04/23/24
October 05, 2002
Angels Win! Angels Win!: Putting on one of the most impressive offensive displays in post-season history, the Angels battered an aging Yankees pitching staff and showed that 2002 was no fluke. Congrats to the Angels for winning their first ever post-season series in franchise history- and doing it against the team with the most championships in sports history.
posted by hincandenza to baseball at 06:59 PM - 15 comments
There is a God. Fuck the fuck off home, Jorge Posada. Now, while an all-California championship series would be quite something, I do want the Twins to win their game 5. Because while Anaheim has done great things, it is still The Team Of The Mouse, and must be beaten by a minnow.
posted by etagloh at 07:22 PM on October 05, 2002
I am glad the Angels won but part of me is somewhat sad that the Yanks are gone. I don't know why...
posted by jc at 08:33 PM on October 05, 2002
hey yankees, you can take your apology and your trophy and shove it straight up your ass. -tanner bad news bears
posted by lescour at 09:46 PM on October 05, 2002
I hope somewhere, Donnie Moore is smiling. I hope Donnie Moore is roasting in hell. The guy shot his wife three times before turning the gun on himself, and yet the Web is full of stories that simply describe his death as a lamentable suicide -- leaving out the rather salient fact that he was trying to take someone with him at the time.
posted by rcade at 11:43 PM on October 05, 2002
The Diamondbacks did fall to the Cardinals. Last Tuesday I sat in the upper deck at Bank One Ballpark and watched Randy Johnson die on the mound in the face of a team that will not be stopped. The roof was open that night. Christ alive, what a season it's been.
posted by kjh at 02:02 AM on October 06, 2002
The Yankees will be back. The Angels winning was great for baseball in general, and the Cards winning was great too, now all we need to see is the Twins beat those hippies from Oakland, and we'll have a trifecta that I can live with.
posted by jbou at 02:23 AM on October 06, 2002
I like how The Washington Post put it: "The American League has been liberated from the grip of four years of tyranny." I admire the Yankees, but they've been playing with a stacked deck, and it's boring to see the same team win year after year. Also from the Post article: "The Yankees' 25-man roster had a combined playoff experience of 543 games; the Angels had two, both belonging to right-hander Kevin Appier. That means for all but five innings of the series, the Angels fielded a team with zero postseason experience." I don't think it's automatic that the Yankees will be back. Sure, they took the Diamondbacks to seven games in last year's World Series, but only because of two highly improbable ninth-inning comebacks. They could easily have lost the series 4-2, or even 4-1.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:11 AM on October 06, 2002
As we speak, salary-cap/luxury-tax proponents are busy changing Anaheim's classification back to big-market.
posted by jackhererra at 10:26 AM on October 06, 2002
I hope Donnie Moore is roasting in hell. I never said he wasn't, but that's not relevent. The story I linked to did in fact note he shot his wife 3 times before killing himself (she did survive, however). While he is responsible for his actions, how much did the abuse heaped upon him for the rest of his career by Angels fans shape that fatal day? The point I was making is that as the Angels fans celebrate this happy October, they shouldn't forget how merciless fans can be, how cruelly they can ride someone right out of the game for one mistake. The ALCS is coming up; will we see some hapless Angels player make a crucial mistake that lets a trip to the World Series slip through their grasp? Will we read about that player's descent into depression or suicide in 5 years, after finishing out his career drowning in undeserved boos? Will we remember the connection? Even well after he left the game, Bill Buckner and his wife were still asked by Boston reporters if Bill often thought about killing himself because of '86. Fans can be wonderful when a team is on the high side- but let's not forget how fickle, how cruel and brutal fans can be when they are unhappy- how every slight in their personal lives, every missed promotion or unhappy marriage is transferred and purged in a flood of cruelties rained down upon the field. Hell, for that matter, let's remember the empty seats in Yankee stadium when Mattingly played and the Yankees weren't making the post-season.
posted by hincandenza at 03:35 PM on October 06, 2002
I have trouble believing that boobirds deserve any of the blame for Donnie Moore's decision to shoot his wife and turn the gun on himself. People who are capable of murdering their loved ones could have the most stellar careers in the world, in any field, and still be just as likely to kill someone (see also Simpson, O.J.).
posted by rcade at 05:24 PM on October 06, 2002
Perhaps... but until O.J. turns the gun on himself in part because of a critical Super Bowl- losing fumble in his career, I don't think they're comparable situations. But again, the real issue here is how GREAT it is the frickin' Yanks are booted out of the playoffs so ungraciously. With a payroll in the neighborhood of $170M, anything less than a World Series championship is a bitter disappointment for the Yankees- and a sweet, sweet victory for the rest of the country.
posted by hincandenza at 06:32 PM on October 06, 2002
Amen to that. I'm giddy about the thought of the Yankees hitting the links on Monday morning.
posted by rcade at 07:55 PM on October 06, 2002
I have trouble believing that boobirds deserve any of the blame Reggie Jackson, et al seem to agree with you: "It become a great sports story that people tell: Donnie Moore killed himself because of one pitch to Dave Henderson . . . But it's just a story. I don't believe it for a moment. I never heard that from Donnie. I never heard him talk about Dave Henderson"
posted by yerfatma at 08:11 AM on October 07, 2002
Fair enough, then. Ixnay on the OoreMay. I'm still rooting for the Angels anyway, because with the exception of the San Francisco Giants they have the fewest happy October memories of any team in these playoffs. Thank god the Yanks are out; now let's hope for the Braves to fall next (and the Cardinals as well) to leave only the Cinderella teams.
posted by hincandenza at 10:31 AM on October 07, 2002
I hope somewhere, Donnie Moore is smiling. And I hope Angels fans remember how cruelly they treated him after '86 as they ride the '02 Angels bandwagon for however long their postseason lasts. I know I won't forget how cruel many Boston fans were to Buckner, even though like Moore he was not the reason the team lost. Pending the outcome of tonight's Cardinals/ D-backs game, we could be looking at neither of last year's World Series teams even making it past the first round. When neither the home-town M's nor my true team the Red Sox made it into the playoffs, I pinned my hopes on the Angels- the only team in the playoffs this year without any post-season franchise success. Plus, the Yankees lost- always a good thing. :)