July 28- California Angels

Most of time when I go into writing these posts I never do it with the thought in the back of my head saying, “Boy, the fans are really going to hate me for this one” until today. No, it won’t be that bad, but I guess that all really depends on perspective really.

I bought this cap on a random afternoon in New York City at the Lids nearest Madison Square Garden as the other Cave Dwellers and I had some free time in between games at the MLB Fan Cave. I think it had been about two or three days since I had last bought a cap so I made sure to go to the one place where I saw a lot of Cooperstown Collection models as to appease my fix. I had spotted this California Angels cap during one of my previous visits and declined on buying it as I couldn’t recall if the Angels had worn this cap with the red bill. For some reason something seemed off about it so I figure I would wait until I did more research. Instead, I picked up the Tampa Bay Devil Rays cap. Boy, was that dumb of me. Anyway, when I finally was able to get back to computer at the Fan Cave I looked up the dates and photos to make sure it was all up to snuff. Sure enough, it wasn't. The halo on this cap is red, unlike real one which featured a silver halo. That small difference aside, I sucked it up and held onto it. As far as the real one is concerned

 the Angels wore it for all of their home games from 1993-1996 during their last four years of being known as the California Angels as the name was changed to the Anaheim Angels in 1997. So, when the time came to get back to the Lids to retrieve my prize I took the N train to Union Square, blasting Journey’s “Separate Ways” and fist-pumping the entire time. Apparently New Yorkers are not too savvy on this practice as I was getting bewildered looks from the other passengers. Their loss. When I got to street level I was “rewarded” with an off-Broadway production of “Man Yelling at Woman Trying to Collect Change with a Kid Under Her Arm.” The reviews were mixed as West Coast critics are not used to this sort of abuse. I guess that happens when you don’t fist-pump to Journey. The next two blocks consisted of at least three people trying to pawn their rap/hip-hop CDs off to me and some guy yelling about the end of the world while wearing a pair of old school roller skates. The only thing I kept thinking in my head was something that fellow Cave Dweller Shaun Kippins had said a few days prior when one of our late night drivers asked how his day was going. To really understand the context of this you need to go back to the Atlanta Braves post from a few days ago, more specifically about the “Mr. Belvedere” section. When Shaun was asked that question, without skipping a beat he replied, “F---in’ New York” and sat quietly in the corner of the backseat until we got home. This became the official response to anything we ever saw “out of the ordinary” which in turn was merely everyday life in New York City. So yah, nothing really interesting happened when I actually purchased the cap, but everything that went on around me was certainly a gas.

Moving on… Of all the things that piss me off the most about this cap is that it has become iconic with the God awful remake/revision of the 1951 classic Angels in the Outfield (1994). 

I know a lot of you have seen it; Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s dad is a deadbeat who will only claim him out of foster care if the Angels win the pennant. So, JGL prays, gets a little help from Christopher Lloyd and some actual angels and the Danny Glover-run bunch of misfits featuring Tony Danza as their ace start winning games and eventually win the pennant thanks in part arm-flapping. Awful. In fact, some other notable faces got their big breaks in this movie.

This was actually shot AFTER they slept with the director.

  Oscar winner.

What makes this even more infuriating is that almost the entire movie was filmed at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum before Mt. Davis was erected, thus blocking out the Oakland hills in the back ground. 

So in a sense, Angels in the Outfield has become a historical relic for Oakland Athletics fans who want to see how beautiful the Coliseum used to be, all while sitting through American League Western Division propaganda.

The 1993-1996 timeframe in Angel history (in real life) was an especially trying time.  For most of the 1990s, the Angels played sub-.500 baseball, due in no small part to the confusion which reigned at the top. Gene Autry, though holding a controlling interest in the Angels, was in control in name only due to poor health in his advanced years. Autry’s wife Jackie, 20 years his junior, at times seemed to be the decision-maker, and at other times The Walt Disney Company, then a minority owner, seemed to be in charge. On May 21, 1992, an Angels' team bus traveling from New York to Baltimore crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike. Twelve members of the team ensemble were injured, including manager Buck Rodgers, who was hospitalized and missed the next three months of the season. In 1993, the Angels had a new spring training camp in Tempe, Arizona after 31 previous seasons in Palm Springs Stadium in Palm Springs, an idea Autry developed from the days when he stayed in his desert resort home. The Angels hoped a new facility would rejuvenate and improve the roster in the long run. The 1993 and 1994 seasons proved to be worse for the Angels than the previous three, particularly since the 1994 season ended in a baseball player strike that kept Angel fans waiting even longer for the team's fate to change. In 1995, the Angels suffered the worst collapse in franchise history. In first place in the AL West by 11 games in August, the team again lost key personnel (particularly shortstop Gary DiSarcina) and went on an extended slide during the final stretch run. By season's end, they were in a first-place tie with the surging Seattle Mariners, prompting a one-game playoff for the division title. The Mariners, managed by Lou Piniella and led by pitching ace Randy Johnson, laid a 9–1 drubbing on the Angels in the playoff game, clinching the AL West championship and forcing the Angels and their fans to endure yet another season of heartbreak and bitter disappointment.

The heartbreak of the collapse became even worse for loyal LA-area sports fans as the Los Angeles Rams decided to vacate “The Big A” and head to greener pastures in St. Louis, Missouri of all places in 1995 where they would eventually regroup and restructure their team and go on to win Super Bowl XXXIV against the Tennessee Titans. But, it all gets crazier. Disney effectively took control of the Angels in 1996, when it was able to gain enough support on the board to hire Tony Tavares as team president. Gene Autry, however, remained as chairman until his death in 1998. In 1999, Tavares hired Bill Stoneman as team general manager, under whose watch the Angels eventually won their first World Series Championship. Although Disney did not technically acquire a controlling interest in the team until after Autry's death, for all practical purposes it ran the team (the Autry loyalists on the board acted as "silent partners") through its Anaheim Sports subsidiary, which also owned the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim at the time. Disney, of course, had been a catalyst for the development of and population growth in Orange County, having opened its Disneyland theme park in Anaheim in 1955. Autry had named Walt Disney himself to the Angels' board in 1960; Mr. Disney served on the board until his death in 1966, and had been one of the proponents of the team's move to Orange County in 1965-66. In 1997, negotiations between the Angels and the city of Anaheim for renovation of Anaheim Stadium ended with an agreement to rehabilitate and downsize the facility into a baseball-only stadium once more. One condition of the stadium agreement was that the Angels could sell naming rights to the renovated stadium, so long as the new name was one "containing Anaheim therein." Anaheim Stadium was almost immediately renamed Edison International Field of Anaheim, though it was almost always referred to as simply Edison Field. Sportscasters also referred to the stadium at the time as The Big Ed, with a few others continuing to use the Big A nickname and, at times, Anaheim Stadium. Another condition of the stadium renovation agreement was that the team name itself be one "containing Anaheim therein." The emerging Disney ownership was itself in the process of renovating and upgrading its aging Disneyland park. Disney hoped to market Anaheim as a "destination city", much the same way it had done with Orlando, Florida, where Walt Disney World was located. Accordingly, the team changed its name again, to the Anaheim Angels on November 19, 1996. Thus, the California Angels were no more.

