Angels in the Outfield, Muses in the Bleacher Seats

In Case Anybody Is Still Paying Attention...

2007-06-22T20:45:00.001-07:00

...this blog now has a new home!

Check it out at http://thecaliforniateam.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/

Hope to see you there!

Angels play the Milwaukee Indians!

2007-04-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Watching this game reminds me of watching the Angels play the Indians or the Brewers about 15 years ago.

There's about 3,000 people at the park.

Ah, nostalgia...

Hudlerism #2

2007-04-04T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, the Angels are off to an awesome start! But I'd rather take this opportunity to point out another stupid thing Rex Hudler said about five minutes ago:

"You put John Lackey, Escobar, Ervin Santana, Bartolo Colon and Jered Weaver as your five-man rotation, call the cops man!"

Now, I could be the prick here and remark on how having a good rotation hardly necessitates a 911 call, and Anaheim PD would probably get pissed off having to write a report about a good pitching rotation, and after Rex got caught a few years back with a few controlled substances in his suitcase at an airport, I'd think he'd want as little as possible to do with the police, but I won't.

Instead, I'm going to point out that the statement is just stupid. Had he said "book your World Series tickets" or something along those lines, where it makes SENSE, I have no problem with this statement.

But Rex Hudler is a moron, and I shouldn't expect him to use a euphemism that is coherent and linear.

Hudlerism #1

2007-04-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever hidden my hatred of Rex Hudler, but it's during the season when I have to listen to this shell of a "color commentator" and his clever nicknames (usually made by putting a "y" at the end of a player's name! Chris Berman look out!) that I wear this hatred on my sleeve and my deadly sin becomes ENVY due to Dodgers fans having Vin Scully...

So, starting here, every time this hack says something stupid or unprofessional, I'm posting it here. Number 1 is from last night's game:

"Figgy's gonna have to take a chill pill for a few weeks."

Can you in your wildest dreams imagine Joe Buck or Vin Scully saying that?

Didn't think so.

And the season starts on a great note!

2007-04-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

Nothing like coming out with a win, is there?

Sure, we have 161 more games to go. But if last night was any indication of the direction this team will take this summer, it's gonna be a fun 161.

I've never been a huge John Lackey fan, mainly because I think all he's missing for greatness is a sports psychologist. When things are going well, John Lackey is among the best in baseball. When he gets in trouble, he tends to panic.

Last night, though, Lackey got in trouble early and often, but kept his head. Evenin the two-error third inning when he had to throw 20 extra pitches, he stayed mentally tough and threw good pitches (just ask Sammy Sosa.) If John Lackey looks like this all year, that's one less thing we have to worry about.

The other is Gary Matthews Jr. After last night, I don't care if he sinks offensively back to his 2005 level. The man has a golden glove, and may well be on his way to a Gold Glove in center field this season. (Okay, so he had an error. That catch in the first inning was the highlight of the game!) Were it not for his glove in center, this probably would not have been a win.

161 games to go, and I'm looking forward to each and every one!

Opening Day!

2007-04-02T12:20:00.001-07:00

Can you smell the peanuts?

Only 6 hours 45 minutes until gametime!

A-Rod (Yet Again)

2007-03-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

MSNBC.com adds fuel to the fire once again by suggesting a move bringing A-Rod to the Angels.

I'm a little bit tired of these. Sure, I bought into the hype back in November. But now I just wish they'd trade him or leave the poor bastard alone.

As I've said before, the A-Rod situation in New York is lose/lose for him.

Especially when you compound that with the "leadership" of Derek Jeter, whose tenure as Captain has made Custer look good as a General.

The Freeway (World) Series

2007-03-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Tom Verducci. For reasons I'm sure you'll quickly understand, this man is my favorite person on the planet today.

I really could think of no finer World Series. I'm sure that opinion would be echoed by a majority of the people within a 100 mile radius of me.

The rest of the country would be bored to suicide, though.

But I don't live in the rest of the country. I live in Orange County.

So, let's go Angels and Dodgers! The last preseason games of the year will be a Freeway Series, let's have the final games of the postseason be one as well!

Wow, has it really been a month?

2007-03-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

No better way to lose what few readers I have than not post, but unfortunately my personal life has been a series of crises since early December, and that means that posting in a stupid baseball blog takes a backseat to everything else.

But, as usual, it could always be worth. For example, I could be Gary Matthews, Jr.

It's been easy to criticize Arte Moreno this offseason. His failure to deliver on his "something big" promise showed how much of a rookie owner he is. But, even with that, it's impossible to turn on Arte because of what he has made this franchise in the last four years. He's turned this franchise from a second-rate club on par with the Montreal Expos and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays into one of the most respectable and admired teams in the league.

And, as is obvious with this whole Gary Matthews Jr. business, he cares about the team, its image, and its fans.

This article at SI.com shows a portrait of an owner that should be the envy of every other team in Major League Baseball. His vociferous pursuit of information in Gary Matthews, Jr.'s HGH scandal is the type of action owners should have been taking toward performance enhancing drugs years ago.

I understand Matthews' reluctance to talk. But this is not a court of law; it's a court of public opinion. And while taking the 5th may be a way to operate in the legal system, it ain't gonna work with the 45,000 fans whose asses sit in the seats at Angel Stadium.

The truth will set you free, Gary. We can be quite forgiving, if you only tell the truth.

Mark your calendars

2007-02-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

A long, cold winter is nearly over. In a mere four days, the Angels pitchers & catchers will be reporting to camp in Tempe , Arizona. Five days later they will be followed by the rest of the team.

It's been tough this last month or so trying to come up with reasons to write in this blog, so I just stopped. along with family issues, it's just been tough to write with nearly nothing happening this winter. I started this blog hoping for something big, as Arte Moreno promised. Instead, we landed Gary Matthews Jr. and not much else.

So we head into spring under a cloud of doubt. Our pitching is fine, but our offense is as weak as last season.

And if we can't score runs, we can't make the playoffs.

We'll start to see how wrong or right I am in about four days...

7 Day DL

2007-01-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posting. I'm not doing a stellar job at keeping my one or two readers, I know. I've been down with the flu the last week or so, including an trip to the emergency room on Tuesday, where I became the proud recipient of 3 liters of saline IV's.

So, I suppose it's a good thing that it's still a month or so before the first players start showing up at camp. It'll give me time to recover!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've been fighting a particularly nasty cold the last week, and considering that I have to muster up the energy to change the channel with the remote control, working up the desire to post in my blog during the longest stretch of non-news we'll have during this year has been tough. But I wanted to wish each and every one of you a sterling 2007, and (since you're reading this, it's probably a safe bet you'd want this), may it cap off with the Angels winning the last game of MLB baseball played this year, whether it be game 4, 5, 6, or 7 of the World Series.

On another note, my friend Minorpoet over at kowinkydinks was recently in Boston and, while on top of the Prudential building, snapped the below photo of Fenway park just for yours truly!
Having friends is cool!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T15:55:00.000-08:00

Just remember, while it may only be a change of calendar and another winter day, it's one day closer to April!

Angels Sign Hillenbrand!

2006-12-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

The Angels sign Shea Hillenbrand to a 1-year contract.

Considering I've pretty much blown my wad on posting today, I'm struggling to come up with any deep insight into this signing, other than I think it's pretty damn good.

While Shea Hillenbrand has been hit or miss in his career, signing him to a 1-year contract pretty much ensures that we're going to get his best, as he'll be a free agent again next year and is certainly going to want to have good numbers for that contract.

And, as he can play 1st or 3rd base, this gives us a lot more solidity in the infield. While he's not the huge bat Arte promised us, this is another step toward bringing the offense up to where it needs to be.

So, welcome to the Angels, Shea! Come to play, come to win, and we'll love you here!

Merry Christmas, Now We're Screwed

2006-12-26T12:51:00.000-08:00

Don't you just hate it when fate comes along and bites you in the ass? Well, that's exactly the Christmas present that the Baseball Gods gave us this year: In our stockings, something to worry about.

It hasn't been very widely reported (because it's not like this happened to David Ortiz or anything), but Juan Rivera broke his damn leg playing winter ball. That's right. Winter ball.

Just a few weeks after we read about the Cubs not allowing Soriano to play, Juan Rivera goes out there and shows us why. And with a break like that, there's no way he's going to be 100% by April.

So, where does that leave us? Keeping in mind that the Chinese use the same word for 'crisis' that they do for 'opportunity' (yes, I stole that from a movie, so not only am I unoriginal, but it may be wrong too), this is the perfect excuse for Stoneman and Arte to pull of that "something big" move that they've been talking about all year.

Now would be a great time to make a move that would have been impossible just a few days ago. Right now, we could make that trade for Manny Ramirez. We could sign Sammy Sosa and not worry about where to put him. We could let go of a pitcher to bring in a bat in the outfield, and we have every reason to do it.

This is very disappointing. I enjoyed watching Rivera mature into a major league hitter last year, and was looking forward to him in the outfield or DHing this year. But, fate works in her own way, and now that outfield is a lot thinner until he recovers.

So let's go, Stoneman! This is an opportunity, and we fans expect you to use it!

Arte's Foot-In-Mouth Disease

2006-12-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

This year is going to be a benchmark in Arte Moreno's tenure as owner of the Angels. Since he took over the reigns from (cough) Disney, we fans have looked to him as a kind of savior of our franchise, a man who was a fan first, a man who wanted to truly cement the foundations of a consistently winning team in Orange County. A man who, though he may bee a billionaire, is one of us.

We've followed his leadership, and through him we've begun to believe. It's truly an exciting time to be an Angels fan, whether you've been here your whole life or have just caught on to how great it truly is to watch baseball in Anaheim with the 2002 World Series. Sure, we have just that one moment of past glory, but unlike other teams whose winning legacy only haunts them (Yankees) or whose recent World Series wins have negated decades of disappointment (White Sox, Red Sox), that first one was, for us, just a launching point. Seven games that proved to us that yes, we can experience the highest highs with our team, too.

With that, 2006 was (to me, at least) a great season. Not in terms of on-field success, as it certainly did suck to watch the playoffs this year and see three California teams competing for the ultimate prize and the Angels were NOT among them. It was great because missing the playoffs showed the true mettle of the current crop of Angels fans.

We collectively said "Well, we wish we'd have made it, but it was a great season nonetheless. We'll get 'em next year!"

And it's that attitude that makes me love Southern California fans all the more. I am very guilty of having an elitist attitude as an Angels fan. I get pissed when I think back to the lean years, back to the time when you'd see more of the opposing team's jerseys in the stands than you would of our own. I get pissed when I realize that the same people who came to the ballpark in 2001 to root against the Angels were there in 2002 rooting FOR them. I put myself on a pedestal, I break my arm patting myself on the back, I get awfully lonely up on that cross I put myself on when I talk about myself as a lifelong fan and look down at those who only came when the Angels started winning.

But then I realize that fandom is never an avenue to elitism. Sports and religion have a lot in common. They both require a great deal of faith. They both require absolute love of something you have no control over. And what enlightens you will not necessarily enlighten others.

So now I look at the newer fans not as "fair weather" but as new converts, men, women and children who have finally come into the light. And sure, many of them will fall by the wayside once again if the Angels do not continue winning, much as many people new to religion fall to the side when God does not answer their prayers. But for many of them, the 2002 World Series was a moment of supreme enlightenment, a moment that made them feel the spirit, and they are now hooked for life.

It doesn't matter if they've only been here for five seasons (or less). All that matters is that they feel the same way I do about this ball club.

Arte Moreno inherited a great team and a brand-new fan base when he bought this team. Yes, "brand-new" each of us, as even those who remember seeing games at Wrigley Field in LA or Dodger Stadium (or "Chavez Ravine" as they called it during Angels home games) were "born again" by the World Series win in 2002, erasing the cursed history of a losing team as well as putting each and every fan on a new, level playing field.

With that, Moreno has had a good grace period as owner, a great three-year honeymoon that included two Western Division Championships since his first full season as owner in 2004 and a damn fine run this season.

But, the honeymoon may finally be over, and if it is, it's due to that dreaded "foot in mouth" disease.

His promise of "something big" this offseason had us all titillated, all full of wonder and hope for 2007 as, unlike most every other sports franchise on the face of the planet, we have not yet learned to loathe and mistrust our owner. We got into the A-Rod fever, following every at-bat in the playoffs, reading every tabloid rumor about his relationship with the Yankees, and the Yankees relationship with him. We kept hoping that the talk coming from the Yankees was just a smokescreen, and that soon enough we'd bid adieu to Ervin Santana, Chone Figgins, and a prospect in order to have #3 (not that blasphemous #13 he wears in New York) at third base and protecting Vladamir Guerrero in Anaheim next year. We followed the bidding first for Aramis Ramirez, then Alfonso Soriano, each time getting taken by surprise when they signed with the Cubs.

We clapped politely when we signed Gary Matthews, Jr, but we knew he wasn't filling the desperate need for power hitting.

We knew he wasn't something big.

And now chances are we aren't going to see anything near what we were expecting from that comment. We are, undoubtedly, a stronger team than we were a few months ago. We've solidified our bullpen, making one of the best pitching staffs in baseball even better. Matthews has filled out a need for defense in Center Field.

But the need for a power hitter, something big, still looms.

And if we miss the playoffs again this year, you bet that statement is going to come back and bite Arte in the ass. Not only will it be played in headlines across the country, but it will run through the heads of every Angels fan as they watch four other American League teams battle it out in the playoffs next October.

Make no mistake, it will be a disappointing season if the Angels do not make the playoffs. God forbid, if they don't, fans will start to look to Arte Moreno with a jaded eye, with the beginnings of mistrust that permeate all other fan-owner relationships.

So, with that, how does Arte Moreno recover? The first, obviously, is to make that huge move. Trade for A-Rod or Ryan Howard or Albert Pujols. Yeah, I know, that ain't gonna happen. But somebody in the tier down from them, a player of the value of Aramis Ramirez or Alfonso Soriano. That'd do fine, as long as we don't get screwed in the trade.

But that is becoming increasingly unlikely. So, what else to do? Well, if a big acquisition doesn't happen, Moreno is going to have to "hang a lantern" on his problem, apologize to the fans for not coming through then spend all season making fun of himself for saying it. Already he has offered refunds to season ticket holders, but to me that seems a bit defensive. He just needs to remind us that he's going to constantly work to improve our team. (And lowering concession prices a bit as a peace offering wouldn't hurt, either.)

But, my friends, there is a third option. One that combines the two. At this point, an option he has is to follow the example of the A's in 2006. Give a former superstar a chance with a small contract with incentives. And right now, there's a perfect one on the market.

That's right, Sammy Sosa. I know that, were I to have scores of readers, I'd probably get lambasted for this suggestion. Yes, I'm aware of his past. Yes, I'm aware of his abysmal 2005 season. To make it clear, I have full knowledge of the baggage he'll bring with him.

But with that, he's shown he is serious about coming back. And, with that baggage behind him, we can get him on the cheap, just like the A's did with Frank Thomas last year. We're a contender every year, and Sammy has never been on a champion, so it shouldn't be tough to sign him to a 1-year, incentive-laden contract.

It's a gamble, but if we're paying him a base salary of near what Thomas was paid last year, then we're out a very small amount if he's a bust. If he has a comeback season like Thomas did, Arte Moreno and Bill Stoneman will look like geniuses.

Of course, there's the whole steroids issue. I personally think it's a non-issue. Even if he was more juiced than a Welch's factory, there's no way he's stupid enough to still be on it, especially after he watched his teammate Rafael Palmiero destroy his legacy with a positive test in 2005. If Sosa fails a doping test, it's 100% on him, and he knows that.

Sure, people will be reluctant to embrace him. But if he comes to Anaheim, does some duty at DH, a bit in the outfield, and maybe some at first base, and hits 30 or so home runs, he could be exactly what we need.

Besides, it would be really neat to see somebody hit a big milestone home run, like Sosa's 600th, in "The Big A."

This isn't the answer to Arte's "something big" promise. But it could pull his ass out of the fire for making that comment, and it's a very low-risk proposition for the Angels.

Things To Do While Waiting For April

2006-12-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

“Listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you will see your entire future…”

Anita Miller, Almost Famous

Sorry about the lack of updates, but the holidays and my father's illness are keeping me away, as well as a lack of any baseball news. I'll catch up to the world when I can!

-SM

A Long Delay, A Hard Goodbye

2006-12-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm no fan of bloggers who apologize to their non-existent readers for long delays in posting. But, as I know I am one of this century's biggest hypocrites, I am going to apologize for a long delay in posting. It's been quite a tough week here for me and my family, as my father has been very ill and we had to check him into the hospital on Friday.

One of the reasons I have such ample opportunity to pursue a blog project like this is because I am, for lack of a better term, unemployed. That is, I have no job that brings income and the ability it gives to partake in American capitalism that comes with said employment. However, I do in fact have a job. My father is a paralyzed veteran, and has been in a wheelchair without use of the lower half of his body for more than 40 years. And I live at home and take care of him.

With him sick, as he's been for a few weeks, I lose interest in everything that normally occupies my downtime. With him in the hospital, while I gain a bit of personal freedom, I lose my sense of purpose.

He's OK, and should be home in a few weeks, but his lifestyle is going to have to drastically change. For the first time, his blood test results showed poor function of his liver. Considering that in the past five years he's developed a painkiller addiction like he's competing with Rush Limbaugh, I'm frankly surprised that it's taken this long.

With that, my sob story is over, and onto a bit of sad (if ultimately good) news.

God Speed, Brendan Donnelly

The ranks of the 2002 Championship team continue to thin, as this week the Angels traded Brendan Donnelly to the Red Sox for Phil Seibel, a local boy from Cypress High School and a left-handed reliever. And while it sucks to see Brendan Donnelly go, it is damn good to have a lefty in the bullpen.

There's a moment in recent Angels history which haunts every die-hard, obsessive Angels fan, though nobody outside Orange County remembers it. While everybody remembers the 2004 ALCS, where the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to spank the Yankees into the biggest choke in playoff history and went on to sweep the World Series from the St. Louis Cardinals, very few remember the 3-0 sweep the Red Sox handed the Angels in the ALDS.

And even fewer remember the way it ended.

In extra innings, David Ortiz came to the plate in Anaheim. Wanting to play the odds, Mike Scioscia wanted to bring in a left-handed reliever to pitch to the lefty Ortiz, which, considering how clutch Ortiz has been, was a smart managing move.

The problem?

The Angels had no left-handed relievers.

Not a one.

So, Scioscia brought in the only lefty he did have. Starter Jarrod Washburn.

Who promptly threw one pitch. Which Ortiz belted over the right-field wall.

So, needless to say, while our pitching has only gotten better since the 2002 World Series, our lack of lefties in the bullpen has been an Achilles heel to us for many a year. And while Siebel is a prospect (a 28-year-old prospect, but a prospect nonetheless), it's nice to have a southpaw when needed.

So, while I'll miss Brendan Donnelly and wish him luck, I think this was a smart move. Let's all cross our fingers, knock on wood, and pray that I'm right.

Matsuzaka Signs!

2006-12-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a dead period for baseball news. That coupled with my dad being sick has resulted in zero posts in about a week.

But, with that, it should be noted that Daisuke Matsuzaka signed a 6-year, $52 million contract with the Red Sox today, less than 24 hours before the negotiation window closed and he would have to go back and pitch in Japan for another year.

So, with that, the Red Sox have now spent over $100 million on a guy who's never thrown a ball in North American baseball.

If I ever have a son, I'm teaching him to throw from the time he can pee.

SecondBestDad

2006-12-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

Whereas the Angels have made little news with the winter meetings other than an aborted bid for Todd Helton(thank God that one didn't go through), there is little for me to comment on, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Danny, AKA SecondBestDad, for his support of this blog.

Danny, I'm sorry you no longer live in the area, as I can think of nothing I'd rather do this summer than take you to a game, have a beer or two, and enjoy watching our Angels and the fans at Angel Stadium.

That's the beauty of baseball, and all sports for that matter. Cheering for a team is one of the greatest common denominators out there. For all I know, SecondBestDad and I could have polar viewpoints on politics, religion, sexual preference, or anything else people can have opinions on. We could be from completely different backgrounds, ethnicities, and socioeconomic status. We could be two people who never would, nor never should, meet each other.

