Book Review : 'Always An Angel' By Tim Salmon with Rob Goldman

Always An Angel - Playing The Game With Fire And Faith
By Tim Salmon with Rob Goldman
220 pages, Triumph Books

The follow up book to Rob Goldman's "Angels-Goldman/dp/1582611637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279147822&sr=8-1">Once They Were Angels" is the autobiography of former Angels rightfielder Tim Salmon. I had the pleasure of first meeting Rob during Spring Training in Tempe, Arizona in 2008.

A former Angels bat boy and visiting club house attendant during the 1970's, Rob had some great stories to share about the ballclub, many of which were included in the first book about the Halos.

I remember Rob asking if I thought the fans would be interested in a book focused on Tim Salmon. There are few Angels more beloved than Tim Salmon, and as a fan of "The Kingfish," I knew this was a book I would want to read, and I'm glad he decided to do the work and pursue the project.

After two years in development and several interview sessions with Salmon, a funny thing happened—Tim decided he wanted the book to be told "in his own voice" and re-wrote Goldman's draft. As Rob puts it in the introduction,  he didn't expect to be on the bench for his own book, however you can tell that this is a project that both Salmon and Goldman cared very much about presenting right. There are plenty of sports biographies out there where you can tell the athlete did a few phone interviews and the writer was left to fill in the blanks. Not so with "Always An Angel." As a rookie writer Salmon did a terrific job telling his story in a way that feels like you were having a one on one conversation more than reading a book.

Click here to continue book review of "Always an Angel" by Tim Salmon

Eric Denton is the head writer and content editor for LA Angels Insider.com