While the Angels did go on to win the World Series in 2002, the business end of getting to that place is by far one of the dumbest trails to victory in Major League history, and really the heart and soul of what made the Angels so unique was butchered repackaged and fed to us in the campiest way possible, the Disney way. Think I’m crazy for thinking this, click this link and I guarantee that ALL Angels fans will agree with me just based on the first photo.

#31- If there was one player who I would say deserved a World Series ring the most out of anybody who ever suited up for the Angels, besides Autry, it would have to be the longest-tenured pitcher to ever play for the Angels and my personal favorite to suit up for them, Chuck Finley. 

And a little Jim Fregosi love

Finley’s time with the Angels began in 1985 when he was selected with the fourth overall pick in the MLB secondary draft. He would only spend that season in the minors before making his Major League debut on May 29, 1986 against the Detroit Tigers in a one inning relief appearance in which he got shelled. Finley’s role as a starter didn’t develop until 1988 when he was thrown into the lions den for 31 games, compiling a 9-15 record with a 4.17 ERA and 111 strikeouts. His numbers weren’t exactly top tier; however, they were respectable for it being his first full season as a starter.

From 1989-1999 Finley dominated, with the exception of the 1992 season when he went 7-12, but still maintained a 3.96 ERA. Every other year, double-digits in wins and only one other losing season (besides 1992) in 1996 where he went 15-16 with a 4.16 ERA. Finley made four All-Star appearances during his time in California/Anaheim (1989, 1990, 1995 and 1996) and an additional one during his first year with the Cleveland Indians in 2000. Finely only registered for the AL Cy Young one year when he finished in seventh place with an 18-9 record, a 2.40 ERA and 177 strikeouts, which was way too low in comparison to the other names ahead of him on the list and their stats.

Of all the things that Finely is most known for (on the field), his deadly split-finger is one that tops the list, mostly because of the one stat that he holds that no other pitcher necessarily wants to break. Finely holds the record for most four-strikeout innings in Major League history with A.J. Burnett right on his heels. The split-finger is such a wild pitch to catch and it becomes even more erratic if it hits the ground before landing in the catcher’s glove. But, even with that, Finley still holds the majority of Angel pitching records. He is the Angels all-time career leader in wins (165), innings pitched (2,675), games started (379) and is second in strikeouts (2,151) behind some one trick pony named Nolan Ryan.

#44- If there was one moment that served as a broken record in the MLB Fan Cave out of Ricardo Marquez’s mouth, it would have to be his love of Chili Davis. Not only that, the one thing that he would always talk about, which ended up being a trivia question at the 2013 Fan Cave Top-30 trivia competition is his ERA: 0.00. Yes, Davis threw two innings of shutout baseball and even hit a dude in the process. All of this information I knew about before he brought it up, but I was also aware of the fact that Davis could hit the ball incredibly well, something that Ricardo seemed to forget at times. But, in keeping with his favorite story I humored him in asking if he knew who his only hit by pitch was against, thinking he might actually know it. He didn’t. This always bothered me about Ricardo way more than it should, but I think mostly because he held on to one stat about a guy and didn’t know much else about him despite saying that his is his favorite player. Stranger shit has happened, I guess. And the answer of who Davis plunked, your favorite and mine, Jose Canseco. But, where Ricardo stops, I take over.

One thing I will give credit for is that he does know that Davis is one of four guys to be born in Jamaica to play at the Major League level. In fact, he was the first. Drafted in the 11^th round of the 1977 draft by the San Francisco Giants, Davis made his MLB debut on April 10, 1981 and only played in eight games. In his first full season he hit .261 with 19 home runs and 76 RBI which was only good enough for a fourth place finish for Rookie of the Year. Yah, that talent pool was that good. Davis would go on to make two All-Star Game appearances with the Giants in 1984 and 1986 before he became a free agent at the end of the 1987 season. Without hesitation, the Angels picked him up and signed him to a deal.

From 1988-1990 Davis hit .268 with 55 home runs and 241 RBI, he would end up finishing 25^th for the AL MVP in 1989, but was granted free agency following the 1990 season where he was signed by the Minnesota Twins for the 1991 campaign which got him his first and only World Series ring as a player. He hit two home runs in that series against the Atlanta Braves. He also finished in 14^th place for the AL MVP that season with a .277 average, 29 dingers and 93 RBI. When Davis was once again given free agency at the end of the 1992 season the Angels swooped in again. 

Davis’ second run with the Angels ran the entire duration of this cap, 1993-1996. Even though the Angels were not exactly a success story, Davis made the most of his time in Anaheim. His best season came during the strike-shortened 1994 season in which he hit .311 with 26 home runs and 84 RBI despite only playing in 108 games. Davis made his only All-Star Game appearance with the Angels that year and finished 22^nd for the AL MVP. Davis hit .279, 156 homers and knocked in 618 runs in his career with the Angels and has been serving as the batting coach for the Athletics since 2012. Davis’ results as a coach have been swift and strong. The Athletics as a team have improved their batting average, going from .244 in 2011 to .238 in 2012 up to .254 in 2013. As for their home run production, 114 in 2011 to 195 in 2012 and 186 in 2013. Suffice to say, the man can teach hitting.

June 10- Anaheim Angels

I realize a lot of people, especially Anaheim Angles fans aren’t particularly fond of this cap, but honestly, I kind of dig it. It was first introduced in 1997, the same time the California was dropped from the name and the Anaheim was added. For five grueling years they wore this cap under managers Terry Collins, Joe Maddon and Mike Scioscia just as he was starting out. It served as their game cap, unlike its counterpart with the light blue bill which I wrote about on April 8^th. While the Angels themselves didn’t fair out too well under this cap, there is one moment that occurred while they were wearing this bad boy that I can’t shake for my mind.

As an Oakland Athletics fan it’s hard for me to tip my cap to an accomplishment by a rival player; however, there are just some moments that occur in sports that one needs to cast differences aside and realize that what they just witnessed is truly spectacular. Even more impressive is when someone I’ve had a history with and I agree upon the same thing. This story takes place on a random day in April while the other eight Cave Dwellers and I were watching “Top 50 Countdown- Greatest Defensive Plays” edition on MLB Network while we were sitting around waiting for our production assignments for the day in the MLB Fan Cave.