But, with our love for a baseball team, none of that matters.

Because from the time the umpire shouts "Play Ball" to the last out of the game, we have everything in common.

And it's like that with any team, any sport, and any fan.

So Danny, when you read this, I'd appreciate it if you'd shoot me an email to sidmchenry@gmail.com. I don't have mailing lists or any crap like that, so don't fear for your email inbox (though I should fear for mine after posting that!)

It's just such a nice thing to meet new fanatics.

The Trade Dilemma

2006-12-05T15:33:00.000-08:00

For Danny, AKA Secondbestdad - My one fan.

Earlier today, I logged in and found this comment to my "Winter Meetings" post:

SecondBestDad said...: Okay, here's a question, maybe you can write about this in an entry... I love the fact that the Angels hoard their good pitching prospects and haven't traded Santana, but every time I hear about a deal involving the Angels - for Tejada, Ramirez, etc. - talks always include Santana and, to a lesser extent - Scot Shields, too. So my question is, do you think they should keep all their young talent? Sometimes it doesn't pan out and they might be able to get more when prospects are high than when they don't pan out (is it too soon to give up on Dallas MacPherson?), but overall I love that we're dedicated to building from within and not turning into the dreaded Evil Empire - West Coast. That's what's killed us so many times in the past: bringing in players whose best years were behind them and paying top dollar for them...

Flash back to 1990. I was a sophomore in High School, going into my Junior year as that summer was dominated by the California Angels. My friends and I made the trip to Anaheim Stadium enough that you'd think we had season tickets that year. We'd head up to the ticket counter, buy the $3 tickets in any section they had available, then sneak down and sit on the field. We went to maybe thirty or forty games that year, cheering a team that had no chance to make the playoffs but had nonetheless earned our fandom and our hearts. On September 14, we watched an event that has been replayed every year since before the Home Run Derby as Ken Griffey Sr. hit a home run in the first inning, followed by his son, Ken Griffey Jr., in the very next at bat. At the time we thought it was cool, neat, a curiosity, without realizing how monumental the back-to-back home runs by father and son really was. We watched Jim Abbott pitch, knowing even then at such a young age that we were seeing something miraculous. We watched Mark Langston struggle in his first season after signing a huge contract. We saw Lance Parrish and Bert Blyleven in their last hurrah in the Major Leagues, as well as the waning years of Wally World.

But above all, we were there to see Dante Bichette.

We weren't the only ones. Dante was a HUGE fan favorite. Sure, he was a part-time outfielder who struck out more than a blindfolded Reggie Jackson and he hit only 15 home runs that year, but to us it felt like 50. It almost seemed like every game we went to where Dante actually played, he'd knock one into dead center field. Our only complaint was how much Bichette sat.

We wanted more of him. So, of course, the Angels traded him.

And it wasn't that they traded him. It was that they traded him for Dave Parker, a 40-year-old has-been who had no chance to contribute but part time at DH.

Were we surprised? Not a bit.

This was par for the course with the Jackie Autry era Angels. Whereas William Wrigley, when he built Wrigley Field for the Cubs, knew that he could not guarantee a winner, but could guarantee a good experience at the ballpark, Jackie Autry's philosophy might have been "I don't care about a winner, I care about asses in the seats" and fulfilled that by getting big names in Angel uniforms. Now, that wouldn't be too far off the modern day Yankees, but the Angels got these superstars when they were cheap: In other words, when they were well past their primes.

Dave Parker, Lance Parrish, Bert Blyleven, Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson. That's just a short list off the top of my head of past-their-prime superstars that ended up (and, in many cases, ended their careers) in Angels uniforms. And while most were free agent signings, not all were.

It seemed for a long time that every time a young Angel was approaching stardom, he'd be traded away shortly before his contract came due. Time and time again we'd grow to love a player, only to see him shipped out and kicking our ass in Anaheim the next year. And those who went to the National League, back before interleague play? Unless we played them in spring training, we were never to see them again, as the only way to do so would have been in the World Series.

Back in the old PCL, The Los Angeles Angels were the main farm team for the Chicago Cubs. It seems that in the 80's and 90's, we were the main farm team for most of Major League Baseball.

Disney coming in as owners in the mid-90's didn't help this a bit. Their theme park philosophy ascribed to their sports ventures put stupid "beer-league softball uniforms" (a la Chris Berman) on the players' backs and dancing teddy bear mascots on the dugout roof, but didn't add much to the lineup or rotation. Disney tried to make it a pleasurable experience, but was never concerned with winning as they should have been.

Of course, this argument is blown out of the water by the 2002 World Championship. No, not really. If you look at that team, it was filled with nothing but farm-grown Angels, most of them young, and other castoffs from other teams. It was not talent that brought them to the World Series so much as it was teamwork and immaculate team management.

It's because of this history that I can understand the shyness of GM Bill Stoneman when it comes to trades, even when it means missing opportunities. As a fan, though, I have that natural 20/20 hindsight and have criticized him for failure to move in the past.

Dallas McPherson, Casey Kotchman, and Rob Quinlan have all seemingly passed their expiration dates and will continue to deteriorate in value for trade. It's easy to criticize Stoneman for not trading one or more of these guys when their value was high, but any Angels fan who knows team history gets very nervous when trades for young players are mentioned, and I am not an exception. Having electrifying young talent on a team that usually tosses it aside at the nearest opportunity is new to us, and we want to hoarde it like a kid with Halloween candy.

So when talks of trading young stars like Chone Figgins and Ervin Santana come up, we geta little hesitant.

There is not a trade out there right now that would not make me nervous. Chone Figgins has proven that, though he's an exciting utility player, as a full-time player he's a jack of all trades, master of none. And while Ervin Santana led the team in wins last year, we are absolutely stacked with good, young pitching, and the loss of one pitcher in a trade would not hurt us as it would most other teams. In fact, if it brings in the power at the plate that we so desperately need, it would probably be a great move.

But there's still that image of Jackie Autry dancing around in my head.

So every time I hear a trade mentioned, my armpits sweat a little bit. I feel a bit like a virgin on prom night: I know I'm going to have to eventually, so why not cross my fingers, roll the dice, and hope it turns out for the best?

It's the virtue in being a baseball fan, in loving something absolutely that we have no control over whatsoever. You hope for the best, and earn the right to complain when it turns out for the worst.

After all, with Arte Moreno in the owner's box, there's always next year.

Winter Meetings

2006-12-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

Starting tomorrow morning, Mickey & Company won't be the most entertaining thing in Disneyworld, Florida as the owners, general managers, and everybody remotely affiliated with Major League Baseball congregates for the Winter Meetings.

It's been a long time since an off-season has created as much excitement as this one has, and thus far it appears that endless rivers of cash that have been flowing into the coffers of free agents is just the tip of the iceberg.

Expect the next few days in Orlando to become a feeding frenzy of press and franchise posturing as the 2007 offseason continues to be much more interesting than the 200 MLB season. Keep checking your local team's blog and every baseball news site you can think of, as the rumors will keep piling on, flooding the internet and pushing reputable baseball news to the furthest backburner. Expect your favorite team to be bragging on top of the highest nosebleed seat about the amazing deals they made, or facing the press and explaining why your team didn't get a slice of this pie.

I just hope I can expect a baseball season starting in April that has been filled with the mystery, suspense, and intrigue that this off-season has produced thus far.

And I have a feeling that whether or not those hopes come true hinges directly on what Bill Stoneman and Arte Moreno can pull off in the next four days.

Here's hoping that, come Friday, every Angels fan has a smile so big that their cheeks will still be sore in August.

Here's hoping that whatever they pull off, whether we fans agree with it or not, turns out to be exactly what we need.

Here's hoping.

Ev'ry Bruin Starts to Roar!

2006-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

I would like to take a moment in this baseball blog to go entirely off subject and use this soapbox to gloat wildly about my UCLA Bruins for a moment. As a UCLA Alumni, I've experienced much pain the last seven years, watching USC earn another mark in their victory column over us. But not this year.*

Not every year can be a winning one, and sometimes you start the season knowing your team won't be playing for a championship. But sometimes it's enough just to kick the snot out of another team and dash their championship hopes, especially if it's your hated rival.

And it's oh-so-sweet when you're a huge underdog, and the team you beat and deny a chance for a championship has a sense of entitlement, acting like they own the damn trophy.

So, while Trojans fans tonight are trying to convince themselves that playing in the Rose Bowl is just as good as playing for the NCAA Division 1 Championship, and that they're the better team because they won the PAC 10 title, all that matters is what happened on the field at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena this afternoon, where the Bruins stopped USC cold, along with their championship dreams.

In honor of that, I present to you the UCLA Fight Song (Click HERE to listen)*

“Sons of Westwood”

We are Sons of Westwood,
And we hail the Blue and Gold;
True to thee our hearts will be,
Our love will not grow old.

Bruins roam the hills of Westwood,
By the blue Pacific shore;
And when they chance to see a man from USC,
Ev’ry Bruin starts to roar.

U! (3 claps)
C! (3 claps)
L! (3 claps)
A! (3 claps)

U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!

*Clickies today in Baby Blue, to honor my UCLA Bruins

Can't wait for April!

2006-11-30T16:52:00.000-08:00

It seems that being bored and poking around youtube.com isn't such a bad thing sometimes.

Four short months from now, baseball will return and the highlights of Vladamir Guerrero will stream online just like this one.

Just imagine how many will see if Bill Stoneman and Arte Moreno get a power hitter to protect him in the lineup...

The Big Three, part 2

2006-11-27T18:08:00.000-08:00

As a continuation of yesterday's post, "The Big Three part 1," I feel I owe a bit of explanation for making this a two-parter. You see, I tend to get a bit... wordy at times in this blog. On top of that, I also get a bit philosophical in my entries. So, when I set out to do this post, I had no plans of making it a "to be continued" post. I planned to sit down and say what was on my mind, then get on with life.

But alas, I started typing and discovered that I had a lot more to say than I thought I did. I also found that I was getting a bit tired, and as I hadn't written what I had intended to. With that, I could either wrap it up quickly and do a half-assed job, save it as a draft and finish it later, or just continue it later.

I don't particularly like starting off a post and then finishing it in a hurry, leaving much of what I intended to say badly miscommunicated or omitted. And as I haven't been writing much lately, what with there being little Angels news or items to comment on, I felt that something had to be posted yesterday.

Hence the two parts. My apologies.

With that said, I offer up a review of the three sites I use for the majority of my baseball news.

As you have no doubt by now noticed, the majority of links I post on this site come from SI.com, and there's good reason for that. Sports Illustrated has long been the preferred magazine for most sporting enthusiasts, with its rich history of beautiful photography, timely publication, and detailed articles, and its website is no different. While most of the news posted at SI.com is the same you'll fins anywhere, copied off the AP wire, it's the touches that make the magazine so great that keep me coming back to their website. Nearly every article from the print edition can be found online, and at no cost. Their "Truth & Rumors" section is updated often, drawing from newspapers across the country and keeping the baseball mind occupied in these cold November days. Their articles delve into the world behind the field for the teams, the sports, and the players. And best of all, there is very little you need to pay for. Some articles on SI.com require you be a subscriber to read, but these are very few and, for most sports fans, unnecessary for their enjoyment of the site.

SI.com is the perfect site for your average sports fan. It doesn't choke you with statistics or assume a level of knowledge with the game or its players. It doesn't base its articles or layout on what demographic group it presumes you belong to. And, as stated before, it doesn't require you to subscribe to the magazine to enjoy it.

Sports Illustrated has something for every type of sports fan, but very clearly has a special place in its mission statement for the more esoteric fan. The photography is often chosen for the beauty of the moment captured, not the statistical importance. It's for the fan who goes to a baseball game and appreciates the poetry of the game. The one who allows every sense to indulge once they walk through the gate. The smell of the hotdogs, the way the sunlight glistens off the grass, the sound of a wood bat making contact in batting practice. SI is for everybody, but will be loved by those who look beyond the game.

Hence why all my links lead there.

The Sporting News. Of the Big 3, this one is the Nintendo to Sony & Microsoft, the AMC to GM & Ford. It's the last on the list of popularity, but first in the hearts of its fans. And while the layout of the site and the magazine are quite far removed from the experience at SI, The Sporting News is a site and magazine that should not be overlooked.

Unlike SI, The Sporting News doesn't rely so much on the human interest story. It doesn't have the team of writers publishing articles more akin to literature than journalism. It gives you the facts mixed with a little opinion, and allows you to make your own choices.

The first thing you notice about the web site for The Sporting News is how interactive it is. If you register, you set up your own personalized experience on the site. You have your own blog, your own fantasy sports site, your own personality. Every article on the site, from blog entries to the main news, allows for responses from the community, and allows the community to rate those responses and blog entries.

In other words, it allows full immersion in the web site.

Sportingnews.com is your local sports bar of web sites, and the person comfortable in a sports bar will be right at home here. It's a place to go to debate everything that is sport, and to find compatriots in your fandom and belief. It's a place to be seen and heard. And while it offers little difference in the news posted on other sites, the ability to comment on that news makes this a place to go to gauge the overall feeling of what's happening in the sporting world.

Ah, ESPN.com, the bane of my existence. Everything about this page, magazine, and channel reeks of the "18-to-45 year old male" demographic. Flashy graphics, expectations that the reader's attention span is about three seconds long, and a heavy reliance on fantasy stats and articles really make this the place to go if Maxim magazine is your type of periodical and you can't get enough World Series of Poker.

But the problem lies in what the casual surfer can get out of ESPN.com: Nothing. The same news articles pulled off the AP wire are there, free to view by all. But nothing else is. Any rumor, any article written by one of their staff writers, anything but the basic news you can find anywhere requires you be an "Insider," subscribed to their magazine, in order to view.

And as much as I'd love to read Peter Gammons or the occaisional juicy rumor they throw up there, there's no way I'm paying to do so.

I can understand having some extras up there to encourage subscribers and give those who pay a little more, but when they basically make it so you can't access anything on the site without dropping a credit card number, they expect too much.

I don't pay for internet porn. Why should I pay for baseball news?

With that, you have my humble opinions on the three major sports news web sites. As there is little out there in the world of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, I figured it might be worth explaining why you constantly get clickies from SI.com.

Hopefully, you have no need to wonder any longer.

The Big Three, part 1

2006-11-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

When the history books are written on the closing years of the twentieth century, we who lived through it will be surprised to see the importance future historians give to the internet. For us, it's simply a tool that has made life easier, opened up new economies, and made it easier to communicate and find information. Future generations will see our primitive network of computers as the start of a new age in human history; the information age.

Already we're forgetting how much work it used to take to come by information. Ten years ago, if you wanted to know something, you had to hunt the information down. You'd have to go to a library or bookstore, open up the encyclopedia, or otherwise search for that you were curious about. Now, it's only a matter of typing it into a search engine.

This is not the major change in human society, though. This change came not from the ease of learning new things. It came from the expanded desire for information that comes from the ease of finding it. In the days of libraries and reference books, a person who suddenly becomes curious about something will often temper that curiosity based on the immediate need for the knowledge. For example, if I were reading an article in Sports Illustrated that mentioned Rogers Hornsby, I may be curious to know more about him. But, if I lack the required literature necessary to do an even rudimentary amount of research into the man, I'd have to go outside my home to get that information. If it's a burning desire to know about Hornsby, I'll go down to the library and search him out or head to the bookstore and buy a book. But if it's just a passing wonder, the amount of work required to get that knowledge will be too much and I will not pursue it.

The internet has changed that.

The need for information is instantly sated with a computer in my home and an internet connection. Without leaving my home, without working, I can fulfill any curiosity I may have about any subject.

Along with this comes a much faster news cycle. No longer do we need to rely on our morning paper or local news when something happens around the world. News is now immediate, hitting your web browser nearly as soon as it happens. And while this is not much of an improvement over the bug news stories like the Kennedy assassination or 9/11, which cause stations to break into their programming schedules with live news, this is significant for news items which are nowhere near as important and earth-shattering.

Like sports, for example.

Though sports news has been made more immediate and instantaneous by 24 hour sports stations like ESPN, the internet has made a sports junkie's life so much easier. Instantaneous updates of live scores and other sports news makes us less likely to rush out and grab the morning paper to see the scores and moves we may have missed the night before. Now, all it takes is a venture to one of my bookmarks, and no longer do I have to wait for the sports section or the next Sportscenter.

Without constant updates from the sports news world, a blog like this would not be possible.

To be continued...

Happy Turkey Day!

2006-11-23T21:16:00.000-08:00

Today is a holiday in which we feast with gatherings of family we can stand to be around only once a year. It is a tradition remembering those Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a rickety wooden box to escape religious persecution and feasted with the Native Americans before stealing their land, infecting them with smallpox, or just killing them and who, it should be noted, were so uptight, stuffy, and sexually repressed that the British threw them out of the country.

In honor of this holiday, I offer up to the readers of this blog the biggest Turkey in Angels History:

Jackie Autry

Here's a test you can use to see if the person you're talking to is a real Angels fan, or simply a bandwagonner: Simply bring up the subject of the photo posted above. If they are a true Angels fan, their breathing will get short and rapid. Their pupils will dilate, their nostrils flair, and as the hairs on the back of their neck as their eyes narrow and they recount to you that in 2002, after the Angels had just won Game 7 of the World Series, and when Angels fans were happier than they ever expected to be, they hauled this succubus onto the field to give the World Series trophy to the Angels that seeing that just about ruined the whole night for them. While no self-respecting Angels fan wasn't a little heartbroken that Gene Autry didn't live to see that moment, we knew that if it weren't for Jackie's meddling with the team in the 1980's we may have had one long ago.

In Orange County, many people will tell you that they don't need to read Genesis 3:6 to get the idea that a woman brought evil into this world. They can make a pretty good point of it through Jackie Autry and Georgia Frontiere.

And any Angels fan who's been here for all the losing seasons as well as the recent winning years will tell you that, as FOX can't seem to broadcast a baseball game without showing all the celebrities in the audience (most of whom just happen to be at the game with great seats AND starring in the new TV series FOX is pushing), nor can they trust the game itself to provide enough drama, so they always try to find a human interest side. And in 2002, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver kept reminding us about "The Cowboy" and how much he loved his Angels.

And to do so, they showed his poor widow Jackie, wearing Gene's trademark white cowboy hat, sitting in the owner's luxury box at the Big A.

If she'd have sat with the fans, she'd have been lynched.

And now, as the "Honorary President of the American League," we have to see this shrew handing the American League Championship trophy to the winner of the ALCS every year. I loved seeing her mispronounce Jim Leyland's name this year after the Tigers won the pennant. And I'm sure it was due to the incredible amount of hate psychically directed to her from all the true Angels fans watching.

So today, I officially declare Jackie Autry as ths blog's "All-Time Biggest Turkey in Angels History."

And, in the spirit of this holiday, I offer up something I am grateful for:

I am very thankful that Jackie Autry is no longer affiliated with this team.

A Sigh of Relief

2006-11-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

Get ready for highlight reels like this with Gary Matthews Jr. in Center Field for the Angels this season!

I'm not sure why the first instinct any blogger has after not posting for a period of time is to open a post with "Sorry I haven't posted in a few days." I suppose it's just an easy way to start off the creative process and explain the absence of updates. But for a few blogs, though, most are read by just a few people, and the writer is generally the only one with an emotional investment with the blog. Any readers a small blog may have tend to expect that updates are sometimes sparse, and as they don't pay for the services of reading a blog, don't demand much in return.

So no apology from me.

It's time to get a bit excited! After a week of watching the big bats and star free agents sign with the Cubs and hopes of the Angels landing the star power of Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano evaporating in a mist of overspending and an inflated free agent market, the Angels got their first piece of the pie today by signing Gary Matthews Jr. today. The centerfielder, who had a great contract year (stats here) with the Texas Rangers this season, adds the defensive ability we need at center field, and a good bat at the top of the order.

Or, at least he does based on last season.

Pardon me if I don't order my #14 Matthews jersey from the Angels team store quite yet. Sure, he made headlines this year and drew the interest of numerous teams with his free agency this offseason, but thus far there hasn't been much from Matthews to suggest that he's the player we need. He's 32 years old. And he's had exactly one stand-out season, which just happened to be the season before he hit free agency.

And we've signed him for $50 million over five years.

