Wrestling With The Angels

The Polo Grounds: A Calm Review of Baseball ^ | 17 September 2002 | Jeff Kallman

[BluesDuke]

No disrespect meant to the Twins. But it would be lovely to see the game-gamer-gamest Angels get themselves some love this season. Even the Philadelphia Phillies didn't need to exist fifty years before winning their first pennant...

[BluesDuke]

Angels in the outfield...the infield...the dugout...the mound...the bullpen bump*

[Mudboy Slim]

It'll be interesting to see who wins the barnburner race in the AL West, but my A's Big Three staff will carry them thru to the pennant, IMHO.

Impressive run by the Angels, though...MUD

[sultan88]

As an Athletics supporter, I was thrilled with Tejada's walk-off game winner in the bottom of the ninth against the Angels last night. This Division race (in the best division in baseball) may go right down to the last game. And even the loser is going to the playoffs as a "wild card".

I don't care who, but someone had better knock the Yankees out early.

[Mudboy Slim]

Yanks pitching has become suspect...look for them to sign Greg Maddox in the off-season, but it won't help them this year.

FReegards...MUD

[speedy]

Nice post, BluesDuke. The Angels have been underachieving for years, and they still have a lot of history to overcome before they can shrug off the curse of Eli Grba. Or for that matter, Mark Clear or Rob Wilfong. Anybody else remember "Chalk erased on a double play?" Logically, the Yankees should not make it out of the AL playoffs this year. Their pitching is mediocre and their defense is downright awful, and I thought those two factors are supposed to be everything. In addition, they are at or near the top in striking out, hitting into double plays and leaving men on base. If they win it all this year, it will be in the face of some of the most venerated baseball cliches.

[socal_parrot]

Great article, as an Angels' fan who saw his first baseball game as a small child when the Angels played at Wrigley Field, I can not be more excited. I shuddered last week when Jared Washburn was accused of a crime and I had visions of Tony Phillips. After a horrible start, these Angles have shown their resilience. They have overcome several injuries this season. If they can stay away from bug bites a la Wally Joyner and if Sioscia can manage his pitching staff better than Mauch, this could get exciting.

[hole_n_one]

Another gem, BD!

The channel flipping I did last night between the A's/Angels and Dodgers/Giants games was too tiresome........I'm bringing out the 19 inch from the bedroom and setting it right next to the 40" in the living room for at least the next 3 nights.

[socal_parrot]

Dodgers/Giants

Who?

[BluesDuke]

The hardest nut for the Yankees to get past is their pitching - too many small injuries obstructing it this season, and Mariano Rivera's makes him a little too vulnerable. Since they customarily step it up in the postseason, I can't rule them out entirely but I can't necessarily see them getting past the full LCS, either.

[BluesDuke]

Scioscia is a better handler of pitching than Gene Mauch was. Scioscia is also a smarter small-ball manager than Mauch. There used to be a cliche about Mauch's managing - "He manages for one run at a time and that's what he loses by...one run." This is anything but the truth about Scioscia's style. He seems to balance between a strictly small-ball manager and the kind that Casey Stengel had been in his better years with the Yankees: if you have an opening, push with all your might where you can. Sciosia is also a smarter handler of a bullpen than Mauch - who often as not managed as though he was afraid of his bullpen.

[BluesDuke]

Who? you say?

As we used to call them round New York...the Bums and the Jints, dat's who... ;)

[BluesDuke]

I'm bringing out the 19 inch from the bedroom and setting it right next to the 40" in the living room for at least the next 3 nights.

heheheheheheh...here's hoping your wife has a bottomless well of tolerance!

[socal_parrot]

Oh, the Seen-ya Soy-cut!

[sultan88]

"I shuddered last week when Jared Washburn was accused of a crime and I had visions of Tony Phillips."

I became friends with Tony Phillips during the '87 and '88 seasons when he was with the A's. Then lost track of him when he became a Tiger. He ended his career with the A's in '98, when he broke his leg against Chicago. I knew he had a problem with drugs in the late '80's but overcame it. What incident are you referring to?

His game worn jersey hangs on my wall.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I think he meant Luis Polonia, who got into trouble with a 15-year-old girl a few years back.

[sultan88]

"Luis Polonia"

Now, THAT I remember. Thanks.

[socal_parrot]

Tony Phillips was arrested in the heat of a pennant race in 1997 in a flea bag hotel trying to by crack cocaine from a undercover police officer. Soon after that Chuck Finley broke his wrist backing up home plate and catchter Todd Greene also broke his wrist the next day. The Angels folded like a cheap lawn chair.

The Phillips incident is mentioned in this article about Jared Washburn.

[BluesDuke]

Oh, the Seen-ya Soy-cut!

You got the idea. ;) (Credit Where Due Dept.: New York World Telegram cartoonist Willard Mullin made the "Bums" appellation a fixture when, hearing his cab driver ask about how "doze Bums did taday" regarding the Dodgers of the late 1930s, he hit on the idea of representing the Dodgers in his sports cartoons by a caricature of Emmett Kelly, Jr., the legendary clown whose signature persona was a Skid Row derelict with a Buster Keatonish side. "Jints" was a diminutive probably invented by longtime New York Daily News sportswriter Dick Young.)

[BluesDuke]

I think he meant Luis Polonia, who got into trouble with a 15-year-old girl a few years back.

The Polonia incident happened during 1989, when Polonia was a Yankee and Dallas (Mr. Subtle) Green was managing the club. Already under too much pressure from George Steinbrenner, who was still wired into his Baron von Steingrabber tyrant mode as the man who threw out the first manager of the season every season, Green - who savoured his reputation as Mr. Tough Guy but was more martinet than genuine tough guy despite his bellowing style - uttered this sickeningly unforgettable line about the Polonia case: I couldn't stop Luis from f@cking that broad! (It wasn't long after that that Green, who had become fed up with Steinbrenner's know-little-enough meddling, delivered his famous rip against "Manager George".)