I’m having a little bit of difficulty remembering which day in particular it was, but I think it might have been on April 27^th as we were waiting for Detroit Tigers players Collin Balester and Miguel Cabrera. The two were running just a little bit late and all eight of us had gotten there especially early for prep-work on the Miggy Poco sketch that we would be filming that day. With time to kill until they arrived we turned a few of the televisions on the Cave Monster on and tuned into MLB Network since all we were really allowed to watch was baseball no matter what hour of the day it was. Due to it being so early in the morning, 8:45 AM EST, there wasn’t anything live on air quite yet, so we were regaled with “Top-50 Countdown.” The funniest part of this moment is that St. Louis Cardinals fan Kyle Thompson, Atlanta Braves fan Ricky Mast, New York Yankees fan Eddie Mata and I really knew all of the plays that they were going to show. So of course, to make things interesting, we all started predicting the order of the Top-10 plays. The only problem with this is that this particular activity, much like the crew who assembled the stories and highlights, based everything around lore and personal opinion. There really isn’t an accurate way to rank any of these moments, especially when it comes to something like robbing a home run. At the end of the day, as long as the ball was caught, the job was done. I suppose a degree of difficulty could be added onto it, but a lot of that is arbitrary too because the ground covered by the defender is really based on how well they read the person at the plate and where they’re stuck when it comes to defensive positioning. Yes, I take a lot of these things into consideration when making important judgment calls.

By the time we started out little game the show had all ready cracked the Top-20. Not having any idea of what the previous 30 plays were made it a little more challenging. Eddie, being the homer that he is, of course said the Derek Jeter flip play was going to be number one. My response to that has simply giving Eddie the finger. I don’t really remember what Ricky said, but both Kyle and I ended up with the same answer. It was probably the only time he and I ever really agreed on anything.

This is another befuddling moment for me because I don’t remember exactly where the moment landed on the list. I’m pretty sure it was Top-five, possibly even at number 3, but to this day I still stick to my guns as it is not only the greatest play I have ever seen as it occurred, but quite possibly the best play in history. Once again, this is merely a matter of my opinion and should be taken as such. No sense in starting a Holy War over something so trivial.

6/10/97- One of the really cool things about living in Bakersfield, California during baseball season was that I got a seemingly endless fill of Major League Baseball games on TV even without the assistance of MLB.tv or MLB Network, both of which didn’t exist at the time. Now, the only drawback to this is that I was stuck watching Los Angeles Dodgers and Anaheim Angels games. Sadly I was too far away from the cusp of where we had a signal to the Bay Area sports stations so I could only watch Athletics games if they ever played on ESPN or against the Angels.

On one particular summer day on June 10, 1997 I found myself especially bored out of my mind I was watching the Angels on the road against the Kansas City Royals. Just to let you know how bad things were back in those days, Angels’ skipper Terry Collins had the team sitting is second place in the American League West with a 32-28 record while Bob Boone was on the verge of getting canned as the manager of the Royals as they were in third place in the AL Central at 28-31. The Angels struck first in the top of the second inning with a 1-0 lead after Tim Salmon crossed the plate from second thanks to a Garrett Anderson single. The Royals would make a charge in the bottom of the fifth inning, tying the game a one apiece after a Jeff King double followed up by an RBI single by Chili Davis. Johnny Damon then followed that up with a single while the next two batters, Mike MacFarlane and Scott Cooper lined out to Anderson in left field. With two outs, a runner on first in the bottom of the fifth inning, Royals’ right fielder David Howard came to the plate.

The look of a true baller.

Howard had broken into the Major Leagues in 1991 and was 59 games into his final season with the Royals at the time when he stepped into the batters box. The best season he had ever put together was in 1996, the only season in which he played in over 94 games (143). In ’96 he hit .219 with four home runs and 48 RBI. He got cot caught stealing more often than he was successful, which goes to show that he wasn’t that quick for as fit as he was. His four home runs in ’96, 11 for his career show that he didn’t have a lot of power. And despite how mediocre his career may have been, stats wise, he will always be remembered for this at-bat.

 The eyes say, "I'm stone cold," but the sideburns say, "I came to party."

 Jason Dickson was pitching for the Angels that day. Dickson had been called up the previous season, 1996, and made seven starts for the Angels, going 1-4 with a 4.57 ERA. 1997 was proving to be a much better year for the 24-year-old right-hander who would go on to make his one and only All-Star Game appearance that year and finish in third place for the AL Rookie of the Year award with a 13-9 record, a 4.29 ERA and 115 strikeouts. Unfortunately for Dickson, some “flash in the pan” (sarcasm) named Nomar Garciaparra made short work of every rookie in the league.

Dickson threw a hanging curveball to Howard which he immediately turned on. For a guy hitting in the nine-hole it’s not exactly expected the he’d make contact, but for the lack of power he usually put behind the ball, Howard sent this was screaming to centerfield. Angles centerfielder Jim Edmonds then had to get on his horsey and haul ass to even come close to making a play. Wait… did I say Jim Edmonds? Did I say come close to making a play?

"Thanks for the stupid jersey Disney."

Edmonds made his MLB debut on September 9, 1993 as a late-season call up for the 40-man expansion roster. In 1994 he played in 94 games (94 in ’94, funny) and hit .273 with five home runs and 37 RBI which was good enough for an eighth place finish for AL Rookie of the Year. In 1995 he made his first of only four All-Star Game appearances as well as a 14^th place finish for AL MVP after going .290/33/107. It was a really stupid year for on the voter’s behalf. Edmonds produced another solid year in 1996, but it would be on this day in 1997 that Edmonds became a household name.

As the ball sailed into centerfield Edmonds could tell that he was playing way too shallow to make a play. However, while most people would make the play off the wall after realizing they’re doomed, Jim “F---ing” Edmonds will do everything in his power to make that out. Rather than me blab about it anymore, take a look at the play here.

Now, there are plays that a truly worth of note, and then there are some like this that are beyond words like “boner-inducing,” as I would use. “The Catch,” as it’s known throughout the baseball community, pretty much cemented the first of eight Gold Glove awards that Edmonds would win throughout his career. Now, I realize that there are some purists out there who still hold Willie Mays’s over the shoulder basket catch during Game one of the 1954 World Series as the greatest play of all-time; however, all I can really say to those people is, “Shut your mouth. Shut it.” While the importance of Mays’s catch is what makes his so amazing, the pure athleticism and sacrifice of the body is why I hold what Edmonds accomplished in such high regards, even if it is an early June game against a team that hadn’t been to the playoffs since they won the World Series in 1985. It’s a level of play that very few will ever display in their careers, and Edmonds did it on a regular basis.