It's not a bad signing. If he continues to play the way he has over the last two seasons, he'll be a valuable asset to the Angels. But throughout his career he's been a journeyman player who never truly broke into the league. And now he's finally hit his stride at 32, and we're hoping that he continues to play just as well.

Sure, we got him for much cheaper than Alfonso Soriano. But I get that feeling once again that I felt with the Autry and Disney Angels. We've passed up on the big star and picked up somebody just to show that we're making an attempt, to satiate the fans. Like in '97, when Mark McGwire wanted to be traded to the Angels and we passed, only to pick up Mo Vaughn in '99 to quell the complaining in the fan base because we knew we could have seen McGwire hit 70 home runs in '98 in Anaheim.

But, I must remind myself that the free agent market ain't over, and that there are trade possibilities as well. And we've now taken care of one of the most gaping holes in our lineup: Centerfield.

As it stands now, the Angels will have Garret Anderson in left, Matthews in center, and Vladamir Guerrero in right, with Juan Rivera at DH and rotating with Anderson and Guerrero. This doesn't offer a cure for the offensive woes the Angels have. Soriano and Aramis Ramirez were so attractive because they had the power hitting ability the Angels need. And Matthews, while a .300 hitter with some speed and great defense, is no power hitter.

This signing, though, does make the recent bid for Daisuke Matsuzaka and the rumored interest in signing Barry Zito make more sense. We go have a stacked starting rotation and a deep bullpen (in fact, three days ago the Angels signed right-handed middle reliever Justin Speier), and if Bartolo Colon comes back healthy this year, we'll have an excess of Major-League quality starters. Signing Barry Zito would make the staff better, but wouldn't be the answer we need, as it doesn't matter how great your pitching is if the offense isn't scoring.

But signing Matthews frees the Angels up in one big area: Chone Figgins. Matthews will be the leadoff hitter, an area where Figgins has faltered, batting .267 this year. Figgins will not have to play outfield in '07, and if the roster doesn't change, the Angels have a competent third baseman and good candidate to take Adam Kennedy's batting position at 9th in the order and still field a better team than they had last year.

But, if the Angels can sign Zito or another decent starter, or even trade for one, that frees up a lot fo room in trades. A lot of teams are interested in Ervin Santana, and to be able to package him in a trade with Chone Figgins, the ability to bring in a power-hitting infielder in a trade becomes very likely.

Anybody know of a guy currently playing 3rd base for a club and city that doesn't appreciate him?

Give me a while. I'll think of one.

The genius of my wife

2006-11-20T03:22:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, my wife is an absolute genius.

Tonight, we're sitting here talking, and she says the following to me:

"An artist is halfway between insanity and greatness."

Gotta love her. That should be on bumper stickers.

People will come, Ray

2006-11-18T01:03:00.000-08:00

"Baseball is what we were. Football is what we have become."

-Mary McGrory

In about twelve hours from this post time, the biggest college football game of the year will start. Michigan vs. Ohio State, the #1 and #2 teams in the nation, will face off in a contest that is so hyped that stories have appeared in mainstream news about celebrities who are unable to acquire tickets. The hype all week has been akin to the Superbowl, and this is just a regular season game.

Were I writing a football blog, I'm sure I'd be in heaven now. I'd have probably started this in MS Word for easier editing. I'd go through several drafts to ensure not only the complete absence of spelling and grammatical errors, but also to make sure my prose has the correct tone and flow. When finally posted here, it would clock in at a few thousand words and would (in my mind, at least) be worthy of an essay contest, of something you'd see in Sports Illustrated.

But alas, this is a very narrowly focused baseball blog, concentrating on a mid-level club of my passion that is struggling to become one of the big boys in the Major Leagues.

Therefore, I have little to write about.

But right now, I am watching "Field of Dreams." And that's all the reason I need to write tonight.

This movie is a chick flick for guys, a tear-jerker that women just can't grasp in the same way we can. Sure, there are women out there who love this movie, women who are moved by it, women who even count it among their favorites. But while the movie can be enjoyed by all, the experience of it is very distinctly male.

And it could not have been made about any other sport.

This has nothing to do with the father-son angle, or the Iowa cornfield, or any other plot in the movie. It is solely due to the poetry, the lyricism, of baseball. Baseball transcends the boundry between life and art with a fluidity not found in any other sport or game on this planet. And it's hard to say exactly what it is that lends baseball to this predisposition.

I've seen every major pro sport played in this country live. In the 1990's, I went to more NHL games than I did MLB games. My dad and I used to have season tickets to the LA Rams, before they abandoned us for the move to St. Louis and we both quickly learned to hate them as God hates sin. I've been dragged to a couple Laker games at the Staples Center.

With that, I've played every sport. Little League baseball. Pick-up basketball with my friends in high school. Pre-season JV football, before some idiot lost control in the weight room and dropped a 45 lb. weight on my foot from shoulder height. And hockey. Boy, did I love to play hockey. I'm one of the few in Southern California who learned to skate on ice, rather than roller blades. I started playing ice hockey when I was 15 years old, right before it became popular, and continued on and off for nearly 15 years, until my Army injuries forced me to stop. I loved playing hockey.

More, even, than I loved playing baseball.

But of these sports, it is only the baseball diamond that I romanticize. When I went to see the Rams, I didn't dream of running out of that tunnel like Daniel E. "Rudy" Ruettiger. I didn't dream of hopping over the boards at the old Great Western Forum and skating on the ice in front of 16,005 seats, empty or filled, wearing my old CCM Tacks. And I certainly never dreamed of lacing up a pair of Air Jordans and shooting some free throws on the hardwood at the Staples Center.

But there's not a ballfield I've been to that I didn't want to touch the field.

I'm an adult now. I'm thirty-two years old, and even if I had been blessed with the size and talent necessary to play baseball in the Major Leagues, it's far too late to make that a reality. My dreams of pitching a no-hitter, or hitting that walk-off home run in the 7th game of the World Series are long gone.

But every time I enter a Major League park, I feel as though I'm entering a cathedral. I want to feel how spongy the grass is beneath my feet. I want to hear the grinding crunch of the infield dirt as I walk on it, and feel abrasive grit of it as I rub a handful into my palms. I want to step on the first base bag, toe the pitching rubber, run back toward the wall and feel as the grass turns into warning track beneath my feet.

I can't go to a baseball game without having to fight an urge to make a run for it, to see how much of that I can experience before the police tackle me to the ground and arrest me.

And that's just one reason why baseball has a deeper connection to my soul than any other sport.

Would anybody have cared if Ray Kinsella had plowed under his cornfield to build a gridiron? My guess is the audience would have thought he was as crazy (and stupid) as his brother-in-law (played by Timothy Busfield) did. Would it have been a great movie if he had put in an ice rink? Would Terrance Mann (or, in the novel, J.D. Salinger) have come to Iowa to see the basketball court the voices told him to build?

The baseball diamond is the only reason this movie worked. We bought into a magic baseball field spawning long-dead ballplayers from the rows of corn because we know that a baseball field has a magic to it all by itself.

This was demonstrated in "Field of Dreams" by Shoeless Joe Jackson, the Black Sox, and eventually, Ray's dad John Kinsella appearing.

It's demonstrated in our lives every time we walk up a tunnel in our nearest Major League stadium and see the sunlight glinting off the grass and hear the crack of a wood bat hitting a ball.

A few years back, I made a January trip to Baltimore to visit an old friend I served with in the Army. Having never been to Baltimore, I was anxious to see the city, visit Edgar Allen Poe's grave, eat some crab cakes.

But more than anything, I wanted to see Camden Yards. The grass was brown, we were the only people walking the brick street between the stadium and the B&O Warehouse where, in the summer on 1995, the numbers switched from "2130" to "2131" as Cal Ripken Jr. became baseball's ironman against (you guessed it) the Angels.

I was amazed at how narrow the alley was. I always envisioned it as a wide street that separated the stadium from the offices, but it's a rather narrow pathway. I loved the little brass plaques embedded in the ground for every home run hit out of the stadium on the right field side. I pressed up against the bars, trying to squeeze myself through like Robert Patrick in "Terminator 2" as I stared in at the empty ballpark. And though it had been more than three months since a game had been played there and would be a few more before the season began again, the faint echoes of the crowds, the muted cracks of Louisville Sluggers, the distant calls of hot dog vendors, they all rang distantly in my ears.

A few blocks away was Ravens Stadium, and I didn't care a bit.

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

-Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones)
"Field of Dreams"

Daily Reposting of an SI.com article

2006-11-16T02:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know. For those three or four people who check this every day, or the one person who checks in three or four times a day, I'm not doing much but putting links to SI.com articles on here. But you gotta give me a break. It's a REALLY dry period for baseball news, and if you're trying to dedicate a blog solely to one medium-market team that's trying oh so hard to be a big-market team, the news at this time a year is thinner than cabbage soup in a refugee camp.

But, with that, our old friend John Heyman at SI.com is mentioning our Angels in his rumor column again. I got a bit excited, as the article talks about the Red Sox looking to trade Manny Ramirez, and I thought that would be a good topic for an article here (it would be). Instead, it was just another rehash of how Arte Moreno wants promised something big, and how the Angels are making a move for Soriano, and how much trouble we're going to have pulling that one off.

I'm going to be a lot happier when we finally make a deal for somebody. Whether we sign Soriano or trade for Ramirez, I'll feel a bit better with big bat we need.

And I'll have something to write about...

Matsuzaka Mania UPDATED!

2006-11-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

OK, so it was officially announced that the Red Sox did indeed make the highest bid. And that bid was in the amount of $51.1 million.

Makes me wish I had stock in Japanese baseball teams...

Matsuzaka Mania!

2006-11-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

Well, as is wellknown across baseball by now, the Boston Red Sox have won the Daisuke Matsuzaka derby with a reported bid of $45 million. That's right. Forty-five million dollars.

Just for the rights to negotiate a contract with him.

I've never seen Matsuzaka pitch, except on Sportscenter or other news programs shoing a few clips of him in the World Baseball Classic or striking out batters in the Japanese league. Therefore, I have no real reason to believe or doubt the hype surrounding him.

But something just doesn't sit right with me in this situation. It's going to cost the Red Sox upwards of $100 million to sign him.

Is it just me, or does that seem a lot of money for an unproven prospect?

Sure, he's no high school kid, no Brien Taylor (hopefully). He's had a few years of professional baseball.

But the Major Leagues are a lot different than those in Japan. The players are bigger, stronger, faster, better than those across the Pacific Ocean. The best in the world play on the thirty Major League teams. The level of competition is much higher.

And while he may be a very talented pitcher, it's an awful big gamble when you're putting up $75 million to $100 million for three seasons for a pitcher who has never thrown a ball with Bud Selig's signature on it.

Which is why I'm happy that the Boston Red Sox won the bidding, since we apparently made a run at him.

Do the Angels need an unproven $100 million pitcher? Nope. I'm hoping our bid wasn't to make a serious run at Matsuzaka. I'm hoping it was to drive the price up a bit, make him more expensive to the team that eventually lands him. Or for possible trade bait.

I guess I'm just hoping that we didn't enter the bidding because the Angels are trying to be like the Yankees.

It seems that we're on the path to simply throwing money at all our problems. And while signing free agents can be very beneficial to a ballclub, if Arte Moreno is just throwing money around to bring prestige and respect to the Angels, something is very wrong.

Especially as the strategy hasn't worked all that well recently for George Steinbrenner.

But then, maybe I'm underestimating the Red Sox. Perhaps they're not in this to get one up on the Yankees. Maybe they're a bit smarter than that.

The whole posting system for Japanese players seems a bit funny to me. The Red Sox put in a bid for around $45 million just for the rights to negotiate a contract with Matsuzaka. Once this bid is accepted, they have 30 days to negotiate a contract.

And if they can't come up with one? They get their money back.

So, suppose you're Theo Epstein, the Red Sox GM. Your biggest rival in the AL East is the Yankees, and you know they're desperate for pitching and have endless piles of money to throw at it. When Matsuzaka comes up, you know the Yankees will try to get him.

With that, what is there to lose in going after him? I'm sure Epstein is seeing the dollar signs in signing Matsuzaka. The advertising money brought in when the Mariners signed Ichiro Suziki turned into a gold mine. There are Japanese ads in Yankee Stadium for Hideki Matsui. Tour groups used to bring Japanese tourists to Dodger Stadium when Hideo Nomo came here in the mid 90's.

But also, he's keeping a potential Ace out of the Yankees lineup.

And with that, what does he have to lose? If he fails to sign Matsuzaka, he gets every penny of that $45 million back.

Hell, he could even sabotage the whole thing just to keep him out of a Yankee uniform for 2007. He could tell Scott Boras that he's not willing to give Matsuzaka more than the league minimum, in which case Matsuzaka will be pitching in Japan for another season.

Perhaps I've seen too many Oliver Stone movies.

And we're off

2006-11-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

Last night at midnight the deadline to file for free agency passed. And with that, let the bidding begin on what promises to be a hectic and expensive free agent market.

I was hoping to write this entry with a bit of excitement and a lot of hope, but it isn't going to start that way. But alas, Aramis Ramirez signed a five-year deal to remain with the Cubs. I really wasn't expecting this one. As late as yesterday it was reported that he'd turned down a 5-year deal with the Cubs, and that the Angels were prepared to make an offer as early as today.

Power at 3rd base is something we can desperately use, but power is the imperative word. And while what many think was the best fit for the Angels in the free agnet market is now gone, there are others out there.

Soon enough we'll see a big signing and/or big trade bringing a big name to tha Angels.

But not this morning.

Thank You, Bud Black

2006-11-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

As is all over the internet by now, Bud Black has been hired as the San Diego Padres manager, replacing Bruce Bochy.

You have a good club in San Diego, and I'm glad we're not in the same league, as it would be quite bittersweet to root against you. I'm sure you'll be a success down there, and it'll be much easier to find an excuse to see a game at Petco this year.

Thank you, Bud. Thanks for taking a group of pitchers nobody had heard of and turning them into one of the greatest rotations in baseball. Thank you for making Francisco Rodriguez the best young closer I've ever seen. Thank you for making Bartolo Colon a Cy Young Award winner. Thank you for making John Lackey an ace. Thank you for everything.

But especially, thank you for your part in the 2002 World Series Championship. It couldn't have happened without you.

Thank you for making this such an amazing time to be an Angels fan.

Vote!

2006-11-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

Well, OK, it's a bit too late to remind people to get out and vote. Whichever way you lean politically, I hope you voted yesterday, and you gotta admit it's gonna get a bit interesting in Washington for the next two years.

Because we had a national election yesterday, I feel that this is the perfect opportunity to talk about voting. And, to show how good I am at the segue, I'm going to give my opinions on voting as it pertains to baseball.

There are more than a few types of voting in baseball, but I'm going to concentrate on two: All-Star and Hall of Fame.

Baseball is the American sport, and as such it makes sense that at least one aspect of it is democratic. I don't feel that the fans should have equal representation when team decisions need to be made. For example, I wouldn't want a community vote whenever a free agent needs to be signed, nor would I want a poll to come up on the Jumbotron asking fans to text their vote for who's going to replace the starting pitcher from the bullpen. But the All-Star game is a game for the fans, and the tradition of allowing fans to vote for the starters is a time-honored tradition.

There are many arguments against this, but the one I hear the most (because my dad makes it) is that it's a popularity contest rather than a true All-Star roster. It's true that we fans tend to elect the same people over and over again, even when we probably shouldn't. As aging stars move past their prime, it's hard for us fans to let go of their youthful exploits on the diamond, and we keep voting them to the team.

But that argument is flawed in that it assumes the All-Star Game is truly played by a roster that is all stars, as in the best players at their respective position. It is not. It is a roster of fan favorites, regardless of skill. Those who argue for skill above stardom would have you believe that an All-Star movie featuring only Academy Award winners would be automatically more satisfying than one starring actors and actresses never likely to be nominated, much less win one.

While the analogy may be a bit outdated, I'm sure that the majority of movie-goers would much rather see a film with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone than most anything you could get a bunch of Oscar winners to sign on for.

The point of the matter is that it takes more than stats to get elected to the All-Star team, as it should. Cal Ripken Jr. was a perennial All-Star not for his stats, but because of the intangibles surrounding his streak, his attitude, and the love fans had for him.

But this does not mean that the (hypothetical) rookie from the Devil Rays that nobody outside of St. Petersburg has ever heard of who is tearing up the league doesn't deserve a slot on that team and a chance to shine on a world-wide stage. This is why we have the reserves, which the fans DO NOT vote for.

The problem with that, though, is that as it stands now, the manager of the All-Star game picks them. Other than the eight starting fielders and, when held in American League parks, the Designated Hitter, the manager who led his team to the league championship, to the World Series, the year before. So, in Pac Bell Park next year, Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland will manage All-Star teams of players (mostly) hand-picked by them.

While this is supposed to be like the Electoral College of baseball, a last-chance opportunity to correct the mistakes and ommissions the fans make in their voting, it is usually far from that. The most recent example was last year, when Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen filled the roster with many of his players, most of whom will never have a chance of attaining the popular vote of the fans.

This is a problem for me, as I don't want to see the All-Stars plus Ozzie's Stars. I want to see a true All-Star game. So how to fix this?

What, you think I have all the answers? Don't you think that, if I did, I'd already have an office next to Bud Selig's?

No, of course not. They never listen to people who, though they may make sense, don't own baseball teams.

And I'm done antagonizing the two or three readers I have, so at this point I say "Just kidding" and offer the suggestion I have.

OK, so you have the starting rosters of the All-Star game. It's perfect as it is. It lets the fans, we who pay the bills, have a say in the game. It gives us a sense of attachment to it, a reason to tune in. There's already the requirement that each team must be represented on its league's roster, which ensures that even though the Royals may have no All-Stars on their squad, they have one on the All-Star team.

With that said, is there a way to get better diversity to the All-Star teams, to ensure a better representation of players? Perhaps the players themselves could vote on the second eight, or the managers of every team in the league vote on them. Or limit the number of players from one team (other than those the fans vote for). I'm sure this is a subject that, if addressed, will be subject to countless hours of meetings between the owners and players of MLB. Perhaps it's better just to leave it the way it is, as it's just one game per year.

While I'm unsure about fixing something that may not even be broken, the Hall of Fame voting never ceases to piss me off. After being retired from the game for five years, a player becomes eligible for Cooperstown enshrinement, pending a vote by his peers. And by "peers" I mean "sportswriters."

How fair is that? Are sportswriters truly the best judges of players? These are a group of people who make their living critiquing the work of others. In Hollywood, the biggest award show of the year is the Academy Awards. The "Critic's Choice" awards or whatever the hell they are don't get a prime-time live broadcast, as nobody really cares what the critics think. We know they're out of touch with the average movie watcher, so the Oscars get the big show.

And who votes on the Oscars?

The same people who get nominated for them.

Perhaps that's how it should be in Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame. Rather than putting the entire fate of a player's potential Cooperstown enshrinement in the hands of the press, perhaps the people who actually played the game should get a say. Suppose there's a player who hates the press (I know, BIG stretch of the imagination) but is well respected by his peers and has the stats that would normally put a player over the top. If the press truly doesn't like him, he may not get enshrinement when he deserves it, if at all.

And it may be easier to pallate not having Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame if those living members and eligible players (more than 10 years in MLB, I believe) didn't want him there.

Sure, you have the Veteran's Committee, but that doesn't kick in until twenty years after a player retires. A lot of deserving people have gotten into the Hall of Fame because of the Veteran's Committee.

For a good example of this, ask your local sportswriter why Bert Blyleven isn't in the Hall of Fame. Keep in mind that the man played on crappy teams his whole career. 287 wins, 3,701 strikeouts. He's the only player with more than 3,000 K's not in the Hall of Fame. Well, except for those who are still active.

Names like Schilling. Clemens. Johnson.

You know, losers like that.

Something really needs to be done about the Hall of Fame voting. There is no reason why baseball players can't do the job as objectively as sportswriters.

All I know is that, were I a sportswriter with a Hall of Fame ballot, I'd either vote for them all or toss my ballot into the wastebasket. And that decision wouldn't be made on a year-by-year basis, either. I'd do that for every ballot I received.

The sportswriters get the Cy Young, the MVP, Rookie of the Year already, plus others.

Let the baseball players decide whom among them should be immortalized.

