Rooting for the Angels. And a Gone-Too-Soon Angels Fan.
I’ve followed baseball for a long time. . . . Since a child’s ticket at Wrigley Field cost 60 cents. . . . .Since Mayor Daley (Richard the First) scared the devil out of Chicago by setting off the air-raid sirens when his beloved White Sox won the 1959 pennant.
In all of that time, I have only known one actual Angels fan.
Dedicated readers of TMG College Sports know him well: Our dear friend Chris Dufresne.
Chris left us two months ago. The victim of a cruel cancer, he is now with the angels.
In his memory, I am going to be with the Angels, too. For this pandemic baseball season, I will root for three teams. My dyed-in-the-wool Cubs. My fellow Chicagoans, the White Sox. And Chris’s Los Angeles Angels.
I don’t know a lot about the Angels’ history, except that there doesn’t seem to be much of it. But I have looked into the Angels and discovered that they have a lot in common with my Cubs.
Both teams have won exactly one World Series in the last 100 years. . . the Angels in 2002 and the Cubs in 2016.
They both have called Wrigley Field home. The Cubs have played in Chicago’s beautiful Wrigley Field for more than a century. The Angels began their major-league career in 1961 in Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field, which was home to the minor-league (Pacific Coast League) Angels.
The West Coast Wrigley Field was torn down in 1969, but it lives on in Youtube videos of the original Home Run Derby, which is still a hoot. Here’s Ernie Banks vs. Mickey Mantle.
Both Wrigley Fields were owned by William Wrigley Jr., one of the many reasons I wish I had gone into chewing gum instead of newspapers.
Actually, the West Coast version was the original Wrigley Field. It opened in 1925. Although the Cubs had played at Addison and Clark streets in Chicago for nearly a decade, they didn’t get around to naming their ballpark Wrigley Field until 1927.
You could look it up.
The Cubs and Angels have many other things in common, though.
The obvious one: The Angels have hired Joe Maddon, who managed the Cubs four years ago to their first World Series championship since 1908, a season so momentous I just had to write a novel about it. That isn’t the only reason I consider Maddon the Cubs’ finest manager since Frank Chance (a Californian!) guided them to four pennants and two World Series triumphs in five years from 1906-1910. But it’s a big one.
To find out why Chance missed the chance to go 5-for-5, you’ll have to read The Run Don’t Count. Hint: Cheap owner.
I didn’t like to see Joe go, but it was time for a change. And why not David Ross? Glad to see Joe Maddon land on his feet. But please. . . remember the social distancing.
These 2020 Angels remind me of the Cubs in other ways. They have ex-Cub reserve Tommy LaStella, a fine contact hitter who is finally getting the playing time he deserves.
And like the Cubs, they have a lineup filled with interesting bats. They include Mike Trout, widely regarded as the best player in baseball. I can’t say for sure. Because he does his best work after I have gone to bed. And because the Angels’ highlights don’t often reach the heartland. But I plan to pay more attention during this virus-shortened season.
They also have an over-the-hill but still beloved Albert Pujols, who was a legendary St. Louis Cardinal before the Angels gave him a ridiculous contract, which is an Angels trademark. I know this because Chris Dufresne used to tell me, you and anybody else who would listen how his beloved Angels had deep, but misguided pockets.
Anthony Rendon, a third baseman plucked from the Washington Nationals, is the latest to be given big L.A. Angels dollars. We’ll see how that works out. Justin Upton, who’s coming off an injury-riddled 2019, is another high-profile Orange County enigma, as far as I can tell.
In short, a very interesting set of bats. Pitching? I haven’t gotten that far, other than to know that’s a Big Q at the Big A. Just like most other places.
Perhaps the most fascinating Angel, though, is Shohei Ohtani, a Japanese Babe Ruth who can hit for power AND pitch. Injuries have limited Ohtani’s impact his first two years. But what an upside for the 2018 AL rookie of the year, who’s only 26.
Their opening game, a 7-3 loss in 10 innings at Oakland, was filled with curiosities that Cubs fans could relate to. For one, Maddon left himself open to over-managing, which was one of the accusations when he was the Cubs skipper.
For another, the Angels displayed a Cub-like fatal flaw: Knowledge of the strike zone. I realize this is very challenging stuff at the major-league level. But it also is a major key to success. At least, that’s what Ted Williams always said.
The Angels did some very aggressive base-running, another trait of Maddon’s Cubs teams. I understand the theory of taking chances on the bases with two outs; I don’t always agree with it. Especially when it doesn’t work.
And while it happened too late for most of the baseball-watching nation to notice, the Angels made history on Friday night in Oakland. Playing in the first extra-inning game of this pandemic year, they had the first opportunity to take advantage of the rule that puts a runner on second base to start the 10th inning.
So what happened? The Angel placed on second base, Ohtani, got caught in a fielder’s choice that could be second-guessed. Meanwhile, with Marcus Semien starting on second base, the Athletics added a hit batter and a walk to load the bases in the bottom of the 10th. And Matt Olson hit a grand slam: Final score, Oakland 7, Angels 3, 10 innings.
It’s not easy to lose by four runs in extra innings. Having seen the Cubs do that, though, I can relate.
I guess the bottom line is, just as with the Cubs, it’s not easy being an Angels fan.
With every up and down, though, I am going to be thinking of dedicated Angels fan Chris Dufresne.