The Angels, energized by what they had witnessed, went on a scoring tear and beat the Royals by the final score of 6-2. But even with the win all anyone wanted to talk about that night on ESPN’s Sportscenter was that amazing play which we still talk about to this day.

Like I said, “boner-inducing.”

May 3- California Angels

It took me a while to get my thoughts together for this post as I really didn’t have anything to inspire where to start. If you haven’t noticed in any of my other New Era Cap posts you can get a sense of my mood on the day. Some times I can put together something truly extraordinary, while with others it turns into a bit of struggle and I find myself writing more about historical facts with little-to-no personal investment. With this one I sat at my computer for a solid two hours shuffling through You Tube videos and watching a bit of the day’s games to find something to help make the words come out, but nothing was working. As the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees game came to a close I hit play on the first song dialed in on my Itunes; “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin. Chances are you’ve heard it. And if you haven’t then may God have mercy on your soul. Here you are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPmruHc4S9Q

One thing that very few people know about me is that I’m a huge music buff. Even though the vast majority of my music collection is derived of classic rock hits from the 1960s through 1980s, I honestly can’t concentrate on my writing when I know all of the words to the songs. In most cases I end up writing out what I’m listening to. It’s kind of funny, but it really isn’t productive. Roughly three years ago I started experimenting with only instrumental songs; mostly scores and operatic melodies by the likes of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and even a few from Jaqueline Schwab who did the score for Ken Burns Baseball. What I soon realized is that I was able to articulate myself better and not just interject points in a rant style. In the case of “The Entertainer” I noticed that my brain was bringing up moments from my past; including old highlight reels from the earlier days of baseball. So, like today, I can put together a better story; because after all, it’s hard to take information of something I wasn’t alive to see and turn it into something that can provide visuals and a real-time experience for the readers. I’ve done this for 122 straight days and still have 243 days to go including today. That’s a lot of baseball and storytelling right there.

I’m a huge fan of “The Simpsons.” Yes, I’m one of those people who can rattle off quotes and otherwise useless knowledge of the show that very few people have ever given though to. One of the biggest things I’ve taken pleasure in over the years is outsmarting anyone who says they’re a big Simpsons fan themselves. Usually the conversation starts with one person making a reference, I laugh and then the person will remark something to the tune of, “Oh! You know that quote? Do you watch “The Simpsons” often? If you do, I bet I know more than you.” This has been a similar start of conversations I’ve had with people concerning rock and roll, films and of course baseball. To me, it’s amusing. To them it’s a slow, yet inevitable death. I don’t mean to brag about it; I have no control over the way my brain processes and retains information, but I am grateful for it. The reason I bring all of this up is because of the song I listed above, “The Entertainer.” If you know the song and you know “The Simpsons” you might remember the first episode of the ninth season called “The City of New York versus Homer Simpson.” In it Homer’s friend Barney Gumble loses Homer’s car in New York City and Homer has to go back to retrieve it as parking tickets have continued to pile up on his windshield. Homer doesn’t wan to go as his one and only trip to the city was met with folly as shown in an old-style black and white film form with “The Entertainer” playing in the background. Every time I look at the California Angels cap with this song playing the background I can’t help but have a similar story being told in my head. Not necessarily Sandy Alomar losing his car in New York City, but as system of poor playing resulting in a field of errors for the Angels that season. With that, here we go…

This cap is one of the more ingenious, but shortest-lived hats in the Angels history. It was only used for one season in 1971 to accompany the new uniforms the team had introduced which featured the lower-case “a” with a little halo in the top-left corner that said “angels” across the chest. Even though the team only used the hat for one season they used the jersey for an additional season in 1972 to pair with the upper-case “Å” cap that I wrote about back on February 25^th; thus proving that questionable decisions have always been a longstanding part of the Angels organization.

’71: 1971 had to be one of my marks as a reminder of when the cap was actually used, but more important I couldn’t find the jersey number for their manager that season. ’71 was the final year of then manager Lefty Phillips who had his only stint as a Major League manager from 1969-1971, all of which came with the Angels. Lefty joined the Angels at the start of the 1969 season to work in the front office alongside his good friend, and former Los Angeles Dodgers executive Dick Walsh who had just been hired as the Angels’ general manager. Prior to joining the Angels Lefty had been the pitching coach for the Dodgers from 1965-1968, working with such notables as Don Sutton, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. I’m not sure what happened to those three, but I’m sure they all did good things in their careers. Kidding. All three went on to get elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Dodgers won the World Series in 1965 behind the trio. When Walsh took the job with the Dodgers he convinced lefty to follow, assigning him to the post of director of player personnel. Lefty only lasted in that position for a little over a month into the season before being assigned to take the helm of the Angels.

Lefty’s “rookie” season came as a midseason changing of the guard when the Angels fired then manager Billy Rigney who had been the team’s first and only manager since 1961. After going 11-28 to start the ’69 season he was replaced by Lefty who ended up going 60-63 for the rest of the year. In 1970 the Angels tied their best season record of 86-76, a mark previously set by Rigney and the 1962 Angels squad. In ’71 the Angels finished with a record of 76-86, which was far from the worst finish they had sustained in their 11-year existence; however, Lefty was still canned after 2 ½  seasons as the team’s skipper, as was Walsh as GM. He went 222-225 as manager, but was still retained by the Angels to carry-on as a scout as he had previously done in previous season with the Cincinnati Reds and Dodgers. On June 12, 1972 Lefty suffered an asthma attack late in the evening and died as result. He was only 53-years-old.

#11- If there was ever a person who I would consider to be the face of the Angels franchise I would have to go with Jim Fregosi. My sincerest apologies to all of you Tim Salmon and Garrett Anderson fans out there, but Fregosi takes this one. Originally a free agent signing in 1960, Fregosi was scooped up in the expansion draft at the end of that season and made his Major League debut on September 14, 1961, the same first day of the Angels organization in the Majors. His career with the Angels went from 1961 through, oddly enough, the end of the 1971 season. He played for another seven years for the New York Mets, Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates until he hung up his spikes (as a player) at the end of the 1978 season. What’s most interesting about his time with the Pirates coming to an end was that the Angels had tapped him to take over as the team’s manager while he was playing and the Pirates released him so he could pursue that venture at the age of 36. To my knowledge that’s the only time I’ve ever known a manager to be hired while he was playing for another team.