History

2006-11-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

When I finally made the decision that I was going to write this diary and started looking around at various other sports blogs and bloggers, I came across a page chronicling the journey of a few guys across the continent a few summers back when they had visited every Major League park (and many Minor Leagues, too) in North America.

Aside from letting me know that there are a lot of Simpsons fans in Albuquerque, I read something that just didn't sit right with me.

Of course, I had to go right to their comments on the Angels. As I read through their words and ratings, I was struck by a quote they made. In writing about the ingame entertainment at Angel Stadium, they say "[T]heir 'Calling All Angels' intro video gives you the feel that this team has a lot of tradition when in fact they do not" (Crappy video here).

My first reaction was to get indignant, and self-righteously think to myself Well, obviously they know nothing of the Angels. Then, I thought the better of it and sighed as I realized they were right, to an extent. We really are lacking an aura of history around this club.

But then I started thinking about it more, and I thought Well, how many teams really do have a lot of tradition? Sure, you think about historical baseball, and the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers spring right to mind. But then you have a team like the Phillies, who have been around for over 120 years and have exactly as many World Series Championships as we do. Of all the expansion teams from 1961 on, only the Mets, Blue Jays, and Marlins have more World Series Championships than we do, and each of them only beat us by one.

As I thought more, I began to wonder what makes a team have tradition and history, and the concept was really too intangible for me. As an Angels fan, I love my team's history. Our history of mediocrity. The blown ALCS in 1979, 1982, AND 1986. We gave Nolan Ryan a place to develop into the greatest pitcher of his generation. And, of course, the 2002 World Series, a championship that was like screwing a sex symbol: We'd always dreamed of it, but we never expected it.

With that said, every ballpark you walk into is filled with history. The players who have taken a field, the asses that have sat in the seats, the announcers and writers that have given the game a voice in the press box. And while a Yankees fan may scoff at an Angels fan using the words "Tradition" and "History" to describe our club, it doesn't take away what has happened on our field and with our team.

(Just ask any Yankees fan how well that "Tradition" or those 26 World Series Championships have helped them in the 2002, 2005, and 2006 ALDS...)

With that, onto the whole point of this post.

Any Angels fan has at least some idea of the history of the team. A new fan may not know much more than we won the World Series in 2002, while the memories of some obsessive fans can be quite scary with the facts and stats they can recall. But regardless of one's knowledge of the team and happenings on and off the field, there's always something more to learn.

A few pics of our beloved "Big A" under construction

The Angels (and Mets) were Major League Baseball's first expansion teams in 1961. After playing their first season in Wrigley Field in Los Angeles and four years in Dodger Stadium, they moved into their own brand-new home, Angels Stadium, in 1966.

So this coming season will be the 42nd the Angels have spent in Orange County. The stadium has since seen three versions (the original, the 1980 NFL retrofit, and the 1997 retrofit) and three names (Anaheim Stadium, Edison Field, Angel Stadium), and the Angels have had four names in that time (Los Angeles Angels, California Angels, Anaheim Angels, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim).

Forty-two seasons. Eighty-one games a year in the stadium (less in those annoying strike-shortened year).

That's a lot of history.

Mickey Mantle played in Anaheim Stadium. Think about that next time you're there. "The Mick" stood in the same batters boxes (he was a switch hitter, afterall) that the Angels stood in during the 2002 World Series. He patrolled the same Center Field that Chone Figgins did this season, and in the last few years of his career played at the same first base (well, the position, not the actual base) that is used today.

He hit four home runs at Anaheim Stadium, though back then there were no bleacher seats and apparently went into an executive or player parking lot. Three of them were hit in 1968, his final season, when he had only 18 total. While Mickey Mantle was not known for being a fan-friendly guy (especially after he retired and as evidenced by the signed baseball pictured above*) and probably would have been throwing back bottle after bottle of Budweiser in the clubhouse than playing at Anaheim Stadium, nonetheless part of the mythology and history of Yankees #7, "The Mick," happened at Anaheim Stadium.

*While I cannot personally vouch for the authenticity of this autograph, it was sold through www.historyforsale.com, a company whose reputation hangs on the authenticity of the items it sells.

Box Scores of Mantle's Home Runs at Anaheim Stadium:

August 7, 1967
April 18, 1968
June 16, 1968
August 12, 1968

And while most of us remember Hank Aaron on the Milwaukee and then Atlanta Braves, he played the last two years of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he DH. And, as it turns out, Hank Aaron not only made baseball history, but set the Major League Home Run record at Anaheim Stadium on June 16, 1976 with his 749th home run. Of course, he broke his own record a few games later when he hit #750, but for a while the all-time home run record was set against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium.

Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs in his career, the most of all time. And while Barry Bonds may break that record in 2007, while Aaron's record still holds, one of those home runs, a small part of that history, was hit at the stadium where we go to see our beloved Angels.

When it comes down to it, team tradition and history may be important, but are vastly overshadowed by the tradition and history of baseball itself.

Teams may fold, Major League Baseball itself may dissolve, but so long as there are children in this country and this world, so long as there are adults trying to recapture their youth, there will always be baseball.

For it is they that are the carriers and teachers of that history.

The Stove Heats Up!

2006-11-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

It's edging on winter here in Southern California. Last week we set our clocks back. At night, it's getting too cold to keep the window in the bedroom open. And the baseball free agent market is heating up.

This is starting out to be an interesting offseason, and part of what is making it so is Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitching phenom and MVP of the World Baseball Classic last spring. He and his "gyroball" (a pitch thrown, supposedly, like a football) are expected to make a big splash in the Big Leagues, and it is rumored that it will take a bid of $20 - $30 MILLION just for the right to negotiate a contract with him. His initial contract may cost the team he signs with up to $100 million. That's an awful lot of money for a guy who has never thrown a pitch in the MLB.

And thankfully, the Angels have taken themselves out of the running for him. It's not that I have that North American prejudice about baseball players. In the last decade, all those preconceived ideas about Asian athletes have wasted away with not only the success Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and dozens of others have had in Major League Baseball, but the fact that you now see players with "Nguyen" on their jerseys in the NFL, and that Yao Ming is a star with the NBA's Houston Rockets.

It's not that I fear he won't be the star everybody thinks he'll be, either. Everything about the guy shows he's the best pitcher on the market this winter, even with Barry Zito, Roger Clemens, and Andy Pettite declaring free agency.

It's that we don't need another starter, particularly one that will cost us $100 million. And the problem is that, with the record-setting year and the money coming in from revenue sharing, this could really blow up out of proportion. This could very easily turn into not just another bidding war for a great prospect, but a "whose dick is bigger" contest between owners, whether they need him or not. And while it never hurts to have another starter, with a pitching-deep team like the Angels, it's a waste of money.

For this same reason, I'll be upset if we bid on Barry Zito. Sure, Zito had some great years with Oakland, but considering that we had fine pitching in all of 2006 even without ace Bartolo Colon, do we really need to spend that money on a free agent lefty who has shown noticeable decline the last three seasons?

The answer is no.

But we desperately need hitting.

And thankfully, there's a bunch of sluggers this offseason who have declared free agency or are appetizing trade bait.

We're mentioned twice in today's "Truth & Rumors" at SI.com. The first mention is about a slugger we're NOT interested in (unless nothing else pans out and he's still available): Barry Bonds.

You know, now that I get into that, I feel it's something that is going to require its own post. So more on Barry later.

But for the second item in "Truth & Rumors," it's nice to see that Adam Kennedy is leaving on good terms. Howie Kendrick is a good young player and should fill in nicely for Kennedy at second base. It's a shame to see "AK" go, but at least it's on good terms.

God speed, AK. I hope you find success wherever you land (probably St. Louis. They love ex-Angels.)

2002 Remembered, part 3

2006-11-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

It was an odd feeling going into the World Series before Game 1. The Angels were underdogs in the Fall Classic, which wasn't a surprise considering nobody outside Orange County thought that Anaheim was a favorite to win.

For years, it had been the modus operendi of myself and most Angels fans to expect the worst. The Angels were almost expected to choke in any opportunity they were given to reach for greatness. The All-Star game was the benchmark, the milestone where, once the Angels reached it, would indicate a continuous downhill slide into the cellar. This was never more evident in 1995, where they led the American League West by 11 games in August, only to blow it and force a tiebreaker (which they lost) with Seattle. And any playoff berths they may achieve were doomed to failure, with Donnie Moore's blown save in the 1986 ALCS being the biggest example of that.

During the 2002 World Series, I heard much about "The Curse of the Cowboy," in other words, that it was Gene Autry that cursed this club. I don't ever remember having that feeling. I can remember going to games with my buddies in the late 80's and early 90's, where talk would inevitably turn to "how cool it would be for the Angels to win one before Gene Autry dies." We hated Jackie Autry because she married her way into control of the team, and as unconcerned about winning as opposed to making money. When Dante Bichette was traded for Dave Parker, we nearly gave up. But all this was mere talk; wishful thinking. We never expected the Angels to make it all the way, and were happy just to have a Major League team so close to us. The Red Sox had the Curse of the Babe, the Cubs the Curse of the Billy Goat. We just sucked. But we still loved our team.

So if any curse was on my mind in the World Series as Game 1 started, it was the one being put on it by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. As an Angels fan, I'm used to bad announcing. Hell, we have Rex Hudler, possibly the worst color commentator since Reggie Jackson and his "BABOOMBA!" home run call made me turn off the TV volume and turn on the radio back in the early 90's when he called Angels games. But Buck and McCarver... This World Series is what made me start hating them both. From the pregame show, you could tell who they were pulling for, especially McCarver, and it wasn't the scrappy small-ball clubled by Mike Scoscia...

But announcers on FOX aren't expected to be clones of Vin Scully, and though Joe Buck shares DNA with the immortal Jack Buck, the apple fell pretty far from the tree, and any words out of his and McCarver's mouths were inconsequential as the game started and the World Series had finally come to Anaheim.

There are only a few moments from that series I remember as they happened. I don't recall much of watching Game 1, other than I watched it with my dad (who, for some unknown reason, was rooting for the Giants.) Looking at the box score now, I remember the home run by Bonds in his first World Series at bat, and the two by Troy Glaus. But it's only the trivial fact that I remember, that the Angels lost the first game of each series that year, not the game itself.

Game two I should remember, as the Angels won it 11-10, but details of the game escape me. I remember the shot of Tim Salmon reacting to Barry Bonds' home run, mouthing "That's the farthest ball I've ever seen hit."

Game three was won by the Angels, and I remember at that time thinking that we might actually be able to do it.

Game four was won by the Giants. No memories of that.

Game five I have two memories of. First, I'll never be able to forget J.T. Snow pulling Darren Baker, San Francisco manager Dusty Baker's three-year-old son, out of the way at home plate. Fox had spent much of the postseason showing the children in the Giants' dugout, showing what a "family club" the Giants were, trying to pull on America's heartstrings and get them to root for the Giants. I remember thinking that seeing so many children in the dugout was ridiculus, that a three-year-old bat boy was not cute, but dangerous. Then it was proven when J.T. Snow damn near killed Darren Baker.

The Giants went on to beat Anaheim 16-4 in Game 5, but I wasn't there to see it. Sometime in the 6th or 7th inning, I'd had enough. I could only stand to see my team getting beat so badly, then I'd had enough. I remember thinking that it was over, that our first trip to the World Series was doomed and that the Angels had once again crashed and burned, only this time dragging millions of people behind them with the promise of hope. I walked out of my dad's room, convinced that he was the bad luck, and spent the next two days expecting the inevitable defeat when the Halos got back home to Anaheim.

Game 6 is why I don't remember much about the prior five games in the 2002 World Series. I watched it in my room, on my television, with my bored-but-feigning-interest girlfriend (now my wife) beside me. I watched as Russ Ortiz pitched 6 1/3 amazing innings, shutting us down and leading the Giants to the inevitable San Francisco victory as they led 5-0. Then, with one out in the 7th, Ortiz gave up back-to-back singles, putting two men on base. Dusty Baker then came out of the dugout, and did something incredibly stupid: As he pulled Ortiz, he gave him the game ball. Right there, on the mound at Anaheim. In front of everybody.

I was apoplectic. At that moment, if I had any psychokinetic powers, Dusty Baker's head would have exploded right there on the field, seemingly without reason, in front of 45,000 shocked fans.

But I saw it. Which means that everybody in that dugout saw it too. And the Giants paid for it.

With two on, one out in the bottom of the 7th inning, Felix Rodriguez was brought in to pitch to Scott Spezio, who after fouling off a seemingly unending string of pitches in one of the most excruciatingly suspenseful at bats since Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, parked one.

I cried.

I don't say that in an exaggerated manner to show the emotion I had while watching that at bat. I say that in a literal sense. I cried. Not teary-eyed, not a single tear of happiness. I broke down into sobs, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I broke down into sobs for a few minutes, because right then I knew. We were still down 5-3, but I knew at that moment that the Giants were not walking out of Anaheim with a World Series trophy.

The Rally Monkey showed its worth, as the rally continued into the 8th, where Troy Glaus doubled off ace closer Robb Nen to drive in two runs and lead the Angels to the greatest comeback from any team facing elimination in a World Series game.

They should have given us the trophy after Game 6, because there was no way we were losing Game 7. It was almost anti-climactic. San Francisco was demoralized after the Game 6 loss, and when Troy Percival took the mound in the 9th, I was counting the strikes until the third out. And with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, that fly ball into center field landed in Darin Erstad's glove, and I jumped up, raised my arms, and screamed.

The Angels, MY Angels, were World Champions.

The Yankee Captain

2006-11-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

As much as I try or want to keep this blog and my entries related to the Angels and myself, sometimes circumstances prevent me from doing so, such as this postseason, where baseball was focused on the teams that actually made the playoffs, and this offseason, where baseball news is going to be sparse, and Angels news hard to come by.

Thankfully, though, this blog is first and foremost about me, so I can talk about whatever I want.

And today, that subject happens to be Derek Jeter.

I've only talked about Derek Jeter briefly on this blog. I've always thought he was a hell of a player with tremendous heart, and is the epitome of Yankees baseball.

But lately, my opinion on him has changed. And it's all in the wake of A-Rod's tumultuous year in 2006.

On SI.com today, Phil Taylor posted an article titled "Jeter's No MVP" that, for the first time I've seen in the media, brings up many of the points I've been making about Derek Jeter's responsibilities and cuplability in Alex Rodriguez's problems this year. He does a good job in pointing out how very un-captain-like Jeter has acted toward the troubled superstar since A-Rod arrived in New York in 2004.

But Phil Taylor doesn't go far enough, in my opinion.

Mr. Taylor neglected to mention one huge point in his article. He brings up the lack of public support Jeter has shown A-Rod in the midst of his bad times in the Bronx. Derek Jeter has not given one word to the press in support of the man who may be the greatest player to ever take the field. Mr. Taylor says that Derek Jeter "has never been too much of a talker," but he forgot that, when it has been necessary, Derek Jeter has been fiercely defensive of his teammates, as was evident by the unwavering public support he gave Jason Giambi in the midst of his involvement in the Balco steroids scandal.

If Derek Jeter can come to the defense of an acknowledged juicer, why can't he say a few words of support, or show anything more than a cold shoulder, to Alex Rodriguez, whose crimes are only a lack of confidence and a slump?

And I also feel he glossed over the transition A-Rod made from shortstop to third base when he became a Yankee. If you look at the five years prior to Rodriguez coming to the Yankees, A-Rod has a better fielding percentage at shortstop than Jeter does. With that in mind, if Derek Jeter wanted to show his stripes as the captain of the Yankees, he would have made the move to third or second, allowing the better player to field the position of shortstop. I know a lot of people will argue with me (if I had a lot of people reading this, that is!), but a captain is supposed to be selfless, and were Jeter altruistic in his leadership, he would have recognized that allowing A-Rod to play SS would have made the transition to the Yankees much easier, and he would have been much more comfortable. This alone could have made those jeers Rodriguez has faced in New York the last few years never have happened.

But ultimately, these points are moot, as Jeter has shown he is more of a brand-new 2nd Lieutenant with a god complex than a true captain.

In April 2001, Alex Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, were interviewed in Esquire Magazine. In this article, Rodriguez said the following about Derek Jeter:

"Jeter's been blessed with great talent around him," Alex says. "He's never had to lead. He can just go and play and have fun. And he hits second—that's totally different than third and fourth in a lineup. You go into New York, you wanna stop Bernie and O'Neill. You never say, Don't let Derek beat you. He's never your concern."

After the article appeared, the friendship A-Rod and Jeter had ended. Apparently, Rodriguez flew to Michigan (or wherever Jeter lives in the off season) and made a tearful apology to Jeter, but was treated coldly. Jeter has apparently never let go of that, and holds a grudge still to this day.

For Derek Jeter to act like that shows what a spoiled child he truly is. Holding grudges over something as silly as, well, the truth (A-Rod was saying that Jeter lacked power) shows what a piss-poor captain Derek Jeter is.

It's too bad Bernie Williams is done in New York. His quiet confidence and leadership through action would be much better than the spoiled 4-year-old they have there now.

Of course, I must mention that I do disagree with Phil Taylor on the main part of his article. I feel that Jeter had an MVP-caliber year in 2006, and more than the others on his list deserves that trophy. He stepped up and produced every day, and were it not for him the pressure of all the injuries, the aging pitching, and the demanding public and New York press would have cracked the Yankees right down the middle. So, when the voting results are announced and Jeter is named the AL MVP, I won't be surprised a bit, and I won't say he didn't deserve it.

But if he had acted like the captain he's supposed to be, he may have been able to add a World Series MVP trophy to that.

Now The World Knows: It's best to watch baseball in Anaheim

2006-10-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is a little old. But it's worth mentioning here, as it's always nice when the most respected sports magazine tells the world that the best MLB experience you can get is at Angel Stadium. That's right, folks. Sports Illustrated's annual "Fan Value Index" puts our beloved Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and "The Big A" right at the top.

I actually found this article well before I started this blog. But, as things tend to do on web sites, it disappeared, and I feared I'd never be able to link it here. Then it magically showed up again today, and now I get the opportunity to write about it.

This is a brilliant idea, really. It's very, very hard to compare venues as a baseball fan. Living in Southern California, I have more MLB teams local to me than most across America do. I have the Angels a mere five miles down Katella Avenue. The Dodgers are a short traffic jam up Interstate 5. And a hundred miles south play the Padres in Petco park. And folks, those are the only stadiums I have ever seen a ballgame played at. I've driven by the Oakland Colliseum. I've flown over the old Kingdome and new Safeco Park in Seattle. And I've stood outside the gates at Camden Yards in the middle of January while visiting my friend Doug from the Army. But I've only seen SoCal ballfields, and that's a big regret.

But, even had I done a cross-country ballpark trip and visited every Major League stadium in during one of my summers, it would have been hard to gauge the quality of any venue outside Anaheim. First off, I've seen hundreds of games at "The Big A." Even in the 65,000 seat mausoleum it used to be, it was still MY local stadium and MY local team. So my handul of trips to Chavez Ravine to see the Dodgers play or the one outing to see the Braves play the Padres at Petco this season with Art Lyles, the president of California Paralyzed Veterans Association (and a good friend of mine) were both substandard to a simple trip down the road to see my Angels. Even had I taken a vacation to see every stadium in the country (and Toronto), I would still say that "The Big A" was the best value for seeing an MLB game.

But now, it's confirmed by Sports Illustrated. It was done by polling rather than one or two supposedly unbiased sportswriters, which makes it more accurate. And we even moved up this year, after coming in 4th in the 2005 Fan Value Index.

So, if you want the best bang for your buck, the best overall experience while seeing a Major League Baseball game, head to Anaheim.

We'd love to see you there!

2002 Remembered, part 2

2006-10-29T17:51:00.000-08:00

A funny thing happened on the road to the playoffs in 2002.

I can remember being at the old "Big A," the 65,000 seat monstrosity with capacity crowds. Once was a July 4th game sometime in the mid-eighties, another was on August 13, 1989 against the Oakland A's. Seeing the old Anaheim Stadium filled with fans was a thing of beauty, a true feeling of being part of something big.

But for the most part, games back then were played in front of a mostly-empty stadium.

