason Bere finished second, and pitcher Aaron Sele of Boston was third.

Salmon and Dodger catcher Mike Piazza, who won the National League’s rookie award Wednesday, become the first players in a metropolitan area to sweep the awards since 1951, when Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Gil McDougald of the Yankees accomplished the feat.

Salmon said, “I remember when I came up to bat in the Freeway Series and (Piazza) said to me, ‘Hey, good luck on the rookie-of-the-year thing this season. Hey, wouldn’t it be something if both of us won it.’

“We both kind of laughed. . . .

“To have the kind of year I had, you can’t even describe it. This is something you dream about achieving, maybe after four or five years in the game, but not in my rookie year.

“I mean, if you put up those kind of numbers during the course of your career, that would put you in Hall of Fame contention.”

It was almost as if Salmon still had difficulty Thursday believing he had put up those numbers. He thanked Bob Fontaine Jr. and Tim Kelly for having the courage to draft him five years ago from Grand Canyon College. He was grateful to Bill Bavasi for not giving up on him in the minor leagues.

He said his greatest thrill this season was hitting a double off Nolan Ryan in Texas.

“The worst thing about this for Tim is that he’s such an introvert,” said Mike Salmon, laughing. “And now he’s going to have to do a whole lot more talking.”

Salmon is so modest, so genuinely unpretentious, that he never took time to consider the possibility of winning the award until Sept. 15, when he was broke his left ring finger. He refused to read press clippings about himself, and sports-talk shows to him were only static between the dials.

“This is just a guy who has no ego,” sighed his agent, Ted Updike. “When it comes to self-promoting, I had to get behind him and push hard.

“Believe me, there are a lot of opportunities he could do this winter, things that would definitely thrust him in the limelight, but he says, ‘Sorry, that’s not me.’ ”

Salmon, vacationing in Hawaii with his wife and 18-week-old baby, will postpone any gala celebrations until the families congregate for Thanksgiving. He just bought a new home in Phoenix--three miles from his college, two blocks from his high school and five miles from his father--and everyone is invited. It will be the first time since 1982, his mother said, that they will be together for Thanksgiving.

“I look back now and I used to worry about the boys growing up in a single-parent home,” said Randall, who was divorced from James when Tim was 4. “We didn’t always have everything, but Tim always made the sacrifices to get what he wanted.

“You know something, that desire to get what he wanted just never stopped.”

Said James Salmon: “Will you take a look at my son now. He sure is something, isn’t he?”

A Landslide

Voting for the American League rookie-of-the-year award, with first-, second- and third-place votes and total points on a 5-3-1 basis:

Player 1st 2nd 3rd Tot. Tim Salmon, Angels 28 -- -- 140 Jason Bere, Chicago -- 18 5 59 Aaron Sele, Boston -- 3 10 19 Wayne Kirby, Cleveland -- 3 3 12 Rich Amaral, Seattle -- 2 2 8 Brent Gates, Oakland -- 1 4 7 Troy Neel, Oakland -- 1 2 5 Jerry DiPoto, Cleveland -- -- 1 1 David Hulse, Texas -- -- 1 1