1971 played an important part in Fregosi’s playing career as it was statistically one of the worst seasons he had ever recorded. This goes back to what I was talking about with “The Entertainer.” From 1964-1970 Fregosi had made the AL All-Star team every season except 1965. From 1963-1970 Fregosi had cracked the Top-28 or better in the American League MVP vote. In 1967 he won his only Gold Glove of his career as a shortstop, his natural position. That season was also the best of his career offensively too as he finished in seventh place for the AL MVP, his best finish, with a .290 average, nine home runs, six triples, 171 hits and 56 RBI. In 1971; however, Fregosi hit .233 with 81 hits including one triple and five home runs. He also knocked in 33 which I only added for a consolation prize. It’s not like very many Major League stars to be so consistently good for so many consecutive years only to have a personal-worst season of their career and never rebound from it. Actually, there is a viable explanation for what happened to Fregosi. Early on in the season when his numbers weren’t looking to hot he complained off-and-on about a pain in his foot. The team doctors looked at it, but really didn’t find anything wrong and sent him back out into the field. Finally the problem became severe to the point where Fregosi went to the hospital to have it looked at. It was then that doctors discovered a tumor. His season was over. The Angels, being the classy organization they are, were uncertain of his future in baseball and convinced the Mets to take him as part of a trade that sent Nolan Ryan to the Angels. Where the Angels lacked in compassion they certainly made up for it in “f---ing the other guy over hard.”

I suppose the Angels did make it up to Fregosi down the road with the whole managerial job thing in ’78. Hell, he and the Angels even made the postseason in 1979 for the first time in franchise history… and then, in classic Angels fashion, he was fired in the middle of the 1981 season after going 22-25. What’s even more ironic about this is that the Angels started doing poorly after Nolan Ryan signed with the Houston Astros at the end of the ‘79 season. So in short: the Angels and Nolan Ryan hosed Fregosi two times each.

It wouldn’t be until 1998 that the Angels would finally retire Fregosi’s #11; 28 years after he last played for them and 17 years after he last managed them. I just have to laugh and shake my head at this one. If you haven’t yet, play “The Entertainer” and go back and read this section on Fregosi and it will all make sense why I chose to write about it.

It’s also kind of funny that this hat ended up being my post for the day as it was one of four hats I had my mom mail out to me from Oregon as I didn’t quite bring enough to write about from my extended stay with my girlfriend Angie Kinderman (@sconnieangie). A few nights ago, when the Athletics beat the Angels in back-to-back nights, including a 19-inning thriller at the Coliseum, I made a few jokes on Twitter about the Angels bring back Fregosi and fire current manager Mike Scioscia. Only one person really got the joke, Carey Gallé (@CareyGalle). Carey and I cut it up with one another on a nightly basis as he’s a loyal supporter of the Halos, but even I was surprised that very few Angels fans knew what I was talking about. I think he’ll agree with me; Fregosi for life!

April 8- Anaheim Angels

By no means am I a Los Angeles Angels/Anaheim Angels/California Angels/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fan; however, there have been a few moments in time when I can honestly say that I have a lot of respect for their team, players and fans. 2002 is not one of those years, but that’s the Oakland Athletics fan inside of me talking.

Unlike their Southern California counterpart the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Angels have had a lot of weird years and certainly made their fair share of bad deals in order to entice talent to make the pilgrimage out to the West Coast in order to buy a World Series title. Unlike the New York Yankees and Dodgers, the Angels have also made a lot of interesting attempts to usher in the new era of their recently acquired superstars with a changing of their logo and colors. In fact, of all the teams who have been around since the early 1960s, the Angels have been one of the more notorious teams to not follow my unwritten rules of how to be successful when making such drastic changes to the uniform. Those rules would be:

1. Don’t do it unless you have a more than capable general manager.

2. Don’t do it unless you have a competent designer and marketing staff.

3. Don’t do it unless your intention was to make the fans cower under their throw blanket door prize with a brown paper sack in which to barf in because the amount of activity on the uniform has made them nauseous.

With that, I give you the 1997-2001 Anaheim Angels.

During this five-year span the Angels introduced three caps. One of them featured the “A” logo with angel wings like in the picture above, but with navy blue panels and a navy blue bill and the other was exactly like the one above but was made of mesh with a red bill and served as the team’s batting practice cap. Both of those hats will be talked about at length in later posts. This hat served as the team’s alternate hat from 1999-2000, and to be honest, it’s actually a pretty sweet cap. My biggest issue with this era lies more heavily on the pinstriped jerseys with navy blue sleeves. The really sad part in all of this is that I actually own one of those jerseys. This one to be exact…

Oh the humanity!!! It’s one thing to class up a jersey with pinstripes, but it’s another thing to make the sleeves a different solid color and adding patches to them.

1999 was an interesting year for the Angels. The team finished the season in fourth place in the American League West division with a record of 70-92, and with a changing of the guard at the end of August. Former manager and current New York Mets manager Terry Collins had managed the team since the start of the 1997 and produced back-to-back second place finishes within the division, both of which were winning records. After taking the team to 51-82 the Angels brass had enough and replaced Collins with former bench coach and current Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon. Maddon finished the season going 19-10, yet for some reason was demoted back to bench coach in 2000 to make way for current manager Mike Scioscia. Even though Scioscia and company won the World Series in 2002, the team has yet to taste similar success after Maddon and one of Scioscia’s other coaches, Bud Black, took managerial jobs with other teams. The best way to look at this is how former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Holmgren had a so-so career after assistant coaches Andy Reid, Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden all took head coaching jobs elsewhere after winning the Super Bowl in 1996. But I’m getting way too ahead of myself.

Very few people could see it, but 1999 was the key turning around point for all of the Angels’ misfortune even as peculiar as my rationale may be. Mo Vaughn had just been signed to a hefty long-term deal after the 1998 season and had modest success in the two full seasons he played with the team; however, it wasn’t until they traded him to the Mets for Kevin Appier that the team became well-rounded on both sides of the ball. From 1999-2000 the Angels lineup had become more offensive heavy and they overlooks rebuilding their pitching staff; kind of funny how in 2013 the same things appears to be happening. Solid draft picks and a keen attention to their farm system helped, but the most critical thing to change prior to the 1999 season was the passing of owner Gene Autry on October 2, 1998.

With that, my marks for this cap…

#25- One of the best moves the Angels ever made in the history of their franchise came in 1997 when they drafted a power-hitting third baseman out of UCLA with the third overall pick in that year’s amateur draft. On July 31, 1998 he made his debut wearing #12 and had a modest impact in the team batting .218 with one home run and 23 RBI in 48 games. Despite those numbers, Terry Collins named Troy Glaus as his starting third baseman at the start of the 1999 season.

It’s kind of shame that Glaus played in so many games in ’98 because his .240 average with 29 home runs and 79 RBI probably would have made him a legitimate contender for the AL Rookie of the Year award which went to Carlos Beltran of the Kansas City Royals. In 2000, under this hat, Glaus awkwardly and quietly had the best season of his career. He hit career highs in batting average (.284), stolen bases (14), walks (112), hits (160), OPS (1.008) and home runs (47), which was also the highest amount in the League that season. Glaus also had 102 RBI, which is the third best for his career and 37 doubles, which is the second best for his career. Despite all of those numbers, Glaus didn’t even crack the Top-30 for MVP votes that season. Instead all he was given was a Silver Slugger award and a trip to the All-Star Game. Based on the numbers of the other parties involved, Glaus should have finished at least in the Top-15 for the award. This is one of the few times I will admit that the Angels got hosed.