My wife recently bought me the DVD A Red Dawn Rises: The Story of the 2002 Anaheim Angels and while watching this 2-hour montage of the championship season, I was struck by something. In April of 2002, while the Angels were off to their first World Series Championship, the stands of the new and improved "Edison Field" were only half full.

Empty seats were common until recent Angels history, and memories of small crowds are part of the nostalgia held firm in the minds of old-time fans. As the Angels are a Southern California team, it's to be expected and accepted that when they're winning, they're going to draw more.

The upsetting thing to me, though, was the "fans."

I've long been used to the ridicule that Angels fans take, or at least used to take. LA Clippers fans used to laugh at us for loving such a hopeless team. So when I used to go to "The Big A," it was a common site to see more of an opposing team's jerseys on fans in the crowd than those sporting Angels gear. Then suddenly, I see the 2002 ALDS on TV and what do I see in the stands?

A sea of red so uniform that, were Moses to descend from heaven onto the pitcher's mound at Edison Field, he would not be able to resist the urge to part it.

The whole 2002 playoffs, as I sat watching at home or elsewhere, there was one thought I couldn't get out of my head: How many of these people in their red caps and jackets were wearing Yankees or Red Sox gear during the regular season and rooting AGAINST the Angels? How many had never bought a piece of Angels clothing until they went to the playoffs?

Much of this was probably due to my jealousy from not being able to score tickets. But, as it turned out, even if I had been able to buy tickets for the ALCS, I never would have been able to use them.

You see, I have a dirty little secret. As an Angels fan, there's not much October magic to remember. So when talking to other Angels fans, it's pretty much assumed that you've seen the recent postseason success. I remember the 1986 ALCS, I remember Donnie Moore giving up that shot to Dave Henderson, but I was too young in 1982 or 1979 to have cared much about the playoffs at all, even though my team was in them.

But now, four years later, I have a confession to make.

I didn't see a single game of the 2002 ALCS.

Yes, I know, the impression I've tried to make in you since I started this blog has been shot to hell. There's no way I can be a true Angels fan if I missed the playoffs in 2002. Sure, anybody can jump on the bandwagon and watch the World Series. But if you couldn't be bothered to watch the Angels get there, you aren't a real Angels fan, are you?

Well, let me explain the circumstances to you.

As Game 1 of the 2002 ALCS opened in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, October 8, 2002, Orange County sat entranced in front of their televisions. As the National Anthem was sung and the game started, I was with about 120 other men from B Co 1/160th Infantry in our armory in Orange, California. As the Angels lost Game 1 to the Twins 2-1, I was on a bus en route to Ft. Irwin, about half way between Orange County and Las Vegas out in the Mojave desert. As baseball was played in Minnesota, I sat with an M-249 SAW (above) in my lap and wondered about the game and my Angels.

We went out to Ft. Irwin to waste thousands of tax dollars on the firing range, qualifying with the M-16 and (for awesome soldiers like I) the M-249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), an 800 round-per-minute can of whoop-ass that, as was the case with me, is usually carried by the smallest, scrawniest guy in the squad. We slept on the range, under the Mojave stars, bundled up in our issue sleeping bags and neither shaving nor showering nor changing clothes for our entire stay.

I volunteered nightly for fireguard, making me quite popular amongst the other soldiers. I took the shift from 11 PM to midnight, a shift soldiers hate due to it requiring you to go to bed for an hour or two, wake up, then try to get back to sleep for a few hours before wake up.

I took it so I could climb up into the range control tower, set my cell phone to "roam," and call my dad.

Roaming is expensive, so my calls were kept to a couple minutes. And with the exception of "Hi dad," "I love you dad," and "Goodnight dad," the conversations revolved around one main topic: How did the Angels do tonight?

On Sunday morning, October 13, 2002, we boarded busses and made our way back to our Armory. The Angels had taken a 3-1 series lead the night before, and as we unloaded our gear into the Armory in Hart Park in Orange, Game 5 was underway. A weekend in the desert for a civilian is dirty enough. For a soldier, it requires hours of cleanup. So as we unloaded the bus at around 2 or 3 PM, we knew we wouldn't be dismissed until well after dinner time. We laid our weapons inside the Armory and prepared to start cleaning.

But a funny thing happened on the way to weapons disassembly. Out in the storage building, one of the supply sergeants had a clock radio.

While about half the Company was inside cleaning weapons and gear, the other half of us were huddled around a small radio in a tin-roofed shed, surrounded by gas masks and ruck sacks, listening to the game. We tried to stay as quiet as possible, but as the game went on, as Adam Kennedy hit one, two, then three home runs, as the outs dwindled away for Minnesota, the excitement built.

And as the Angels shut down the Twins in the 9th inning and Rory Markus (I think he was announcing, at least) let his excitement burst through as he announced that the Angels were going to the World Series, the cheers erupted and a bunch of dirty, grimy, stinky soldiers jumped up and down in a celebration that probably looked much like what was happening at Edison Field just a few miles away.

The Angels were going to the World Series.

to be concluded...

And the 2007 predictions start...

2006-10-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

One day. Less than that, really. I got up today at about noon, did my check of the usual news and sports sites and came across this article by Tony DeMarco at msnbc.com.

It took less than one day for some professional sportswriter to post his predictions for the 2007 season. I'm a bit impressed, actually. It certainly takes balls to put your prognosticating skills on the line before a single player files for free agency, before the winter meetings, before a single signing or trade, hell, before all the confetti is even cleaned up at Busch Stadium.

I'd probably scoff a little bit, act superior, do a bit of internet trash talking if he hadn't picked the Angels to win the American League Pennant. DeMarco says:

Los Angeles: They didn’t pull the trigger to add offense when they desperately needed it, and it cost them. They won’t make that mistake this winter, when you can count on a big bat being added. And you have to figure a Mike Scioscia team will play better fundamentally and defensively than in 2006. There should be enough pitching to make an extended run, so here is your AL pennant winner.

Doesn't that just make you smile a bit? Well, so long as you're an Angels fan. It's even better if you're a Mets fan, as he picks them to beat us in the World Series.

I'm not gonna comment too much on his psychic abilities, because I was a whopping 3-for-7 in postseason series this year, and though that's a good record if your name is Jeff Weaver (Ba-DUM-bum!), it's shitty when you consider that I was making predictions the day before play started in each series. DeMarco is picking the World Series winner a whole year (give or take a day or two) in advance. I can't do that.

I'm not even going to sit here and say that the Angels are my pick for the AL Pennant. It's just too early for me. I think the Angels have as good a chance as anybody, and we're going to be a force to be reckoned with if we get some more hitting, but AL Champs? It would be nice...

I'd be doing this blog regardless of whether I thought the Angels could go all the way this year. Like Stephen King and Stewarn O'Nan in their book "Faithful," I may have picked the right year to do this, but there's a damn good chance this blog won't end with a final post entitled "ANGELS WIN WORLD SERIES!" But unlike King and O'Nan, this isn't for publishing. This is to keep me writing, to hone my skills, to keep my brain working, and to be a better fan. I'd like to get a bunch of readers, but only to get some discussion going, some comments to give me ideas for posts, and make new friends with a similar passion. And I'd be doing it even if the Angels were picked to finish behind the Kansas City Royals.

For the thousandth time, this is not a blog about Angels moves, scores, and standings. This is a blog about me enjoying a season with my favorite team. And win or lose, championship or cellar, I will be there the entire year.

But oh boy would it be nice to write a blog about a year being an Angels fan in a season when they win it all...

Wish I'd have thought of this in 2002.

Now, a bit of Angels roster news. Before you point out to me that just three paragraphs ago I wrote "this is not a blog about Angels moves, scores, and standings," I have to say I'd be a bad blogger if I didn't include all the Angels news items I could. If you get news, though, you'll certainly get my opinion.

This wasn't in any of the usual sports sites I read daily, but Sportingnews.com reports that the Angels have released Curtis Pride. I've seen him play a few times, filling in for injured or resting players, but never knew much about him. I certainly didn't know he was drafted in 1986 and has bounced around more teams than a nymphomaniac groupie. I can't remember one thing about him, other than his great name. I feel bad that he's never really made it, and I'm sorry he couldn't with us. But I hope it's not too late for him, that he finds a team this offseason and has a great year. (edit: Upon doing more research, I had no idea that Curtis Pride is deaf. I think it's great that I had no idea about this, as I've watched him play as any normal player, seeing him for his talent, not his disability.)

On a closing note, I've decided that, in the spirit of my team, I'm making all my clickies in this blog red instead of the usual blue. I hope it isn't too confusing, as it seems the logical choice.

And if we win the World Series a year from now (give or take a few days), I'll credit it entirely to the karma of the red clickies.

Four years ago yesterday; 2002 Remembered, part 1

2006-10-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I forgot about it... I feel like such a bad fan, almost like I missed my child's birthday or forgot to get my wife an anniversary present. Yesterday, October 27th, was the four year anniversary of the Angels' defeat of the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series.

I suppose I can be forgiven. It's not as if I received an engraved invitation to the party or anything. I kinda hoped the 4th anniversary party would be on the field of some National League team, as the Angels won their second World Series this year. But, alas, it wasn't to be, and I now have reason to write this blog (It'd be a boring diary, that of a fan the year AFTER a World Series win, wouldn't it?)

But, nonetheless, yesterday was the four year mark of the first World Championship in Anaheim, and thusfar, the last. And your normal blogger would probably use this space to talk about the series. They'd post recaps of the games, pics of Troy Percival celebrating the final out of Game 7, things like that. But not I.

No, I will take this opportunity to recount my experience of the 2002 World Series.

I know nobody cares about this except me, as any true Angels fan will find it inferior to their own recollections of watching, of LIVING, the World Series we always hoped, but never thought, would be.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

It all started with a kind of dumb disbelief and, to be honest, a strong dose of cynicism. When the Angels clinched the Wild Card slot in 2002, it was something I wasn't used to. The 1995 Angels and their collapse was, though. Coming the season after the '94 strike, I wasn't that concerned. Even with Cal Ripken's 2131st consecutive game, baseball was on my shit list, and the fact that Disney had bought my team did not help. So, as the Angels slid from an 11-game August lead to a tie for the AL West, it wasn't a surprise. Nor was Seattle's 9-1 victory in the 1-game playoff to decide the AL West Championship.

My entire life, the Angels were a first-half team. I watched them compete neck-and-neck with the Oakland A's in 1989, only to collapse after the All-Star break. It was expected that any success the Angels had would be early and fleeting.

But there was something different about 2002. Perhaps it was the uniform change. Chris Berman at ESPN had called the 1997-2001 design (logo to the left) "Softball beer league" uniforms, and I can't think of anything that describes it better. Perhaps the Rally Monkey truly had mystical powers.

But more likely, it was the right players, the right manager and coaches, at the right time. The Angels fought through the regular season to win 99 games, and for the first time since I've been old enough to truly pay attention, it looked like they believed they could win.

So, as the ALDS started and the Yankees came to Anaheim for Game 1, I was excited to have postseason baseball in my town, in my stadium, but my hopes weren't too high. These were the New York Yankees, the defending American League Champions, and nobody gave the Angels a chance. Much like an actor up for an Academy Award with no chance of winning saying "It's an honor just to be nominated," I thought it was a special season just to be in the playoffs, and I was happy just to be able to turn on my TV in October and watch Angels baseball.

I figured the Yankees would win in 4 games, and the only reason I didn't pick the Yankees to win in 3 is because I didn't have the heart to pick my Angels to get swept.

So in Game 1 at Edison Field, when the Angels took a 5-4 lead into the 8th inning, I was surprised. When the Yankees came back in to go ahead 8-5, I was not.

But then something amazing happened. In New York, the Angels won Game 2. The sweep that the entire baseball writing world had predicted was not to happen. And those slow rolling waves of hope began to erode the bedrock of pessimism my Fandom was built upon. I kept thinking to myself these are the Angels, they'll find 2002's answer to Donnie Moore, but these thoughts were half-hearted. By the time the Angels won Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead over the Yankees in the 5 game series, cynical thoughts were softer, quieter, and were starting to be less of a defense mechanism and more fear that it might happen.

So, when the Angels beat the Yankees 9-5 in Game 4 of the 2002 ALDS, I cheered loudly in front of my TV. I smiled. My Angels had just won their first ever postseason series, and by stunning the mighty Yankees, no less! 2002 was a success, regardless of what happened after that.

And while doom was in my mind, the brightness of hope had, for the first time, drowned it out.

To be continued...

End of the postseason, or beginning of preseason? PLUS! This blog gets a reader!

2006-10-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

Cardinals win! And with that, the 2006 season is in the books. A long, cold winter lies ahead, as well as the biggest test I'll have for this blog: No longer will I be able to get by with daily updates about the playoffs, letting my sparse opinions on daily happenings in playoff games fulfill my promise that this is not a blog about a sport or a team, but about ME enjoying my team.

While the winter meetings are coming up and free agency starts now, there's going to be little news for a few months on the baseball front. While I'm sure I could make a daily post out of all the trades, free agent signings, rumors, and speculation for the 2007 season, I'll get bored doing that VERY quickly and that's what SI.com is for.

I'd say ESPN.com as well, but for everything cool there you have to be a member. ESPN.com is like a porn site; it gives you enough to turn you on, but if you want to click the really juicy links, you gotta break out the credit card.

So, in the next few months, expect this to be a blog more about me than the Angels. I'm sure I'll write many a post about my life as an Angels fan, about games I've been to, about the history of my club, but for the most part, be prepared to meet ME.

With that said, there's one piece of semi-Angels news I feel I need to talk about. I've been hearing about Gary Sheffield's whining these last few days, about his attempts to whine his way out of the Yankees picking up his $13 million option for 2007 and possibly trading him, rather than buying out his contract so he can sign a multi-year contract with another team, possibly an AL East rival. I can't blame the Yankees for thinking this way. It's better to trade him to a city where he can't hurt you than to let him go to the Red Sox, for example. But much like Sheffield did in 2005, basically putting a "no trade clause" in his contract by saying he wouldn't play if he were traded, basically being a little whiny bitch and saying "If I can't be a Yankee, I'm gonna take my ball and go home," Jon Heyman at SI.com reports that he's doing the exact same thing again. Click the link, scroll down about 2/3 of the page, and watch your jaw drop as a millionaire whines and cries.

The reason I bring this up isn't due to my surprise at spoiled rotten Gary Sheffield. I bring this up for this line in the article: the Yankees are seriously considering picking up his option for $13 million to trade him to one of a few teams that's expressed interest (the Angels are one).

I pray this isn't true. I pray that, if Bill Stoneman is this big an idiot, that Arte Moreno has the brains to stop him. The Yankees are in desperate need of pitching, so that would be the likely cost for the Angels in this trade.

Ignoring Sheffield's attitude for a second, let's look at Gary Sheffield the player. Sure, he's had a great career. But the man is THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD. Yes, I had to bold that. Is it worth giving up a young pitcher for a slugger who never truly reached his potential, and even if he had, he's seen his best days years ago? I expected this from the old Angels. It was commonplace in the 80's and 90's to let the young talent slip away to get a big name has-been. I still feel a burning sensation in my ass from the Dante Bichette-for-Dave Parker trade in 1992. And I will be very unhappy if Arte Moreno leads this team down the same slope it once owned. Then, of course, there's Sheffield's attitude. Does any Angels fan want a player on this team who tells the press "If you want to trade for me, you have to deal with me directly. Trust me, you won't want me there if I'm not happy. I don't care if I love the owner, if I love the GM, if I love the city. I'm going on my terms?" I hope that answer is a resounding "No."

So yes, I actually had a bit of Angels news in there! Are you surprised? I know I've advertised this as an Angels blog, and have had a lot of problems keeping that promise. But rest assured, if you're an Angels fan, I'll do my best to make this blog "must-read" for the 2007 season.

Speaking of which, I logged in tonight to find I had a couple comments waiting for me! And, as a plus, the person who left them is NOT somebody I know personally! (Apologies to Scott Topiol, but I've known him for five years, so his readership is almost required.) My new reader calls himself "SecondBest Dad," and God bless him, he's a big Angels fan too! Many thanks to you, SecondBest Dad. I really appreciate your comments, and infinitely more, I'm happy that you appreciate my blog! Keep the comments coming, even if it means calling me an idiot when I'm being one! Oh, and tell all the Angels fans you know about this, as I'm an attention whore and LOVE having readers! By the way, you have me really intrigued with the thought of Aramis Ramirez in a Halos uniform. I haven't heard any rumors, but I think he'd be a great fit with our club. A player like him batting third with Vladdy behind him (not vice-versa, as Vladamir Guerrero is the best bad-ball hitter I've ever seen, making him VERY tough to pitch around), you have a very potent heart of the lineup, don't you?

Of course, this is all speculation. But that's the joy of winter. We have all the time we need to wish, think, and hope.

Come Spring, it's time to think about actually PLAYING baseball again!

2006 World Series Game 5

2006-10-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

And with the Cardinals 4-2 win over the Detroit Tigers tonight, the 200 baseball season comes to a close. I'd like to sit here and talk about the important plays of tonight's game, the clutch moments, the mistakes that cost the Tigers, but I really can't. Tonight was my bowling night, and while the game was on at Valley View Lanes, there was no sound, and it's a bit tough to keep up with a muted World Series game while getting a few glimpses in between tossing a ball down the alley. Though I did see Justin Verlander throw two wild pitches in the first inning, and Chris Duncan try to give the game away with two dropped fly balls in right field. But I worry not, as even if I had thousands of readers, I'm quite sure none of them would come here for a complete game recap. Besides, SI.com does a better job than I ever could.

As Adam Wainwright was on the mound in the top of the 9th, I snuck away from my ball-tossing duties to the bar, trying to catch the third out on the bigscreen with sound. And while silence sometimes seems preferable to listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, there's no announcer in the world that's so horrible that I wouldn't want to hear the final out in the World Series. But alas, I got to the bar and the bigscreen was off and Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" was on the jukebox. So the roar of the crowd and wisdom for history from Buck or McCarver forever escaped my ears.

It wasn't until I got home tonight that I learned that David Eckstein was named the World Series MVP. This in itself made the whole postseason for me. After his performance in Game 3, Tom Verducci wrote a "David [Eckstein] vs. Goliath" article at SI.com. With that and tonight's MVP award, I'm thrilled that the whole world has now seen "The X-Factor" that we had of-so-briefly in Anaheim. Though it is bittersweet, as I have to remember that the Angels didn't even offer him a contract when he was a free agent in 2004. Yes, we signed Orlando Cabrera in the 2004 offseason, and yes OC is, in most ways, a better shortstop. But Eckstein is a real-life Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger; he's five-foot nuthin', weighs a hundred and nuthin', and ever inch and pound of that is heart. In the article linked above, Tony LaRussa says that Eckstein is the toughest player he's ever seen in uniform. That sparkplug type of player, that personality, is something that cannot be scouted, nor can it be taught, and it's been obvious that it's been missing in the Angels dugout the past two seasons.

But with that, the great sport of baseball will fall silent. A long winter's rest lies ahead, and other distractions and sports will occupy our time. But spring is right around the corner, and as the snow melts in higher latitudes and the days begin to grow longer, men will once again come together to play this greatest of children's games.

Spring is a ways off, but oh how glorious that renewal will be.

2006 World Series Game 4

2006-10-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

It only needs to be said once: David Eckstein is the MAN! Watching him go 4-for-4 with three doubles including one in the bottom of the 8th to drive in the game-winning run fills me with conflicting emotions. I said it best in my post on Jacob Luft's blog at SI.com last night (and yes, I'm copying and pasting this because I'm a lazy bastard):

David Eckstein is the PERFECT example of how you can always find somebody to root for in the playoffs, even if your team didn't make it. Tommy Lasorda should have pulled "The X-Factor" out during those commercials, as watching Eckstein is a lot more fun that rooting against any team, even the Yankees (for you Boston fans.)

Of all the players I've seen slip through the seams in Anaheim, Eckstein is probably the one I miss the most. He's a modern-day Rudy, half the size of your average player, but ten times the heart. His presence in the Angels dugout is sorely missed, and I can't help but cheer for him wherever he goes. And watching him hit those three doubles tonight was enough reason to watch a World Series starring two teams I care little about.

