For the last time.  I'm packing up and headed for Bangkok, Thailand on the 28th.  The goal is to propagate Angel fandom among the baseball heathens.  If UK Halo, The Limey, Highland Halo, et al. can get it going in the UK, should be possible anywhere.   It'll make it a little bit harder to make the games live, but I'll figure out a way to get some in this year (definite for the All-Star game!) and MLB.tv will be a God send.  And of course HH will make the move bearable.  You guys have been a lifeline for the two years or so from my NY exile and I fully expect that the comments, opinions, and game blogs will even more valuable in the very near future.  So the next sign on will be from Bangkok or other equally remote locations.  So fight the good fight, believe that good will triumph over evil, and keep believing that this off-season will not be a ttal disaster.  Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Cheerful Kwanza and a Very Halo New Year.

Well that was not very fun.  Once again, an exciting game that wound up being on the other side of the ledger for us.  Once again, there were no Halo fans in sight while this time sitting in the left field bleachers with my daughter.  This time, however, there were no personal attacks, but there was one fan in particular.  He was LOUD, obnoxious, without wit and unoriginal.  For nine innings he spilled beer and taunted the bullpen with "Hey Baaybee, how about you and me go to Rodeo drive tomorrow?  Long flight home tonight baaaaybee.  How about you and me go to Hollywood?" (That's what we get for being the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.) 

To add injury to insult, after the end of the game, while the Yankees and their fans were in delirious, deserved celebration, I started my hop towards the top of the bleachers.  This was not the field level and the hand rail is lower and there are no seat backs to leverage.  It was awkward and after two steps, I fell.  For the first time since the amputation, I felt some serious pain (and significant embarrassment).  I got up, but was disoriented.  All of a sudden, an arm reached out, supported my rather bulky frame and literally lifted me up, step-by-step, hop-by-hop, all the way up the bleachers.  It was the LOUD obnoxious yankee fan.  

After depositing me in my wheelchair, he congratulated the Angels on a great season, shook my hand and left.  The sting of the defeat was still there, but somehow lessened.  For the second time in as many trips to Yankee Stadium, I had a very pleasant surprise.

I was humbled as an Angel fan by being taken to the woodshed and not coming through in clutch situations.  Not happy at all about losing the ALCS.  It'll take most of the autumn to get over this.  I was also humbled as a human to need and receive aid as I did.  But I'm not quite as unhappy about it and it's good to know that even a LOUD obnoxious fan can be a pretty decent human being.

To be honest, that was a hell of a game. Not well played and in horrid conditions, but it was extraordinarily exciting. I froze my ass off and I may very well be single once my wife thaws out ("That my first and last game. My body be dead, but my heart still beating. You want to kill me. You lie to me...you say be done by nine inning, but not!"... Guess baseball isn't making its way to Thailand anytime soon). The fact that she knows how terrible I feel about losing may be a marraige saving factor.

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Inspired by Zu and Zoe and Sothball, I am leading a charge of HHer's into enemy territory tonight.  Princeton11loveshalos, Cath619, and I are heading into the lair of the evil empire to watch our boys prevail.  We're not smart enough (or we just are not lacking enough dignity) to make a "Bam Bam" sign.  Bit we will be wearing colors and it may be possible to see us.  We will be in the front row of the left field bleachers directly overlooking the Angel dugout.

So if the camera does stray over there, someone, please get a shot of it.  Will post photos ASAP.

Let;s light it up in NY.

So why didn't Sabathia sign with the Angels?

"It just didn't feel right," said Sabathia (8-5, 3.70 ERA), who starts against the Angels tomorrow. "I was at the point where I wanted a chance to win every year and it's kind of hard not to pick [the Yankees]."  NY Post 7/11

link to story

Hmmm.  Maybe his agent should've had the ESPN (the Magazine) do his research for him  CC wants to win every year.  Let's take a look at who he's going to battle with for the next 7years:

Derek -- 35 (signed through 2010 and beyond?)

Damon -- 35 (signed through 2009...Yankees are catching a break here)

Matsui -- 35 (signed through 2009...ditto)

Posada - 37 going on 38 (signed through 2011...good thing Matsui's deal is up freeing up the DH role for Jorge)

Arod -- 34 (signed through the second coming...although let's see how the post steroid era treats golden boy)

Mariano -- 39!! (signed through 2010...he;s still very good, but fragile and who's taking his place?  Joba? Hughes?)

Andy -- 37 (this is the end of the ride for Andy.  At least he eeked out $7-10MM for his last hurrah)

This team is positively creaky.  I've seen Oldtimer's Games with younger players.  Granted, Tex is young and very good.  But does he have the mental make-up to anchor a team?  Cano is above average when his head is out of his ass.  But the rest?  Melky?  Gardner? Cervelli? Igawa (remember him?  Signed through 2011 -- this cracks me up)?  If winning every year was the criteria, this was not the team to go to.  Be honest CC, $167/7 was the only reason.

It was the first time I had heard the game (I was there for the first go around).  Memory (at least mine) is illusive.  That game still sends chills down my spine.  Selig wearing a black and orange tie.  Baker giving the game ball to Ortiz.  And I had forgotten how suspenseful Scott Spezio's at bat was in the bottom of the 7th.   Followed by Erstadt's blast in the eighth and finally Bond's gaff followed by Glaus's blast to left center.  That game literally changed my life.  Seven years and 10s of thousands of dollars in season tickets later, it still brings a wide smile to my face.

The following youtube link shows ESPN ranking it as the 7th single game comeback in sports history.  Note the shocked look on Barry's face. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6yeasF6gs&feature=related

I am so jacked for the season now.  Spring is here...bring it on.

Now that Seattle is officially in a free fall and TB took two of three in NY, and Detroit is making a run, who would you rather have be the AL wild card?  

I would rather it be NY because of personal selfish reasons (good chance I get to see some games live in NY).  But it wouldn't bother me too much to see the evil empire retired for the year and the resulting anarchistic turmoil (fire Torre, dump ARod, go hard after Andruw, etc., etc.).