Glaus’s career with the Angels ended in 2004 after he suffered a shoulder injury that the Angels felt would be an issue for the rest of his career. When his contract expired at the end of the season the Arizona Diamondbacks signed him to a four-year $45 million deal while the Angels opted to make Dallas McPherson their new third baseman with the hopes that he’s be just as productive as Glaus. Ha! Glaus finished his career with the Angels with a .253 average, 182 home runs, 515 RBI, three trips to the All-Star Game, two Silver Slugger awards, a World Series ring and a World Series MVP award after going .385/3/8 in the series.

#26- Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, was born on September 29, 1907 and was a singer and actor on radio, television and film. He was active in front of the microphone/camera from 1931-1964 and is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Oddly enough, the three songs that brought him the most success for his career, besides “Back in the Saddle Again,” are “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Autry served as a pilot of a C-47 Skytrain for the US Army Air Corps during World War II, flying dangerous missions over the Himalayas between Burma and China.

At the tail end of his showbiz career Autry bought numerous radio stations including KSFO in San Francisco, a handful of TV stations and had been in over 100 films and recorded over 600 albums; however, like most people of the era, Autry was a huge baseball fan. As a teenager Autry had turned down the opportunity to play professionally and did the next best thing in 1950s; he bought a team.

In the 1950s Autry had been a minority owner of the minor-league Hollywood Stars. In 1960, when Major League Baseball announced plans to add an expansion team in Los Angeles, Autry expressed an interest in acquiring the radio broadcast rights to the team's games. Baseball executives were so impressed by his approach that he was persuaded to become the owner of the franchise rather than simply its broadcast partner. The team, initially called the Los Angeles Angels (which came from the Pacific Coast League team which played from 1903-1957) upon its 1961 debut, moved to suburban Anaheim in 1966, and was renamed the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels from 1997 until 2005, when it became the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Autry served as vice president of the American League from 1983-1998. In 1995 he sold a quarter share of the team to The Walt Disney Company and a controlling interest the following year, with the remaining share to be transferred after his death. Earlier, in 1982, he sold Los Angeles television station KTLA for $245 million. He also sold several radio stations he owned, including KSFO, KMPC in Los Angeles, KOGO in San Diego, and other stations in the Golden West radio network.

Autry passed away at the age of 91 in 1998 and this patch was worn by the players throughout the 1999 season.

The #26 was actually retired in 1992 as the Angels and the Anaheim community had called Autry the 26^th member of the team. Even though he wasn’t alive during the World Series run of 2002, the media expressed great accolades toward Autry for his work with the team, with MLB and most important the community he had fell in love with who fell in love with him so many decades ago.

April 7- Lake Elsinore Storm

I’ve found myself matched up against a bit of a road block. I had tried to do research on this particular Lake Elsinore Storm hat about a month ago, but found myself in a very similar place when trying to do research on two of the players that I knew from the 2000 season, but I’ll get to that later in the post.

The Storm have been an advanced-A club since 1994 when they were an affiliate of the California/Los Angeles Angels from then until the end of the 2000 season. The original ballclub went through a series of relocations and team name changes from 1979-1994, but had no actual affiliation with a Major League club until the Angels took over in ‘81. At first they were the Santa Clara Padres in 1979, then they became the Redwood Pioneers from 1980-1985 and then the Palm Springs Angels from 1986-1993. The team moved to Lake Elsinore in 1994 as their new stadium, Lake Elsinore Diamond (Pete Lehr Field) opened that same year. The park has a capacity of 7,866 fans and is the largest capacity stadium in the California League. On July 4, 1998 the Storm broke the single game attendance record by housing 12, 876 fans for their Independence Day game a fireworks celebration; which only goes to show, the combination of baseball and explosions is too hard to resist.

This cap was one of the first hats I ever purchased during the 1999 season, my first as bat boy for the Bakersfield Blaze. It was kind of an unusual purchase, especially when considering that not only did I work for one of their rival teams, but their Major League affiliate is the divisional rival for my favorite Major League team the Oakland Athletics. However, this hat was way too cool to pass up. It made its debut, along with me, at the start of the 1999 season and has been one of three consistent hats the team has worn including throughout their recent four-game series against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. It's also a 7 1/8, which is two sizes smaller than I currently wear, but I definitely made sure to wear it anytime I played summer league ball. It certainly has some mileage on it.

During my two-year run with the Blaze I never really got to know any of the players on the Storm. It wasn’t that I really tried; it had more to do with the fact that all of the players kept to themselves. Only one member of the 1999-2000 teams ever really talked to me, Nathan Haynes. Haynes was a former A’s first round draft pick in 1997 and grew up in the city of Oakland. He and I chatted every now-and-then about how we were both longtime A’s fans and how he and my brothers Matt and Adam practically grew up next door to one another as we lived in the neighboring town of San Leandro. I don’t recall if my brothers and he played in the same youth baseball leagues or not, but for all I know they could have since they were all the same age.

The Storm always played the Blaze the toughest for both years, but neither could really compete with the San Bernardino Stampede who won back-to-back Cal League championships those years. Looking back on those years it was the 2000 Storm squad that turned out to be the most vicious despite the fact that it would be the 2001 team that would win the second of their three total Cal League titles. At the time I didn’t realize how many players would end up playing in the Majors, but I can still recall how talented they were back in the start of their professional careers. Guys like Gary Johnson, Robb Quinlan, Alfredo Amezaga, Steve Green and Scot Shields. But it was these two guys that carried most potential in their pockets.

#?- After quite a bit of research and a phone call to the team’s front office, I still haven’t been able to track down this jersey number; however, I should get a call back in the next few days with that information so I can update and mark up my cap.

John Lackey was a second round draft pick by the Angels in the 1999 amateur draft out of Abilene, Texas. Lackey started out in Boise with the Hawks, the low level-A affiliate, in ’99 and finished the season with a 6-2 record and an ERA of 4.98. In 2000 Lackey started the season out with a higher level-A club, the Cedar Rapids Kernels and pitched in five games with a 3-4 record and an ERA of 2.08 before moving on to Lake Elsinore.