It makes me a bit sad seeing Eckstein and Spezio in a World Series and wearing a red uniform (a color which we stole, but boy was it the perfect color to steal!) and remembering that this isn't 2002. But I can always get my daily allowance of sour grapes watching Jeff Weaver pitch.

So, Eckstein, Spezio, Edmonds, and the rest: I hope you take this series. I hope two guys that Bill Stoneman cast off from our club find the joy of winning in St. Louis.

but I hope you guys get shelled tomorrow. At least until Larussa pulls Weaver.

I hate the fact that we're still paying him millions to do for St. Louis what he couldn't in Anaheim: Win.

So, even if the Tigers win it, they can't do it in the 6 games I predicted now. And what good is history if you can't remind people about it at every turn? Of course, this isn't 1968 or 1985, so it doesn't mean it will happen again. A team with a 3-1 lead in the World Series has won 85% of the time. I'll take the Cardinals.

In 6, of course. I just can't pick them to win tonight with Jeff Weaver on the mound.

Unless, as I said, he gets shelled and pulled early, and the Cardinals come back to win it.

2006 World Series Game 4: RAINED OUT!

2006-10-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

Therefore, we all need something to alleviate the boredom... So, instead of cruising around the humor sites, the news sites can be just as entertaining, as sometimes, the funniest story of the year can be found at a real news site...

A little catching up...

2006-10-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, since all I've been doing lately is commenting on World Series games, there has been an accumulation of tabs in my Firefox browser waiting to be clickied and stuck in here for your viewing pleasure (or, rather, my own cataloguing, as I have no throngs of constant readers yet).

First off, let's get back to my A-Rod fixation. Don't you love that picture to the left? Hell, I'm an Alex Rodriguez fan and I think it's funny as hell. And the purse is just such a great touch. Poor A-Rod... This is the moment, right here, where he went from THE GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) to just A goat. That slap in the 2004 ALCS... Had it worked, it would have been one of the smartest moves by one of the best players ever to play the game. Instead, it's going to be in his epitaph as a joke.

Anyway, back to the point. There's been a few A-Rod articles recently dealing with the trade rumors. This one by Bob Klapisch over at ESPN.com weighs the possibilities of a trade regardless of what Brian Cashman, the Yankee's GM, or A-Rod say. The Angels are mentioned as having "enough talent to make the Yankees listen," but they mention the notorious tightness of Bill Stoneman. Then, today (again at ESPN.com), Scott Boras (Rodriguez's agent) says his client is spending at least one more season in the Bronx.

You know, all this speculation is fun and all, but it's getting tiring. It made me jump with glee when I first started seeing rumors that one of my favorite players might have a chance of wearing the uniform of my team, but now it's unsettling. Regardless of what is true or isn't as far as these rumors are concerned, the near silence of the Yankees is deafening. Of course Cashman is out there saying "we're not trading him," but that rings as hollow as a candidate for the Presidency talking about lower taxes. Were I George Steinbrenner, everybody on that team would be shouting at the top of their lungs about how A-Rod is going NOWHERE. They'd be angry and frothing at the mouth about these asshole sportswriters trying to make controversy where there is none. Instead, you get flat denials from Brian Cashman. So I'd still love to see him come here, but at this point, it'd be more like welcoming a refugee than a baseball god.

Enough A-Rod rumors. Let's go to rumors surrounding other players. SI.com's "Turth and Rumors" column lists the Angels as a team interested in free agent Barry Zito, and the A's interested in Bud Black for the open managerial position. While I can't really comment on Bud Black's ability, I can say that, while Zito is good, he hasn't shown the same dominance he used to have in about three or four years, and it's not pitching we have a lack of right now.

Unless we ship away a pitcher or two for a slugger who's no longer welcome in pinstripes...

And with that, it's time for a little listening pleasure. God bless you, Terry Cashman. Thank you for this version of the greatest baseball song ever written, as well as the inspiration for this blog's domain name.

Be forewarned: If you play that song even once, it'll be in your head for days.

2006 World Series: Game 3

2006-10-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

Cardinals win 5-0. Chris Carpenter pitches 8 scoreless innings, and once again one team shows its bats, the other team hides theirs. Back and forth this series wobbles, and on which side of its axis it will land is all up in the air now.

In other words, it looks like a real series.

Well, except for the fact that none of the three games so far has been competitive. One team or the other shows up. It sure would be nice to see some back and forth scoring or a true pitcher's duel, but hey, even though it is the Fall Classic, not all of them can be classics...

2006 World Series, Game 2

2006-10-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

And the Tigers bite back! Yeah, I know, more then 24 hours have passed since the game, but I've been lying in bed most of the day while the pain in my hip has become nearly unbearable and there happens to be a Vicodin shortage in my house right now.

Last night's game was hardly a blowout, but of course the Tiger's win was not the big story of the night. That belonged to 41 year old pitcher Kenny Rogers.

You'd think his 23 scoreless inning playoff streak would make the news in big ways, or the way he absolutely dominated the Cardinals hitting last night. No, the big news (all over the front page on every sports site) is a mysterious blob of something on his pitching hand. John Heyman at SI.com reports that it was probably pine tar. Rogers himself said it was dirt and rosin or something. But all of that is meaningless.

In the first inning, the umpires were alerted to it. The head umpire told him to wash his hands, and it he did, and it was gone. Then (here's the kicker) Rogers proceeded to shut down the Cardinals for the rest of the night, sans pine tar or whatever it was.

I was on the phone with my friend Scott Topiol during the first innings of the game last night when the cameras showed the "brown clump" on Rogers' throwing hand. (as seen to the left.) I said to him "Oh, shit, this is all we're gonna hear about for the rest of the series," and it appears I'm right. Those ever-so-clever journalists out there, always on the cutting edge of coming up with new ways to simplify things for the moronic masses, have named this... hold on to your panties... "Dirtgate." Ah, how great is it that the Watergate hotel gave us not only an important news story and scandal, but also a suffix to use to describe anything that reeks of scandal or cover-up? I only wish it had been called the "Watershire." It sounds much more classy... Imagine "Dirtshire." Or, if there's a scandal in Worcester, it'd be "Worcestershire." Thank you, that joke cost me $400.00. Damn writer's union.

Either way, there's a simple end to this, and it's much like the steroids scandal plaguing baseball today (more on that later, I have a blog entry from myspace.com I'll repost here on that), which I suppose is now "Juicegate." Whether that was dirt, pine tar, sexual lubricant, solid rocket fuel, or weapons-grade plutonium, it doesn't matter. No, not in the ESPN.com "baseball will survive" "doesn't matter" way. It doesn't matter because the umpire was alerted, and told him to wash his hands. End of story.

There are no "checks and balances" on a baseball field. The umpire crew are a group of men who are despotic in their powers. They are Pharaohs on the field, Kim Jong Ils in blue shirts and black pants. Their word is not just law, it's divine. A strike is a strike, and no amount of arguing is going to change it. Umpires will often conference to make a decision, but once they do, there is no appealing to a higher court, no Marbury vs. Madison ruling that removes any power from the umps. What they say goes.

So, when the umpire told Kenny Rogers to wash his hands, that was it. Story over. Dirt or not, cheating or not, what happened on the field of play was decided and no amount of second or third guessing by the Fourth Estate will change any of it. It's been decided, and it's not for us to decide any longer.

End rant.

Prepare for game three tomorrow in St. Louis.

2006 World Series: Game 1

2006-10-22T03:01:00.000-07:00

And boy, what a difference a week spent mowing lawns and poking wives makes to the bats of a Major League ballclub. It appears as if the Tigers and Cardinals have truly saved the best for last, as the Cards suddenly found their offense in their Game 1 victory in Detroit tonight. And all this behind a stellar 8 innings from a pitcher who went 5-8 in the regular season and wasn't even on the roster after spring training.

And surprised they were in Detroit. I said earlier today that Detroit got to the World Series on momentum, and apparently a long layoff was not what the Tigers needed. I read one of those "kiss of death" stats today (you know, the ones like when the announcer says "so-and-so has not given up a home run to a left-handed batter in 97 innings, and you wince, because you know the next pitch the guy throws is going to be in the bleachers) saying that the last 6 or so teams coming into the World Series with more than five days of rest have gone on to win it. Detroit was supposed to be rested and ready, St. Louis was supposed to be bruised and weary from their battle with New York.

St. Louis's "weariness" gave them seven runs tonight, and Detroit's "rested" bats went cold and never threatened except for a run in the 1st inning and a gimme in the 9th.

I still stand by my prediction, but I have to let you in on a little secret: I'm kinda sorta rooting for the Cards.

I'm an American League man all the way. I grew up in an American League town. Seeing pitchers bat is foreign to me, and were double switches or pulling pitchers for a pinch hitter rather than tiring arms commonplace for my favorite team, I'd have to learn a lot more baseball strategy. Generally, I cheer for the American League team in the All Star Game and the Fall Classic.

But this year, it's a bit different.

First off, I really don't care much about either team. While the Tigers have a great history going back to before the turn of the last century, they've never been a team of mystique to me like the Yankees or the Red Sox. They've never really had players I liked, they've never been a perennial contender, and they've never captured my imagination. St. Louis is an NL team, which is one strike against it already. And though it too has a storied history, the team that was for many years the furthest West AND South in Major League Baseball has never captured my fancy either, though I do like seeing Busch Stadium all full of fans in red (hey, we stole their color, but dammit we stole the RIGHT color!)

With that said, in normal circumstances I'd fall back on the familiar and root for the Tigers to win. But I find my allegiance in this series has been swayed to the Cardinals now. And it's not for their red uniforms or a sudden appreciation of the National League. In fact, it has less to do with the uniform they wear than those wearing the uniform.

Though they have long left my Angels, I'm pulled toward hoping for a St. Louis victory because of David Eckstein, Scott Spezio, and especially Jim Edmonds, who wasn't around in 2002 with the other guys.

But definitely not for Jeff Weaver.

Screw Jeff Weaver.

Had he pitched even half as well as his younger sibling and man who replaced him in the Angels rotation, Jered Weaver, we may have been a lot less back in the AL West than 4 games. In fact, we may have won the division for a third straight season and seen how the Detroit momentum held out when it met us instead of Oakland Moneyball.

Yeah, yeah, if ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas. And if 3-10 pitchers signed as free agents could pull their weight and pitch .500 ball, we may have had a different playoff picture.

Sorry, but I wish Jeff Weaver the best and I hope he gets a ring, I really do. But seeing him pitch (very well, at times) in the playoffs while we're still paying him the $11 million for this season and St. Louis is chipping in the league minimum (about $350k) is like a piece of beef jerkey stuck in a cracked tooth.

At least that's money we'll have free next year to bring in a bat or two.

The Fall Classic

2006-10-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

In less than four hours, the penultimate contest in all of baseball gets underway as the Detroit Tigers host the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

It has all come down to this. From thirty teams in the regular season to eight in the playoffs to two fighting it out for the title. For the American League, the Detroit Tigers surprised everybody coming out strong and posting the best record in baseball until deciding to let it almost slip away in September, settling for the wild card. For the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals came damn close to losing everything in the final weeks, avoiding what would have gone down as one of the greatest regular-season chokes of all time (pay no attention to the 1995 Angels) to prove, once again, that anything can happen in the playoffs even if nobody believes but you (please see the 2002 Angels.)

And still, for St. Louis, very few believe. Sports Illustrated has picked the Tigers in six. ESPN has picked them in five. Everywhere you go, it's not tough to find "experts" who don't give the Cards a chance.

Except Dan O'Neill at MSNBC.com. He picks the Cardinals to win. Does he have inside information the rest don't? Did he travel to the future in a Delorean to buy a Sports Almanac from the year 2026? Does he have a truly magic Magic 8-Ball? No, he's guessing.

Just like everybody else.

And me.

With that, I pick the Tigers in 6. Momentum has little to do with it this time, as a week of mowing lawns and screwing wives doesn't keep momentum up very well. This time, it's plain pitching and lineup. The Tigers are just better.

Not that that means anything in a seven game series, though.

A-Rod (yet again), Bye Bye Bud Black, and get buried w/ the Cubs!

2006-10-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

It's been an obsession of mine for a while now, and evidence of it has been all over this blog. It doesn't help that the only thing to talk about as far as the Angels are concerned are the rumors bringing Alex Rodriguez to the Halos in a trade with the Yankees, and once again John Heyman in "The Daily Scoop" at Sports Illustrated feeds us more of this rumor. It seems it was written to refute these rumors where, shortly after he took over as manager of the Cubs, reports everywhere stated that Lou Piniella wanted A-Rod playing for him in Wrigley. Once again, though, America's sportswriters show why the best bet of seeing Rodriguez playing in a uniform other than Yankee pinstripes next year will be at the "Big A." Of course, if you've been reading this blog (or just surfing through the archives) you know my feelings on this.

And, though it is a few days old, it should be noted that Angels pitching coach Bud Black may be on to bigger things. If he gets the job in San Fransisco, he has a big rebuilding program ahead of him. Eleven free agents this season, a club that was ancient in 2002 when they lost the World Series and is only older now, it ain't gonna be fun and games to whomever gets this job. But I think Bud Black will make a good manager. If you think about it, he's done wonders with a pitching staff that, for the most part, wouldn't be expected to be among the best in the league. If he could conquer John Lackey's tendency to freak out and panic when he gives up a few hits, he'd go down as the best pitching coach in the game today. If he gets the job with the Giants, I'm sure it's our loss and their gain.

And, if he chokes, at least they'll have something to bury him in. I'm not sure about you, but I think that we may have reached the end of the line as far as untapped advertising markets are concerned. While I understand that there may be a few people who want their ashes foerver interred in an urn with a Mickey Mantle autographed ball as a stopper, is there going to eb a glut of people wanting to be buried in a Kansas City Royals or a Tampa Bay Devil Rays casket?

And, a thousand years from now when some archeologist digs them up, are they going to be assumed to be the idiot with too much money they obviously are?

NLCS Game 7: It all comes down to this.

2006-10-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

That is, it all comes down to the deciding game to decide who will lose the 2006 World Series to the Detroit Tigers. At least, that's the common consensus around all of the supposed "experts." I'm sure there are millions of people in St. Louis and New York who are sure that, if their team wins tonight, that they can easily handle the Tigers starting Saturday night.

Which brings me to the Tigers. They've reached the World Series on a run of nothing but momentum, stomping on the Yankees three in a row in the ALDS after losing the first game, then embarrassing the A's in the ALCS and sweeping them in front of the home crowd at the Oakland Mausoleum... err... Colliseum. But momentum is a hard thing to keep, epecially when you have a week-long break waiting for your opponent to be decided.

Arms and bats get cold in a layoff like that, and worse they're all probably reading their own press.

If the momentum stops and we have an actual World Series this year, great! Hell, we haven't had a game 7 in the World Series since the Angels won it in 2002. And while I haven't seen anything near the strength the Tigers have shown in the Cardinals or Mets, but that's absolutely meaningless.

Afterall, as Sun Tzu famously said in "The Art of War:"

"Anything can happen in a short series. Particularly if a team's pitching is hot or not."

NLCS Day... ah, who gives a shit, anyway?

2006-10-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

So the Mets pounded the Cardinals last night, and David Eckstein has proven to be a much more potent offensive force than Albert Pujols. Series tied 2-2. Today's game rained out, so they'll play tomorrow rather than travel.

This is the problem with the NLCS this year: No travel days. Screwed by rain in New York then in St. Louis, the clubs have had to play, travel, then play the next day. No real rest (though I'm not sure you could call travel "rest.") All the while, Detroit gets a week of rest. It'll be interesting to see how this pays off. Will the rest help Detroit, or will it cool the frenzy of kicking ass so spectacularly in the first two rounds? We'll know in a few weeks at the latest.

At a certain point, I have to remember what I'm doing here. This is, afterall, a blog about me and the Los Angeles Angels. There has been little talk of the Angels lately, but then again, the Angels are sitting home watching the games in the same way I am, though I imagine they're watching on much bigger TV's and much better home theater systems. With little news from Anaheim, it's tough to find anything to write about.

So when an article like this one at SI.com pops up, I'm all over it, even though it says nothing new.

"The Angels are rumored to be working on a big name. They appear to be in contention for Alex Rodriguez if the Yankees elect to move him. They appear to be in on Alfonso Soriano and might even be a player for Manny Ramírez."

-- Boston Globe

With all due credit to the journalistic abilities of the Boston Globe, is this anything people all over the damn country didn't already know? In July, rumors were floating all over the sports world about the Angels' interest in picking up Soriano. Over the last few years every time Many Ramirez has let his desire to be traded be known (about every week or so), rumors pop up about how he wants to play in Anaheim. And even I am getting sick about hearing about A-Rod to Anaheim rumors (though I'll gleefully post them every time they come up in a reliable news site, obviously.)

It's going to be a long winter, my friends. The news front will be barren, cold, and empty. But when the Louisville Sluggers find their way back into the bat racks, when the gloves are oiled and worked in, when the fastballs go whizzing into catcher's mitts, and when teams field their youngsters and veterans in leagues named Grapefruit or Cactus, oh what a glorious spring it will be.

At least somebody at a Nationals game got to 3rd base...

2006-10-16T00:12:00.000-07:00

If the picture to the left isn't worth a thousand words, then this clicky will help it along the way.

My definition of "heaven" has changed signifcantly over my life. When I was a toddler, it was full of candy and had no vegetables. From about age 8 to 11, I was quite sure that in heaven I would get to be a bad-ass ninja. Then puberty hit and I became an agnostic, as I was sure that heaven was filled with nothing but willing females, but religion told me that even thoughts of women parts were sinful, therefore there would be none in heaven. So from then on, I didn't know if I could believe.

But now, I'd say that this picture would come pretty damn close. Except it's one of George Bush's daughters (not for the way they look, but because at that point who's the most powerful man in the world, the President or the guy getting a blowjob from his daughter?). And it's at Angel Stadium.

And it's game 6 of the 2002 World Series.

And at the moment of my climax, Scott Spezio hits his home run.

And it hits Jenna Bush right in the head, knocking her out.

And the ball lands right in my lap.

Really, what could be better than that?

12:29 AM edit:

It can't believe I missed this, but this was at RFK Stadium at a Nationals game. In Washingon D.C.

I do believe that makes it about a 50% chance that that unidentified woman in this photo is one of the Bush daughters.

LCS Day 5. Oh, and days 3 and 4 too

2006-10-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I slacked. I admit it. I'm not sure if it was the weekend binge of a cheap booze and expensive hookers or that, after two weeks of this blog, I got my first comment on one of my posts (thank you Scott Topiol) and my ego couldn't handle the sudden fame brought on by an adoring public and I snapped in a manner that makes Mel Gibson's DUI arrest look like reading to sick children in the hospital.

Either that, or I just didn't feel like it.

With that said, my apologies, but I'm sure nobody missed me. After all, if you're reading this for my writing, you know that creativity cannot be rushed and should be willing to wait a few days for the muses to inspire me once again. If you're reading this for the baseball scores and have thusly been ignorant of the happenings in the LCS, well, you found this blog, I'm sure you can find SI.com or even a local newspaper. Of course, this all hinges on the "if you are reading this," which, so far, nobody really is.

With that said, on to the commentary you've been so desperate to read.

ALCS: Athletics vs. Tigers

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta. The Tigers (yes, the TIGERS!) are going to the World Series. I called them to beat the A's in 6, and they one-upped me by sweeping them. I picked the Tigers based on only the momentum coming off not only beating but humiliating the Yankees in the LDS. I picked them to win in 5 because, well, the A's are as close as the Angels have to a rivalry, and it just feels good to predict them to choke again. Of course, it feels much, much better to actually SEE it happen.

NLCS: Mets vs. Cardinals

Since my last post, the NLCS has played three games. The Mets won the first, 2-0 on another performance on the mound from Tom Glavine you've come to expect from him. Then the Cards won the next two with a lot of help from Scott Spezio, who hit 2-run triples in both game 2 and game three. His postseason heroics are not unknown to us Angels fans, as he made me weep tears of joy with is home run in the 7th inning of game 6 of the 2002 World Series, providing the turning point that brought a World Championship to a team I never expected (or even dreamed) would get one. I called the Cardinals in 5, but this series looks like it could actually bring some excitement the playoffs have been lacking this year.

