Garret Joseph Anderson, the quiet cornerstone of the Los Angeles Angels franchise for 15 of his 17 major league seasons and the man who delivered the biggest hit in club history, died Friday at age 53 after a medical emergency at his home in Newport Beach, California.
Anderson, a left-handed-hitting outfielder drafted by the California Angels in the fourth round out of Kennedy High School in Granada Hills in 1990, made his big-league debut on July 27, 1994. Over the next decade and a half, he became the very definition of durability and consistency in an Angels uniform that changed names three times during his tenure — California to Anaheim to Los Angeles of Anaheim. He retired as the club’s all-time leader in games played (2,013), at-bats (7,989), hits (2,368), runs (1,024), RBIs (1,292), total bases (3,743), extra-base hits (796), doubles (489) and grand slams (8). Those marks still stand.
A career .293 hitter with 2,529 hits, 287 home runs and 1,365 RBIs across 2,213 games, Anderson was never the flashiest star in a lineup that featured Tim Salmon, Troy Glaus, Vladimir Guerrero and later Mike Trout. Yet few players were more reliable when the lights were brightest. In 1995, he finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting after batting .321 with 16 homers and 69 RBIs in just 106 games. From 1997 through 2003 he ranked second in the majors in hits behind only Derek Jeter.
His signature moment came in the 2002 World Series. With the Angels trailing the San Francisco Giants three games to two and facing elimination in Game 7, Anderson stepped to the plate in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. He ripped a three-run double off Robb Nen that gave Anaheim a 6-5 lead it would not relinquish. The Angels claimed their first — and still only — World Series title. Anderson finished fourth in AL MVP voting that year after hitting .306 with 29 homers and 123 RBIs.
The following summer, in 2003, Anderson reached the absolute peak of his individual brilliance. Named to his second of three All-Star Games, he won the Home Run Derby at U.S. Cellular Field and then earned All-Star Game MVP honors with a two-run single in the eighth inning. He led the American League in doubles in both 2002 and 2003 and took home back-to-back Silver Slugger Awards.
Later seasons were slowed by chronic knee and foot issues — arthritis and plantar fasciitis chief among them — but Anderson remained productive enough to sign a four-year, $48 million extension in 2004. He spent one final season with the Angels in 2008 before brief stops with the Atlanta Braves in 2009 (where he collected his 2,500th career hit) and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010. He announced his retirement in spring training of 2011.
Anderson was inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2016. In a pregame ceremony at Angel Stadium, the club honored the player whose steady presence had anchored the lineup through the franchise’s rise from perennial also-ran to champion.
Born June 30, 1972, in Los Angeles, Anderson was a three-sport standout at Kennedy High. He met his wife, Teresa, in junior high; the couple raised three children together. Though soft-spoken and sometimes misread by fans as aloof, Anderson was respected throughout the game for his workmanlike approach and clubhouse steadiness.
Major League Baseball has lost one of its steadier bats of the turn-of-the-century era, and the Angels have lost an all-time great whose name remains etched across every meaningful offensive category in the franchise record book. Garret Anderson didn’t just play for the Angels. For a generation of fans, he was the Angels.