Due to scheduling and pitching rotations I was only able to catch Lackey for one game when the Storm arrived at Sam Lynn Ballpark in late May. The first thing I can recall about Lackey is that he was much skinnier, kind of like Troy Glaus when he first made it to the Show. The second thing I recall is that he was deadly accurate with his pitches. Lackey in his youth was able to blast knee-high pitches that barely painted the black by batters with little-to-no effort. His curve ball had a solid break and his changeup always left people guessing. In the 15 games that Lackey started he went 6-6 with a 3.40 ERA and 74 strikeouts, six of which came against the Blaze. Lackey moved on to AA Erie to play with the Sea Wolves (awesome name) before the season wrapped up and by the middle of 2002 he up at the Major League level winning a World Series ring with the Angels, finishing the season in fourth place for the Rookie of the Year award.

While most people don’t like him as a person, it’s still a damn shame that he blew his arm out again in is first start with the Boston Red Sox a few days ago.

#?- Yet another mystery for the moment, Francisco (K-Rod) Rodriguez was a free agent signing by the Angles in 1998 out of Caracas, Venezuela. In 1999 he made his Minor League debut with the Butte Copper Kings at the Rookie level where he played in 12 games, nine as a starter, before moving on to the Hawks for the remainder of the season. In 2000 he found himself reporting to Lake Elsinore where he started in 12 games and coming out of the bullpen for one extra inning effort. It was interesting to watch him pitch back in the day because he was physically not the same player as today. The key difference: glasses. In his early years he was a little wild. With the amount of force he was able to propel his pitches it wasn’t much of a surprise that a few pitches would go wayward. He was only able to strike out 74 batters that season behind a 4-4 record and a 2.81 ERA in 64 innings pitched. For a guy who would be converted into a closer role by 2004 that’s actually quite impressive.

One thing I can definitely say is that there was no way I could have ever imagined that he would end up breaking and setting the record for the most saves in a season in 2008 with 62. While he has fallen on harder times since signing a huge contract with the New York Mets, there is no doubt that his talent is unquestionable. The kid can throw smoke.

Now, I’m hoping to get these numbers on my hat soon and I will definitely update the photos and article when I’m able to find them. If you know anyone who might know the answers, please feel free to send me a tweet. Thanks!

February 27- Houston Astros

I had previously owned this Houston Astros cap from 2000-2001 when I was living in Vancouver, Washington and wore it quite often when I went to work at Just Sports at the Vancouver Mall. Since our polo shirts were navy blue it made for a good match along with the khaki shorts or pants I was wearing, depending on which season it was. One night in January of 2001 I was riding the bus back home as I never had a car until I was 19-years-old. I was tuned into my portable CD player and lingering in between a state of consciousness and a light slumber when the bus made a sharp turn to the right onto 92^nd street where my stop was. Due to my state of slight confusion, I quickly hit the stop button and grabbed my backpack. I hopped off and made it about two blocks in the rain before I realized that my head and face were not being protected by the familiar bill that usually kept me dry. I had left the hat on the bus. Pissed off doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. It would be 10 years before I bought a replacement.

I ended up finding this hat brand new on Ebay for about $10 in August of 2011. Every now-and-then I find a few gems there, but I became incredibly hesitant after I got burned by some kid in the Bay Area selling a “brand new” San Francisco Giants cap for $15. If by “brand new” he meant wore it for three years without taking off the tags, then yes. When the Astros cap came in the mail I immediately went to Baseball-Reference.com and filtered through an array of stats and stories, until inevitably falling on 5714, the number of strikeouts that Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan had throughout his Major League career.

It seemed to make sense to me at the time, but I never really had a good reason for doing it, especially considering that I owned a few New York Mets, California Angels and Texas Rangers hats which would have made just as much sense. I don’t know. Something in my gut just told me to throw that number on the hat, which for me is weird when considering how analytical I am when it comes to marking my hats. Historically it would have made sense to add that number to a 1986-1993 Rangers hat, since he did hit that mark, retire with and go into the Hall of Fame with that hat, or even the 1972-1989 Angels hat since he did tally the most strikeouts of his career with them. But no, I opted to roll with the 1965-1970/1980-1993 Astros hat.

So far I’ve done this post way different than the others. I usually start out with the history of the hat and end with my mark, but you’ll see why at the end. The Astros did in fact use this hat from 1965-1970 and then again from 1980-1993. From 1980-1981 it serves as the team’s road cap, before they transitioned it into the “alternate home” and road cap in 1982, which then became just their game cap by 1983. When it comes to hats and uniform combinations, very few teams have been weirder about this than the Astros. Ryan’s tenure with the team started in 1980 and ended in 1988 when he finished out his career with the Rangers. Prior to the Astros he played with the Angels from 1972-1979 and before that he played with the Mets from 1966-1971. So if you’re keeping score at home it looks something like this: 9 years with the Astros, 8 years with the Angels, 5 years with the Mets and 5 years with the Rangers.

Ryan only won one World Series throughout his 27 year career which came in 1969 with the Miracle Mets. Outside of that, he had 493 strikeouts and was merely a blip on the radar during his time in New York. When he got to California with the Angels his reputation came to light. Throughout his eight year run Ryan went 138-121 with a 3.07 ERA and a staggering 2416 strikeouts, the most with any team he played for. He also threw four no-hitters during that frame, which tied him for the most with Sandy Koufax at the time. No big deal; he was just getting warmed up.

During Ryan’s stretch with the Astros he went 106-94, which gave him a win percentage of .530, only three thousandths of a percentage behind his Angels wins percentage. He struck out 1866 batters, but he did post the two lowest seasonal ERAs of his career in Houston: 1.69 in 1981 and 2.76 in 1987, as well as one no-hitter with the ‘Stros on September 26, 1981… while wearing the orange cap. See!

His time with the Rangers went incredibly well. As you saw in the photo above, he threw two more no-nos and he went 51-39 with 939 strikeouts putting his strikeouts per nine innings at 10.1, the highest of his career. Six years after he was retired he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and perma-plaqued with a Rangers cap, something that I have questioned since Induction Day. Obviously his beast statistical years came with the Angels, not to mention he only won a championship with the Mets. Somehow in 27 years he NEVER won a Cy Young award; the closest he came was runner-up to Jim Palmer in 1973 despite the fact that Ryan struck 383 batters out. Palmer only struck out 158. Daaaaaammmnnnn!!! Ryan led the League in strikeouts 11 times: 7 with the Angels and 2 each with the Rangers and Astros. I realize that Ryan is a Texas boy and got to choose how he went into the Hall, but the powers that be really should have put the kibosh on that one. So glad they changed that rule!

But even with all of these facts and figures, the mystery of why I chose this hat to mark the 5714 on the front panel was still a mystery… until I went to the Hall of Fame. I’ve only been there once, back on August 1, 2012 with my friend Dave Kaufman. With the exception of a few photos of the plaques, I never really did much investigative work about what the Hall had to offer. I wanted to be surprised when I got there. And needless to say I was when Dave and I came across this display.