Not to say that the playoffs this year have been boring. Just that there's been so little suspense in the playoffs this year. Not that every postseason should be pure magic like 2002 or 2004, but it's something we've come to expect a little. Though I'm sure fans in the midwest would disagree, with Detroit winning the American League championship, and the Cardinals obviously not reading their press clippings where everybody counted them out of it.

No matter if there's little dramatic tension. I'll keep watching.

LCS, Day 2: Rain in New York, Choking in Oakland

2006-10-12T00:37:00.000-07:00

Two posts already today, so a short one on today's games.

Mets vs. Cardinals: Rained out. I'd like to say something profound here, linking the rain with Cory Lidle and God, but I'm sure a thousand hack sportswriters are in the midst of submitting articles to that effect as I write this. The game will be made up on Friday, which means no travel day in the NLCS.

Tigers: 8 Athletics: 5 Boy, howdy! Finally an exciting game in the playoffs! Home runs all around, including two from Milton Bradley (one from each side of the plate), and a tense situation in the bottom of the ninth with the Tigers up 8-5, bases loaded, two outs, and Frank Thomas. Once again, there was no joy in O-Town as Mighty Casey was struck out. Oakland is now down 2-0 in the ALCS heading into Detroit for three games. I stick firmly by my prediction, Tigers in five, but it may be one less. Either way, the A's have played their last game in Oakland this year.

And with that, I bid you adieu for the evening.

Cory Lidle 1972 - 2006

2006-10-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you have to remember it's just a game. Sometimes life has a way of reminding you.

I have no readers to speak of, and even if I did they would certainly be aware of the tragic death of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle this afternoon in a plane crash in New York.

In an eerie manner, my wife woke me up around noon today with the same "turn on the TV!" anxiousness that my stepmother awoke me on 9/11/01. The same type of images filled the screen as the television warmed up, and the announcers on Fox said it might have been a helicopter that slammed into a 50-story apartment building in Manhattan. The excitement my wife showed made me think that I may turn the TV on to see a smoldering crater where Washington, D.C. used to be, so to see a small plane had crashed into a tall building was a bit anti-climactic. My interest waned, and I moved on to other things.

Right as I finished my other blog entry, I reloaded the front page of SI.com to see a small "Breaking News" blurb on the screen saying "Joe Torre confirms Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle killed in plane crash in Manhattan" or something near those words. Suddenly, the story that couldn't keep my interest for sixty seconds a few hours earlier had found away to keep me glued to ESPN and internet news sites.

Nearly as soon as I heard that Lidle was killed in the crash, my curiosity forced me to head to ebay.com and type "Cory Lidle" into the search tab. At that time there were about 13 autographed items listed, none of them within the previous few hours. A few minutes ago, there were over seven pages of items. A simple "completed auctions" search showed that autographed baseballs with a certificate of authenticity went off as early as yesterday with no bids at $9.99. A few of those same baseballs with less than two hours left as I write this (obviously not put up for auction after the news of the plane crash hit) are over $250.00.

I can't blame the people bidding on them, though I think they are idiots. A news item like this is sure to drive the prices up immediately, but they will calm down and show to be very poor "investments."

The people who need to have their testicles tarred and feathered are those who are listing auctions now. I'd post links, but they won't last long as eBay cleans house regularly, but some jackass put a Cory Lidle signed baseball on the eBay auction block with a "Buy It Now" of $249.99. I've seen four seperate Cory Lidle internet domain names for sale in the last hour. These vultures disgust me. I didn't look myself, but apparently it was a hundred times more disgusting in the twenty-four hours after Steve Irwin's death. With the American obsession with sports, a journeyman starting pitcher's death may match it. eBay really should stop these auctions, much like they did with all the stuff listed on 9/11/01 taking advantage of that tragedy.

Let's all remember that it is only a game.

Godspeed, Cory Lidle. May you find yourself walking out of a cornfield somewhere in Iowa.

LCS, Day 1: Tigers Grrrrrr-eat!

2006-10-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

No update last night, so I'll get it in before today's game.

First things first, last night's opening game of the ALCS:

Tigers: 5 A's: 1 I'm hesitant to get happy about this game, as my happiness tends to curse my teams. And since I, like any self-respecting Angels fan, hate the A's, seeing their ace get shelled off the mound was particularly nice. In last night's game the momentum of beating the Yankees certainly carried over, and in the (urban Oakland) jungle, the Tigers did NOT sleep last night. A-Weema-Weh.

Now that that's over, it's time once again for...

SID'S A-ROD OBSESSION!!

That's right, kiddies! You thought I'd slipped and forgotten about my "If he blows it, he will come" predictions and hopes that, if A-Rod and the Yankees folded like Japanese tissue paper in the playoffs, Anaheim Stadium would appear in a vision to Alex Rodriguez with a big cornfield instead of the outfield bleachers.

Well, that was blown away yesterday in this article at SI.com where Brian Cashman (the GM of the Yankees) said "I fully expect [Rodriguez] to be here." That puts an end to all that, right?

Not so fast. Again from SI, an article quoting a few "unnamed sources"says exactly the opposite. And while yesterday's announcement that Torre will be back as the Yankees manager next year seems truthful enough, there was something about the A-Rod announcement that seemed quite political in nature, much like the doublespeak that comes out of the White House every day. And it's funny that SI.com has this article right above the "No trade for A-Rod" article. Of course, allow me to strut prematurely as you look at which team is #1 on that list for Rodriguez.

I just don't see how Rodriguez could go back to New York and fit in. The city and the team have really shot themselves in the foot on this one, and have made it a situation where Rodriguez really cannot win. And I'm more willing to believe unnamed sources than the spin coming out of the GM's office. This doesn't mean that the Halos are gonna have a new #3 on the roster, but it certainly looks like things is less joy in Mudville than they'd have you believe.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thank you, come again!

"The Chicago White Sox have agreed to start weeknight home games at 7:11 p.m. under a sponsorship deal struck with the convenience store chain known for its Slurpee frozen drinks, the team announced Wednesday."

It's gonna be tough to fit "Nahasapeemapetilon" on the back of a jersey, isn't it?

Baseball for Golfers

2006-10-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me by a friend who happens to be a Dodgers fan who hates Jeff Kent, and not just for his stupid baserunning in the Game 1 against the Mets. I think it had to be copied from a pamphlet handed out at a PGA event, as the golf references are a tad thick.

Original Link Clicky!

By Michael Gartner

The hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a baseball safely.Think about it as you watch the playoffs and the World Series.

You are standing at home plate with a bat in your hands. A big man is standing on a hill - it's 15 inches high, to give him enormous leverage over you - getting ready to throw the baseball. By the time he lets go of the ball, it will be about 55 feet from you. The ball is coming at the plate - or perhaps at you - at up to 100 miles an hour. It turns 12 or 13 times. It can drop as much as 3 feet. It can curve toward you or away from you. You have less than a second to decide what to do: Stand there. Swing. Or duck.

If you swing one one-hundredth of a second too late - or too early - you're likely to hit a foul ball. If you hit the ball, you are supposed to hit it between or over or through the nine guys standing there trying to stop you. In the immortal words of Wee Willie Keeler, you have to "hit 'em where they ain't." And all you have to hit 'em with is a round piece of wood that at its widest is not as big as the baseball it is trying to connect with.

Then, if you hit it, you have to run 90 feet as fast as you can.

You have to do this three or four times a game, 162 games a year. And if you don't do it successfully at least 25% of the times you're standing there, you're a failure.

But that's not all. The whole time you're standing there trying to hit the ball, tens of thousands of people are yelling at you - for you or against you. The man crouched behind the plate is chattering. The players on both benches might be yelling. The umpire is telling you to speed it up. Your boss is sending you hand signals. Flashbulbs are going off everywhere. People are milling around.

It's that last part - the crowds, the cameras, the cheers and screams - that add the excitement. And it makes you wonder:

Why can't you cheer during Tiger Woods' backswing? Why can't you yell as Phil Mickelson putts? Why can't you scream as Ernie Els blasts out of a sand trap?

Why can't you click the camera as Sergio Garcia addresses the ball? Why can't you pop a flashbulb as Jim Furyk chips onto the green? Why can't you wave your arms as Retief Goosen lines up his second shot?

Just try it. Did you see Woods glare and mutter a few weeks ago at the simple click of a camera? He is a great athlete with storied powers of concentration, so why can't he ignore the click of a camera, the pop of a flashbulb, the cheer of a fan? The ball he is trying to hit is teed up - not being thrown. It is just sitting there. The club he is using - and he has his choice of several - has a head on it that is thicker than the ball or an angle to it that lets him place it just where he wants it. He can swing when ready - not when some opponent throws the ball. When he hits the ball, no one is trying to catch it or block it or divert it. And after he hits it, he can walk leisurely down the fairway.

Why must we be so reverential about all this?

It makes no sense.

Think how much more fun watching golf would be if we could cheer or boo or yell or scream.

Think how much less fun watching baseball would be if we couldn't.

Michael Gartner, a retired journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1997, is the principal owner of the Iowa Cubs, the triple-A farm team of the Chicago Cubs.

Adios Padres, League Championship Series Schedule & Picks

2006-10-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

This probably should have been posted last night, but sore muscles and apathy led me to neglect my duty to all the readers I don't have.

I went to the batting cages on Saturday night. First time I'd done that in probably 16 years. It was great fun, but boy have I been paying for said fun the last few days in kind with sore muscles and achy joints. I'm a lot stronger now than I was as a 15 or 16 year old, and my coordination is better, but my recovery time sure ain't what it used to be, and with my military injuries it's not that easy to do the things I used to.

Anyway, as should be common knowledge by now, the San Diego Padres were eliminated last night. Overall, it's been an extremely boring playoff so far, with little excitement in the LDS, gameplay-wise at least. I'm sure I'd get some arguments from Tigers fans about how "exciting" it's been, and though I will readily admit to the excitement of Detroit upsetting the Yankees in the first round (God knows how exciting it is when the Angels do it!), watching "the greatest lineup in history" go 0-for'06 was, well, a good sedative.

So today is a day without baseball, which gives us a breather as the LCS starts up tomorrow.

2006 League Championship Series Schedule

No more three-game days, no more shuffling announcers (though dammit, every game is on Fox so it looks like we'll have a McCarver-O-Rama for the rest of the playoffs), and hopefully, less boring games.

So, with that, it's time once again for this prognosticator to make his picks for the next series.

NLCS

New York Mets vs St. Louis Cardinals: Cardinals in five. Both faced rather lackluster opponents in the NLDS, which means that neither team was too spent from the first round. Without Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez, the Mets and the Cardinals have pitching staffs of about equal strength, but St. Louis has the offense that, provided it comes through, will propel them into their second World Series in the last three years.

ALCS

Detroit Tigers vs. Oakland Athletics: Tigers in six. Detroit is on a roll, shutting the Yankees down in 4 in the ALDS with superior pitching and a surprising offense. While the A's have Barry Zito on the mound, they aren't as deep and don't have the high of shutting down the heavily favored Yankees behind them. Expect this one to be the more exciting of the two, with better pitching ad hitting than the NLCS.

Keeping in mind that I was 1-4 in the LDS, don't be surprised to see a Mets - A's World Series. I know I won't be.

Fifty Years Ago Today

2006-10-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

It wasn't in my lifetime, but 50 years ago today Don Larsen pitched his perfect game in the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Click the link, read the article, and relive a part of the glorious past of the America's greatest game.

Are you listening YET, Bill Stoneman?

2006-10-08T02:22:00.000-07:00

Seems Steve Ventre over at MSNBC.com agrees with me (and, I'm sure, about a hundred thousand other Angels fans.)

But it's sure nice to see an impartial sportswriter agree with us, ain't it?

I still haven't gotten any responses to my call for help in making a huge "Welcome to Anaheim, A-Rod!" banner to hang over Katella Avenue...

Pay Attention, A-Rod!!! WE WANT YOU IN ANAHEIM!!!

LDS Day 5: The REAL Yankees Curse!

2006-10-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

Three games today, three examples why America will grow more bored in the League Championship Series.

Padres: 3 Cardinals: 1 I didn't catch this one until the 9th inning, and I only watched that because my cable box has a picture-in-picture feature. San Diego got a stay of execution, and the 2006 playoffs might get exciting if they can come back and defeat St. Louis after being down 2 games to 0. But, then again, who gives a shit about the Padres? (Apologies to those living within 50 yards of Petco Park.)

Mets: 9 Dodgers: 5 When the final history is written about the 2006 NLDS and the Mets vs. the Dodgers, the series will not be about New York's pitching staff stepping up after the loss of Pedro Martinez and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. It won't be about the offense of the "Mighty Mets" or any other clever alliteration. No, it'll be about the stupidity of Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, and ESPECIALLY Third Base Coach Rich Donnelly. As those two made the most idiotic baserunning mistake I have ever seen, the Dodgers chances at winning the series were tagged out by Paul LoDuca along with them. It was one of those momentum-shifting moments, and SHOULD go down in history like Donnie Moore's HR ball to Dave Hendeson in the '86 ALCS or Bill Buckner's blunder in the '86 World Series.

Tigers: 8 Yankees: 3 Say it ain't so. The ratings for the World Series just took a nose dive, and game 1 isn't for a few more weeks. The "21st Century Murderer's Row" all got lethal injections, and A-Rod will return to New York a pariah. Hopefully, he won't have to be there long. You paying attention, Bill Stoneman?

The Yankees Curse
I don't need to write anything about the Yankees collapse in this postseason or their all-around impotence to the Detroit Tigers. In the next year, you'll find thousands of such articles in every news and pseudo-news site online. If you listen to sports talk, you'll probably grow weary of it by '07 Spring Training. I'm sure that Brian Cashman and George Steinbrenner are going to shake things up a bit. Torre may not be back, Sheffield didn't give the Yanks any reason to pick up his option, and the whole team showed why they desperately need good pitching.

Ever since Boston won the World Series in '04 talk has sprung up of a new curse, this one on the Yankees. It doesn't have the vintage of "The Curse of the Bambino." It's only had a few years to age, rather than 86 years, and nobody can pinpoint the grapes from which it was distilled.
Some say it's the curse of A-Rod, others point to Jeter being made Captain, others point to the loss of certain players, especially Paul O'Neill. But, ladies and gents, I have the answer right here. I alone hold the key to the new Yankees curse. Oh, how I wish I had more readers to unveil this to. Perhaps one day when hundreds of you log in daily, you'll find your way back here and see the genius that is Sid. With that, I unveil to you the cause of the newest curse in baseball:

THE RUDY GIULIANI CURSE

(Rudy Giuliani, above, shoots invisible curse lasers at the Yankees with his eyes)

That's right, folks, you read it here first: Former New York City Mayor is the cause of all the Yankees woes since 2001.

"Say it ain't so, Sid!" you may say. Or, "Sid, you're nothing but a spineless liberal douchebag who wants the terrorists to win!" Well, please allow me to put down by "Go Terrorists!" sign and the "Bin Laden #1" foam finger and retort. See folks, this has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with happenstance.

I base this claim not on Giuliani himself (though he is completely to blame), but on on network TV. You see, ever since 9/11/01, EVERY GODDAMN GAME at Yankee Stadium in the playoffs you've seen Rudy Giuliani in the stands wearing his Yankees cap. Now, maybe he was there every game before that wearing the same stupid hat, or maybe he's just doing it so people will remember his "heroic deeds" (like sitting through 6 years of Yankees chokes) for the '08 Presidential election. In this lifetime, that's not for me to call. But I DO know that, before 9/11, none of the networks gave a shit where Rudy was. After 9/11, his ugly mug filled my TV screen at least 4-5 times at every Yankees playoff home game. In that span? The Yanks are 3-3 in the ALDS (two of those losses courtesy of the Angels, thank you very much). They're 2-1 in the ALCS, and (gasp) they're 0-2 in the World Series.

As Mayor of New York City, I'm sure Rudy was at all those playoffs from '96 to '00 when the Yanks were unstoppable. But his face (and that damned hat) weren't on my TV screen. Hell, only maybe three or four people west of Manhattan would have known who he was, so it's much better to show the crazy drunk guy with no shirt. So therefore, it's not Rudy HIMSELF who's bad luck. It's when they show him on TV that the Yankees are doomed.

So Yanks, it doesn't matter how high your payroll is or how studly your lineup, so long as Fox and ESPN keep showing Rudy in those great seats during the playoffs, you're gonna lose.

You Mets fans should hope he doesn't show up at Shea with a Blue and Orange "NY" hat in the next series...

League Division Series, Day 4

2006-10-07T02:05:00.000-07:00

Only two games today, but once again my skills at prognostication are showing their flaws.

Today's Games:

Athletics: 8 Twins: 3 Well, at least I got one series right, though I was off by a game. As sorry as I am to see Oakland advance, I guess when you put two notorious chokers in a playoff series, one of them has to win. Which is why a lot of people were disappointed in 2003 when both the Chicago Cubs AND the Boston Red Sox were just a few outs away from heading to the World Series, only to have both of them blow it. I was of the opinion that said Series would have come down to the 9th inning of game 7, the score tied, and then the Rapture would happen and the world would end, as logic dictates that one of those teams would have HAD to win in, and God would not allow that. Of course, the Red Sox won it in 2004, which may mean that the world did indeed end and all the Bostonians went to heaven, while the rest of us are in purgatory (except Yankees fans, who, as is evident by recent post season success (or lack thereof), are obviously in hell.)

Tigers: 6 Yankees: 0 One game away from elimination, the greatest lineup I've ever seen has needed to talk to Bob, as they've been quite impotent these last two games. Here's the perfect time for A-Rod to be the hero and smack some sense into Yankees fans by having a great game tomorrow. If not, they've already got him fitted for a goat collar.

A-Rod Watch: 0-for-3. He's batting .091 for the series. I'll start getting the "Welcome to the Angels, A-Rod!" banner ready. Anybody want to help?

Brooks Robinson Makes My Day

2006-10-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I made this post on Brooks Robinson's blog over at mlblogs.com about an impromptu appearance he made at the baseball card shop I worked at in high school. To save you the trouble of clicking the link, here's the text of my post:

Dear Mr. Robinson,

I have a story that I think I should share with your readers.

About 15 years ago, I was working in a baseball card shop in Huntington Beach, California. One Saturday afternoon I was busy in the back sorting cards (he High School kids had to do all the tedious work!) when a middle-aged man comes in the store and asks my co-worker for directions to the beach. I thought this was odd, as the beach was just a mile or so down the road, and most everybody knew that you could follow any road to it. I looked out the little window we had to see my co-worker giving him directions, when the manager of the store looked up and stared at the man. I saw his jaw drop and his eyes grow wide.

That's when you said "Hi, I'm Brooks Robinson."

You chatted with us for a bit and signed a ball that is still on display in the shop, and went on your way. But for the rest of the day I felt like an idiot. One of the greatest to play the game had walked into my baseball card shop, and I hadn't recognized him.

On that day, you helped spark within me an interest and later, a passion, for the history of this great game.

While other sports may attempt to emulate it, baseball has a true connection with its history that cannot be duplicated in the arenas of the other American pro sports. A big part of the draw that gets people to the ballpark or tuning in on ESPN is the events and players of decades (or centuries) past. Unlike football, hockey, or basketball, baseball has a living memory that helps the fan in the stands connect with the player on the grass, and makes it possible to develop a true love for the game.

And you helped me learn that, Brooks.

Thank you.

Posted by: sidmchenry | October 3, 2006 05:22 PM

Color me tickled pink when he mentioned me in his post yesterday:

Huntington Beach
Sid shared a story with us about my inpromptu visit to his baseball card shop in Huntington Beach. Well, I’m glad I made your day by saying hello. I was probably in Huntington Beach visiting my middle son, Chris. I’m glad I stopped in the store, said hello and signed your ball. I’m glad that that sparked your interest in baseball. I never wanted to do anything else. I had a passion for the game. I knew the history of the game and I agree with you. Baseball has a true connection with history that cannot be duplicated in the arena of other American pro sports. I’ve always felt like baseball has served as both a reflection and a shaper of American society. Baseball is the most resilient sport of all. They are setting attendance records in both the Major and Minor leagues. It’s still healthy despite all its problems.

