Vlad is glad to go into Hall as Angel

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - In the quiet moments in the hour before a game, Vladimir Guerrero would sit facing his locker, in full uniform, headphones usually on, with five or six bats, each 35 inches in length but varying from 32 to 35 ounces in weight, between his legs.

Guerrero would close his eyes, grip one bat with his hands, shake it up and down, twirl it around, waggle it from side to side and put it down. He'd repeat the routine with each bat until he found just the right piece of lumber for that night.

"I always thought it was some kind of Dominican ritual, but it was him figuring out what bat feels good," said former Angels outfielder Tim Salmon, a teammate of Guerrero from 2004 to 2006. "He was such a feel hitter."

A bat in the meaty, leathery hands of Guerrero, which were strengthened by childhood work taming stubborn cattle on his grandfather's farm and coarsened by thousands of vicious bare-handed swings,