Not until today did I ever give much thought to it. This whole number investigation and explanation didn’t start until I picked the hat for today’s post. I honestly don’t even remember why I took a photo of this pane, but there it is; the hat with the 5714 strikeout caption below it. A hat which had no real significance on any special occasion for Ryan.

Weird things like this have happened throughout my life. I’ll think about something or get a strong feeling about whatever and it will pop up at some point in time down the road. This sort of “psychic” intuition always proved useful when I would think about a particular episode of The Simpsons and sure enough it would be on later that night. I realize that there is no real way for me to prove that I’m not pulling your leg… or is there?

I went back through all of the photos I’ve taken over the last year on the Samsung Galaxy Note I got while I was in the MLB Fan Cave, as well as a few photo albums on my computer to prove that I’m not full of crap and didn’t just make up an elaborate story.

This photo should all be familiar to you as it serves as the background for my blog. I took it on May 26, 2012, about three days before I got kicked out of the Fan Cave. I realize it’s hard to see, but the numbers are on the hat.

Here’s a close-up of that image.

Still not convinced? How about this photo?

This was taken on October 12, 2011, well before the Fan Cave and well before my hat collection ballooned to the number that it is now.

Sooooooooo… in your face! But like I said, it’s all weird.

February 25- California Angels

I realize tonight that I’m stepping over into the Dark Side with my hat of choice, but I think it’s fair to say that you should all expect to see it happen quite a few more times throughout the year. What can I say? I have a lot of Angels hats. It’s not my fault. Take it up with the organization for changing things so often.

Back in July of 2011 I picked this guy up off of one of my favorite hat Web sites MickeysPlace.com. If you haven’t been, give it a look. It’s by far the premier place to pick up old school hats made to the exact specifications of when they were originally made. Since I was picking up at least one of every team I had my sights set on this particular California Angels hat for well over a decade. The Angels wore it from 1972-1992 (1990-1992 featured a wider version of the logo) and it is still hands down my favorite hat they ever wore. There’s something about the simplicity of the straight-barred “A” with the little halo about that makes it incredibly alluring. To be honest, I think a lot of it also has to do with the nostalgia that comes with those particular uniforms being worn in the “Naked Gun” as well.

Despite my obvious ties to the Oakland Athletics, I always had a soft spot for our division rivals. I blame a little bit of it on RBI Baseball on the old school Nintendo, but most of it has to do with two particular guys who are still, in my opinion, faces of the franchise; but I’ll get to that in a minute. The order I had placed with Mickey’s Place for this hat was the first one I had done. Unlike Lids, I couldn’t just walk back into the store and swap it for something else or return it. Mickey’s Place is a shop based out of Cooperstown, New York and sits about two blocks away from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. If the hat didn’t fit, I was pretty much screwed. On July 24th it arrived, along with a Chicago White Sox and a Houston Colt .45s hat, both of which I’ll be writing about in the future. I took the box into the bathroom and tried all of my acquisitions on. Thankfully they fit perfectly. Without much question I took them back in to my room, grabbed a silver Sharpie marker and tagged it immediately with two of my childhood heroes.

#21- If you recall my post from Salt Lake City Bees post on January 28, you’d know that I was raised in a Mormon household. My faith has always been prevalent in my life, but I don’t speak about it often unless Mormons somehow come up in a conversation. Throughout my life I was always teased about it. Even now I always seem to find myself around people who like to bash or poke fun at Mo-Mos. I will admit that what Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done in regard to the Mormons is quite hilarious, but I’ve never understood why people would hate on a group of people that love their God, love their family and love to share their faith. I’m not one to press my views or my faith on others, even though I feel like I’m doing that a little bit now, but I do like to openly discuss it with anyone who has any allusions about say: the planet thing, the magic underwear thing, the temple thing, etc. Anyway, there weren’t exactly a lot of people within the church to look up to as a kid, but there was one particular dude who made me proud to be Mormon, Wally Joyner. Wally really didn’t look like much of a baseball player when I go back and look at his photos and baseball cards, but man could that cat play ball.

He was drafted in the third round out of BYU in the 1983 amateur draft and made his Major League debut in 1986. That year he finished in second place in the Rookie of the Year voting, hitting .290/22/100, and getting edged by 12 points by some no-namer who goes by Jose Canseco. He finished eighth in the MVP vote and made his only All-Star game appearance of his career that season. He played a total of seven years with the Angels, the first six coming from 1986-1991 and the last in his final year in 2001. Throughout his Angels career he went .286/117/532, while his only trip to the World Series came with the 1998 San Diego Padres. He always looked like he could be Matthew Broderick’s brother, especially after the first time I saw “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” What’s even funnier about that is that he actually did have a few roles in some Latter-Day Saint produced movies called “The Singles Ward,” “The RM,” “The Home Teachers” and “The Singles 2^nd Ward.” In both “Singles Ward” films he played Brother Angel, and coincidentally my uncles were in the first three films I listed. Wally Joyner, a great ball player and a heck of a Mormon.

#25- From 1989-1999 there was no one in Major League Baseball that I idolized or was inspired by more than Jim Abbott.

I feel bad for any young baseball fan who never had an opportunity to see him pitch for the mere sake that every time he stepped on the mound he defied the odds. For those who don’t know, Abbott was born without his right hand. Yah! But to put things into a better perspective of how talented he was throughout his career, he was the eighth overall pick in the 1988 amateur draft out of the University of Michigan. The dude is a legend right off the bat. Abbott played for the Angels from 1989-1992 and then again from 1995-1996. He played above average in his first two seasons, but his third season was clearly his best. In 1991 Abbott went 18-11 with a 2.89 ERA and 158 strikeouts. Need I remind you, dude pal only had one hand. He finished third in the Cy Young award voting, losing to Roger Clemens who had borderline equal numbers (18-10 and 2.62 ERA) with the exception of 241 strikeouts. But it was with the New York Yankees that Abbott will mostly be remembered. On September 13, 1993 Abbott tossed a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians. As a 10-year-old I recall watching the game from start to finish, applauding in my living room after the final out was made.It's still one of the few games that I will go back and watch over-and-over on You Tube.

Only one time in my life was I ever lucky enough to see him pitch in person, which came in 1990 when my dad and stepmom scored a suite through their work (PG&E). Despite being seven-years-old with a wide assortment of food all around me, I made sure to stay focused every time it was the Angels' turn to play defense. Throughout my Little League days my friends and I would try to mimic Abbott’s glove transfer when we threw. To us, it was mind-boggling to watch him throw, put his glove on and snag the occasional ball shooting right back at him.

I know I have a bit of a “against the grain” attitude about a lot of things in my life, but I can’t help but be a big softy when I reflect back on Wally and Abbott. They were both upstanding human beings within the community, and both played the game a high level of grace. Kudos to you gentleman.