Every word of the story I told is true, so there's not much to add here except one thing. I didn't mention this in my post on Robinson's blog, but I always suspected that he came into the shop just to see if we'd recognize him. There was a 7-11 in the same shopping center, which is the junk food equivalent of a gas station, so I would think most people would head there for directions as well as tasty meat flavored products and gallons of soda. Also, as I said, the beach was only a mile or so away, so all you'd really have to do is roll down your car window and listen to the seagulls around the sewage pipes.

But I truly was embarrassed that I didn't recognize him. Of course he was a bit older than the pictures on the carboard slivers I sold, but he's a Hall of Famer and a great ambassador for baseball, and as a guy who was paid to know a bit about sports, it was a minor slip. Luckily, my manager was twenty years older than me or so and grew up watching Brooks and his generation of players, so rather than having an odd experience of a guy coming into a baseball card shop to ask directions to the ocean, we shared a moment of baseball history.

Again, thank you Brooks.

League Division Series, Day 3

2006-10-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

Another day of playoff baseball, another day showing why I was never asked to handicap the sport in Las Vegas nor invited to make predictions on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight."

I called the Yankees - Detroit series to be won by New York in 3 games, a sweep. Detroit blew that one for me. I called the Dodgers to beat the Mets in 5, and now it looks like the Mets may (or, less optimistically, WILL) sweep Los Angeles. I picked San Diego to beat the Cardinals in 5, and now it looks like the Padres may (or, as with the Dodgers, you know the deal) only be heading to St. Louis to complete the Cards' sweep. On the bright side (if, as an Angels fan, you can call it anywhere near "bright"), the A's may actually wrap up their series against the Twins tomorrow in Oakland a whole game ahead of my prediction.

So, at best, it looks like (barring miraculous comebacks by San Diego and Los Angeles) I'm going to be 2-2 at predicting the winners of the LDS.

Today's Games

Cardinals: 2 Padres: 0 I could have been more wrong in predicting this series. I could have predicted that both teams would lose their entire rosters to a E. Coli poisoning from tainted spinach, forcing them to field a team made up of 8th graders. But that's about the only way I could have been more wrong. David Wells pitched pretty good for the 3rd oldest pitcher to start a post-season game today, and Jeff Weaver pitched the ugliest, shakiest five innings of two-hit scoreless ball I've seen in quite a while. "Ugly" and "shaky" described his stint with the Angels this season quite well, and though I'm not thrilled that we're paying him $11 million to pitch for the Cards in the post season this year, at least we'll have that money to spend for the next season...

Mets: 4 Dodgers: 1 Looks like that ugly play at the plate last night was indeed a series killer, as the Dodgers looked like the KC Royals tonight. Tom Glavine showed shades of his younger self, giving up 4 hits and no runs in 6 innings. At least the Dodgers will lose this series at home, not having to endure a cross-country flight back to LA after they folded like lawn furniture in the first round.

Tigers: 4 Yankees: 3 I bet Joe Torre wishes they'd played through the rain last night, as the Yanks were truly lackluster today. All three Yankee runs came on a three-run HR by Johnny Damon in the 4th inning, putting the Yanks up 3-1. But the Tigers chipped away, scoring a run in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings to tie the series up at 1-1 as they head back to Detroit.

Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, and Alex Rodriguez were all 0-4. Jeter was 1-4. Matsui had a decent night, going 3-5 and Damon was 2-5 with the home run. But who got all the press about bad performance and his struggles at the plate? A-Rod, of course. Those prick Yankees fans actually booed him again during his last two at bats. He struck out three times tonight, which is not good by any means, but they showed once again how little they deserve him and how he's such an easy target to be the goat in those pinstripes.

A-Rod watch: 1-4, 3k's today. .125 batting average with 0 HR and 0 RBI in the series, and 4 K's. Are you paying attention, Stoneman? Of course, I'm still very conflicted. I want to see him succeed not only to shut up the New York fans and writers, but also because he's the greatest player I've ever seen and he's a class act and good for the game. But the deeper New York puts him in a hole, the more likely he's gonna want to get out of that cesspool in the Bronx and head for greener pastures where he'll be appreciated.

Like Anaheim!

Well, that's it for tonight. I promise tomorrow there'll be something more to read other than recaps of the day's games. But fear not, even if I am lean on the "me" side of this now, soon the playoffs will be over and I'll have little to write about in actual baseball news, and more time to type about philosophy, ideas, and me. And since I'm the only one I know of who's reading this on a daily basis, I can't think of a topic I'd rather discuss...

The Stupidest Play I Have Ever Seen (or, League Division Series, Day 2).

2006-10-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yankees vs. Tigers - Rained out.

A's go up on the Twins 2-0 after Torii Hunter tried to showboat and dive for a line drive but instead looks like he was trying for an ESPN highlight reel instead of actually fielding the ball, and Mark Kotsay turned what should have been a single into an inside-the-park home run took the wind out of Minnesota (though Kotsay was the one with the oxygen mask after returning to the dugout.)

But Torii Hunter can thank the Baseball Gods for the Dodgers tonight, as they made a play and blew game 1 against the Mets with the STUPIDEST play I've ever seen.

I wish I had the words to describe it, but even in retrospect I still have the same reaction as when I watched it live on ESPN this evening: Slack-jawed disbelief. You can read about the play in this article at SI.com, the important text of which is pasted below:

"If you want to get real literal about it, the turning point came when the Dodgers' J.D. Drew rounded third in the second inning. The wacky double play, with two Dodgers being tagged out at the plate on the same Martin single, began with a fly off the base of the rightfield wall that Kent, on second base, failed to read well in the late afternoon shadow of Shea Stadium. Drew, on first, had no such problem and took off like a shot following Kent by about 50 feet, like a 400-meter runner who is intent on making has up the stagger while rounding the curve. Shawn Green's relay to Jose Valentin was money, and Valentin wheeled and threw to the plate to nab the flummoxed Kent easily. While catcher Paul Lo Duca turned his back to display the ball to umpire John Hirschbeck, a little Statue of Liberty set-piece theatrics, Drew put his head down and kept steaming home. Lo Duca heard some of his teammates yelling spun and -- voila, Christmas morning. (Sometimes the outs just come to you, you don't have to go chasing the outs. Ohm.) This might be the only 9-4-2 double play on something other than a fly ball that you will see in your lifetime -- although something similar did occur to the Yankees in a 1985 in which Carlton Fisk tagged out a pair of runners at the plate. The Dodgers would have four straight hits in the inning, and later added a walk, and come away with one run."

As I saw it, it was piss-poor baserunning by Jeff Kent, as he was about 20 feet from home plate when Lo Duca got the throw. Then, three seconds later, Drew comes in after Kent. My brain could not come up with a plausible reason why Drew would CONTINUE to home plate after Kent was out by a a few kilometers, but nonetheless J.D. Drew tried to score.

After a few seconds of being absolutely dumbfounded, I woke up and realized that the Dodgers have quite stupidest 3rd base coach in the entire world. Either that, or the least respected. Because that coach either waved them both home, or they both ignored him.

It goes without saying that the next Dodger at bat hit a single that would have scored either Kent or both Kent AND Drew.

And that the Dodgers lost the game, 6-5.

It's plays like this that make me love playoff baseball all the more!

And make me realize that I am probably overqualified to be a 3rd base coach in the Major Leagues, as I am not legally blind in either eye nor am I mildly retarded.

Once a jolly Stoneman camped atop a baseball team...

2006-10-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

From this article on SI.com:

• There is growing pressure on Angels GM Bill Stoneman, who's held many of the Angels' vaunted but so far unproductive prospects way too long. Owner Arte Moreno is said to have "read him the riot act'' for failing to enhance the team's chances to make the playoffs at the deadline, according to one person in the know.

It's about goddamn time. It's one thing to play "armchair GM," it's another thing completely to do so and be right. A little less than a year ago, right after the Halos got eliminated by the eventual World Series Champion Chicago White Sox, I was salivating thinking about the off-season trades and/or free agent signings that would bring in a slugger to hit behind Vladamir Guerrero. I was shocked when no major offensive acquisitions were made. Of course, we got Jeff Weaver, and we all know how good that turned out. But hey, at least we got rid of him to give his brother the spot he deserved in the starting rotation.

Then, as the season progresses and the lack of offense is bloody obvious to even the corpse of Helen Keller, the rumors of Alfonso Soriano trades make me salivate again. What does Bill Stoneman do?

Dick.

I hope Arte Moreno took Bill Stoneman out to where the visiting bullpen used to be, closed the gate, and gave him a swift kick in the nuts. Stoneman acts like the money he spends getting talent on this team comes out of his own pocket, and like underperforming prospects are his own sons. Casey Kotchman and Dallas McPherson haven't proven themselves at the Major League level the way we all thought they would, and their trading stock has done nothing but fallen this year. Could we have made a trade for either of these two (or even BOTH of them) that would have given us that edge to kick Oakland's ass out of the post season for the third consecutive year? Who knows and, really, who cares? What's done is done. But I DO know that, after the trading deadline on 7/31/06, we lost SEVEN one-run games, plus THIRTEEN losses where we scored 2 or less runs. Would an Alfonso Soriano have made a difference?

Who knows.

But I DO know that, because of the poor offense this season, we look like idiots for worrying too much about Troy Glaus and his injuries.

And I do know that I, personally, would love to kick Bill Stoneman and his Buzzie Bavasi-esque "conservative" GM tendencies square in the nuts if he doesn't open up the checkbook as Arte Moreno has given him the greenlight to do.

And that doesn't mean acting like the old Angels GM's. You know, trading young stars for has-been superstars, like the Dante Bichette for Dave Parker trade, or the "I looked like a moron on that one, so let me try and make up for it" moves like signing Mo Vaughn after failing to trade for Mark McGwire in 1997, possibly watching McGwire break Roger Maris' single-season HR record of 61 in the Big A.

You're on notice, Bill Stoneman. You don't make some moves to make us contenders again in 2007, a lot of Angels fans are going to stub their big toes on your testicles.

League Division Series, Day 1

2006-10-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day to be unemployed and a baseball fan! Of course, it was a day without my Angels, whom I would much rather have seen kicking ass in Detroit, but the A's earned it and deserve it. Of course, had we had somebody hitting behind Vlad Guerrero or a somewhat constant lineup where people can get comfortable and NOT MAKE SO MANY DAMN ERRORS...

But I digress. And since I have zero readers so far, I digress in a blog that's written only for myself. Sad, isn't it?

Today's games:

Athletics: 3 Twins: 2 And the game wasn't even that close. Two home runs from Frank "The Big Hurt" Thomas, and the A's start out by BEATING Johan Santana, the AL's almost-guaranteed Cy Young winner and the main threat of the Twins. At this rate, my prediction looks solid!

Cardinals: 5 Padres: 1 Nor was this one as close as the score would suggest. A monster shot by Albert Pujols to dead center at Petco Park and an extremely lackluster performance by San Diego makes me worry about my pick in this one.

Yankees: 8 Tigers: 3 An extremely boring game for such a high-scoring game coupled with having to listen to Tim McCarver on Fox made for such an anti-climactic game on a great day of playoff baseball. Jeter was, well, Jeter, going 5-for-5 with two doubles and a Home Run.

Which brings me to Tim McCarver, the Rex Hudler of national broadcasts. If I were stuck in a room with Hudler and McCarver and had only one bullet in my gun, I'd probably use it on myself, as I could never decide which one's death would most benefit humanity.

A-Rod Watch: 1-4, 1K. He was hitting the ball hard, but that performance ain't gonna cut it when Jeter has the night he had...

And, as I sign off for the night, my wife and I are watching "Field of Dreams." She's never seen it, and I know she won't love it like guys love it, but I have hope...

Yankees Fans Don't Deserve Him

2006-10-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

.290 Batting average.
166 Hits
35 Home Runs
113 Runs Scored
121 RBI's
.392 On Base Percentage
.523 Slugging Percentage

How'd you like to have that in your lineup? I can't think of a team in the Majors who would turn their nose up at that, but the Yankees sure have. The greatest player in the majors today, and the only active offensive player on Sports Illustrated's All-Time All-Star Team has spent this season as a pariah in New York.

As I've grown older, the hero worship that comes with watching pro sports has waned. At a game at the Big A in August, my wife asked me "Which current Angel's name would you want on a jersey?" I couldn't think of one. It's not for lack of players on the Angels I admire. There's plenty of guys on my team I enjoy watching 162 games a season. It's not for lack of a superstar, as if I wanted to jump on a bandwagon, I'd have a Vladamir Guerrero jersey. "Well," I told her half-heartedly, "the closest player to the current Angels roster I'd want would be David Eckstein."

Of course, he's played with St. Louis the last two seasons.

When I was younger, it would have been tough narrowing my favorites down to one to put on a jersey. Chuck Finley, Jim Abbott, Bert Blyleven, Lance Parrish, Tony Armas, Dave Winfield, all would have been a tough choice that would have eventually lost out to Dante Bichette. But as I've grown older, the worship of the players themselves has fallen while the dedication to the uniform they wear has soared.

But I can say right now, with confidence, that if A-Rod were wearing an Angels jersey, I'd want one just like it.

During the dog days of Alex Rodriguez's slump in August, I watched a game in New York. I can't remember who the Yankees were playing, but I clearly remember the boos and jeers that Rodriguez got. He got a lot of flack for it in this Sports Illustrated article, but he has a point. Neither Jeter nor Giambi nor Mussina nor any Yankee gets the same poor treatment for poor performance that A-Rod gets.

Though his reasoning for his treatment is wrong. It has nothing to do with being biracial, nor because of his paycheck, nor his looks. It's because of his former position.

For nearly a decade the debate raged in sports pages and living rooms across the country: Who is the best shortstop in the game? Besides being one of the toughest positions in the game to play, in the late 90's/early 00's we had three young superstars playing SS in the American League: A-Rod, Jeter, and Nomar Garciaparra. Injuries took Nomar out of the argument (and he usually finished third in that race anyway), but time and again Derek Jeter lost many a heated debate to Rodriguez amongst fans and pundits as to the best player at Shortstop in the game.

That is, in all places but New York.

New Yorkers have been in love with Derek Jeter since the World Series championship he brought them in '96, and as the rivalry and arguments heated up, they clung to their hero regardless of stats and paychecks. Then, in '04, A-Rod becomes a Yankee, and their dedication was validated when Rodriguez "voluntarily" moved to 3rd Base, deciding the argument once and for all as only one player remained at the #6 position.

But the years of arguments stuck in the throats of the press and fans of the New York Yankees, and A-Rod has paid for it in the jeers and boos this year. He's right, if Derek Jeter were to suffer a slump as Rodriguez did earlier this year, he would never get the treatment A-Rod has, and that's because he's loved by New York. And even at his best, Rodriguez will never win over the heart of New York because of that history.

Unless he does something amazing.

Having a "good" October isn't going to do it for New Yorkers and A-Rod. It's going to take Herculean performances in clutch situations for him to be accepted by that team and town. It's going to take an ALCS and World Series MVP with a .400+ Batting Average and a few walk-off Home Runs in both series, combined with relatively poor performances by the rest of the new "Murderer's Row." And he's going to have to do it batting 6th in the lineup, which doesn't show him a lot of confidence.

Being great simply won't be good enough.

So screw New York, and screw the Yankees' fans. They don't deserve him. It just sucks that I'm rooting for them (a lesser of eight evils kind of thing) for the sole reason that I want to see Alex Rodriguez succeed. I'd love to see him make Yankees fans eat their boos, and writers eat their words.

But, because of articles and rumors like these, I wouldn't mind seeing him sub-par, as it may mean seeing him in an Angels uniform next season.

Rumors of off-season trades to bring A-Rod to the Angels have been swirling for a few weeks now. In August (during that slump), I remarked to anybody that would listen that barring a World Series win and a great October, you'd see him on the trading block before next season. (Admittedly, this was just "armchair quarterbacking," as the only information I have is 32 years' experience NOT working in baseball.) Last week, I heard that the Yankees want Chone Figgins, Ervin Santana, and three prospects. Yeah, it's a hefty price. But one I'd pay in a flat second.

Just imagine the 3-4 spots in the batting order being Alex Rodriguez and Vladamir Guerrero.

Possibly the greatest one-two punch since Ruth and Gehrig, or Mantle and Maris.

Doesn't seem such a high price to pay when you look at it that way, does it?

With that said, I hope you lousy Yankee fans get your wish. I hope you piss him off so much that he waives the "No-Trade" clause in his contract.

And I hope he comes to Anaheim, where we can show him the respect he deserves.

Come to the Angels, A-Rod. I promise, you will be loved in Anaheim.

Tomorrow Morning!

2006-10-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

At 10 AM PST a whole day of playoff baseball starts with the Oakland A's at the Metrodome facing the Twins. At 1 PM, the Padres play the Cardinals in St. Louis, and at 5 PM PST (as close to Prime Time as we're gonna get here on the Left Coast), the (*cough*CHOKE*cough*) Detroit Tigers open at Yankee Stadium. We'll have to wait until Wednesday for the Dodgers and Mets series!

2006 League Division Series Schedule

For the record, here's my picks:

Athletics and Twins: A's in 4 (an unpopular one, but without Liriano, the Twins ain't got it)
Padres and Cardinals: Padres in 5 (St. Louis is superior even with their injuries, but the NL Central race took too much out of 'em)
Dodgers and Mets: Dodgers in 5 (No Pedro, no Mets)
Yankees and Tigers: Yankees in 3 (Good pitching, best offense in baseball in my lifetime = ALCS w/ plenty of rest)

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

2006-10-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

As the day comes to a close, so closes another season of Major League Baseball. Tuesday will start another round of playoffs, culminating in a World Series that will guarantee the 6th different World Series Champion this millenium, as none of the teams in this year's playoffs has won a title since 2000.

In other words, my team and the reason for writing this blog, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, will not be playing anymore baseball this season.

The lights at Angel Stadium have dimmed, and while baseball continues in other parks around the country, we will see no more MLB in Orange County this year. We finished in 2nd place in the American League West, giving us our third straight winning season (a franchise record.) While some fans may be disappointed, considering that I never expected to see a World Championship come to Anaheim, I'm happy we hung in there as long as we did. For most of the time I've been an Angels fan, the team has been a second rate club, one with no expectations of victory from its small legion of fans. With the 2002 season still fresh in my memory, I still have a feeling of victory and vindication of my devotion to my team I never expected to have.

Yankees fans consider it a disappointing season when they don't at least make it to the Fall Classic. I consider it a gift when we make it to the playoffs.

With that, the 2006 Angels season was a success, and I can't be disappointed in them for coming in second to the Oakland A's.

So, we Angels fans will have to watch the playoffs for the first time in three years without our team. We'll be OK. We'll find other teams to cheer for, and more to root against. We have owner Arte Moreno's promise that money will be spent on free agents in the off season to strengthen our team. Soriano, Tejada, Manny Ramirez, Barry Zito, many big names are floating out there as wanting to be a part of the Halos next season. And we'll have to wait a few months to find out which of these (if any) will be wearing our red cap while playing in the Big A next season.

-Mission Statement-

With that, there are a few things I want to make clear about this blog.

I've spent the last month or so checking out other baseball blogs, particularly those at mlblogs.com in anticipation of starting this. There are some great baseball blogs out there (none really for the Angels, though), but every one I've seen has missed the point I'm trying to make with this one.

This will be a fan's blog of the 2007 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim season, from today (the end of the Angels 2006 season) until October (or early November if we make a World Series run!), the end of next season. And by "fan's blog," I mean one that encompasses MY feelings and experiences through the season.

There are plenty of blogs out there that deal with the author's favorite team, and some that follow news and rumors about those teams with the quality of a local sports page. But I don't want to just repost news and events that you can find in a million links through Google or Yahoo. I want this to be about me, as selfish and narcissistic as that sounds. As you read this (and I'm sure not many will, at least until the 2007 season officially starts), I want you to learn about me as a person and fan with my Angels as a backdrop.

I don't want the reader to feel the sterile aura of the press box as they read this. I want you to feel as though you're sitting next to me in the cheap seats, or in front of my TV, or in the passenger seat of my car listening to the game on the radio with me. Or missing the game entirely as something else happens in my life.

It's an experiment, and I hope it turns out well. And I hope you enjoy reading it, as that will make it enjoyable for me to write.

So comment as much as you wish, leave feedback, agree with me or disagree as you will. And get ready, as we have playoffs starting in less than 36 hours and Spring Training is less than 5 months away!