Anaheim Angels Blog of Los Angeles

This Monkey's Gone to Halo's Heaven

2005-03-23T06:09:23Z

The Halofan is at HALOSHEAVEN.COM, an integral part of the Sportsblog Network.
Angels fans are welcome to join the Halofan there - HALOS HEAVEN is a community - you can chat there!
At Halos Heaven, you can talk about the game DURING every game!
You can talk about the team, the players, the stats, the clutch, the rally monkey, the Big A,
the first girl you ever kissed 'neath the soft glow of the Righ Field Pavillion Lights,
ANYTHING !

This site is archived. Click the Calendar Link above to revisit any and all Halofan Posts.

take one

2005-03-21T21:23:39Z

The use of the juice is, to me, about one percent as tragic as the Pete Rose shyte.
Here is about the best take on the whole thing I have found.

Remember, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-LA) once sponsored legislation to outlaw vitamins.

Sprung Pains

2005-03-21T20:47:05Z

Taking Scot Shields for granted were ya?
Well, he's got a stress reaction in his right shin.
This can led to a stress fracture.

Get the dude on a NordicTrac instead of a treadmill.
The Angels are like Medieval knights - They need shields.

Bookmark it Dano...

2005-03-20T19:14:50Z

Comprehensive Angel team salary data.
Thanks for the link goes to that 6-4-2 Dodger guy and his blog of all blogs.

3 Important Shortstops

2005-03-20T02:48:22Z

In December of 1960, the Angels selected SS Jim Fregosi in the expansion draft...
from the Boston Red Sox.

In August of 2000, the Angels acquired SS David Eckstein on waivers...
from the Boston Red Sox.

in December of 2004, the Angels signed SS Orlando Cabrera, who was a free agent...
from the Boston Red Sox.

Live Baseball Games

2005-03-19T05:59:16Z

Hey, you want to go some Angels Games this season?

How about on a Thursday?

Or, you could go on Friday.

Take your pick.

VLADDY G. SPEAKS !

2005-03-19T01:55:11Z

The line in this article about Vlad getting lost driving in Anaheim is priceless.

Gonna Recommend Me to the Spirit in the Sky

2005-03-18T09:03:30Z

I just bought Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky on i-Tunes.
I consider this to be the Angels theme song.
They have played it during lineup announcements at home games since at least the 1999 season.

Now consider that they only play this song ONCE per game
(hint hint in case you too are sick of Calling All Angels)
and that they play an instrumental version of it.

The lyrics helped inspire the early-70s Jesus Freak movement,
but the music is a bizarre otherworldly rock with handclapping
to bring it back down to earth.

Anyway,while it was playing, I had to announce the starting lineup while it played.
One Freudian slip had me including Casey Glaus as the Thirdbaseman.
Hey, that would be the best of both worlds.

This is definitely the song an Angel Fan wants playing at their funeral:
Joyous, pious, confident of a faith in eternity, and of course...
mad props to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on the way out...

19 days to go...

2005-03-17T08:47:53Z

Not too early for a peak at Opening Night into the crystal ball...
Bullpen:
Frankie closing
Donnelly, Shields
K-Gregg, Yan & ?????

Scott Dunn is sucking; Dusty Bergman’s toast
Tim Bittner’s not ready; Zimmerman’s down to Mesa
Santana and Shell are waiting until ’06
Looks like lefty Jake Woods is on tap.
Did you say a LEFTY? In Mike’s bullpen?

& its looking like THIS might be the...
Batting Order
Ersty bats Firsty (1b)
Figgy (2b)
M Vlad P (rf)
G.A. (lf)
Father Time (cf)
OC in The O.C. (ss)
The Mighty Casey (dh)
The Mighty Quinn (3b)
Pope Josh Paul (c)

and a Starting Rotation of...
Bartolo Backspazz
Gomer Lackey
#56, Brett Favre
Tommy John
Kelvim

Making The Bench appear to be...
Jeff DaVhitebread
Juan Rivera
One semi-healthy Molina
Lou Merloni
Izturis?

Meaning a Disabled List of 1 Molina and D-Mac

halofan @ 2005-03-16T01:17:00

2005-03-16T09:24:14Z

After divvying up the tickets into what is lucrative enough to auction on eBay, and selling face value groups of tickets to friends, plus of course keeping the games that I will be going to, here are all that I have left:

Wed, June 15 Washington Nationals
Mon, June 20 Texas Rangers
Wed June 22 Texas Rangers
Mon July 18 Oakland A's
Wed Aug 3 Baltimore Orioles (Free Visor)
Mon Aug 15 Toronto Blue Jays
Wed Aug 17 Toronto Blue Jays
Wed Aug 31 Oakland A's (Free Player Clacker)
Wed Sep 21 Texas Rangers (Free Pom Pom)

My older brother was whining about how the Dodgers are scrrewing him - his Orange level seats went up in price and now he has to pay extra to be allowed into the buffet - and still has to pay for dinner. The difference between Arte Moreno and Frank McCourt were never more apparent.

They're Here!

2005-03-15T19:13:38Z

UPS just delivered the season tickets!
The book of tickets has six tix across
Vlad (pointing to heaven)
Erstad (having just swung)
Colon (mid-pitch)
Frankie (With his just-struck-himout-snarl),
Garret (standing still with a bat on his shoulders)
and the Haloed A ALWD Champions logo.

They threw in a calculator/notepad and the de rigeur pins.
I gotta go have coffee...

heard it here fuhst

2005-03-14T09:45:07Z

Not that all the typos on this blog would clue you in, but I am a freelance writer/editor/journalist/art critic, and on occasion, I get the dream gig, and one that has been occupying a lot of time this past week is copyediting/stat checking a set of baseball fact sheets.
Anyway...
Did you know that last year's Angels pitching staff had 1,164 strikeouts - the NINTH highest total in American League history?
I stopped everything I was doing to fact check that one - and two teams are tied for 7th with 1165, so two more decent calls by an ump and we are 7th all time.

So knock of the Bartolo jokes.

There was also a baseball game going on...

2005-03-13T22:32:31Z

On the radio, Terry welcomes Steve Physioc to the booth in the 8th, asking him how he is.

Phizz says GREAT and describes being on the flight over, the quality and comfort of the flight, the airport and the airline; he mentions the people he talked to, the people in the Angels organization he saw earlier today, described the crowd at the game, recounted conversations with fans, told us how excited everyone was in great detail, gave supporting evidence for this excitement by recounting the Angels' offseason moves that added to the accomplishments of the 2004 season, which were all then described in precise eyewitness detail.

All of this over the course of two pitches. He never took a breath.

I MUST get satellite radio, every other team's announcers are better than this.

Now he is reciting the list of cities that people visiting Tempe are from - Riverside, Newport Beach, Long Beach - and an ad nauseum iteration of how exciting the Angel fan culture has become, fixating on Angel Red like Obi Wan says Use The Force - with detailed descriptions of what it is like to pack up the car and travel with friends and family from Soutehrn California to Arizona.

WHAT ? ! ? ! ? No breakdown on the differences between travellling with FRIENDS as opposed to travelling with FAMILY ? ! ? !
Steve the generalist.

Oh no, now there is a goddamned AM / PM minimarket commercial, emulating the Survivor movie - this was funny two years ago... but after 8,000 times, We're sick of it.

After getting two outs, Kevin Gregg walks two and Bud Black visits the mound - Physioc prattles about the swing from Gregg pitching aggressively just an inning prior and to suddenly relax and not hit the strike zone - in about thirty times as many words as i just typed there.

Gregg gets a long fly out, Angels win, and I don't have to listen to Steve Physioc anymore.

Groovee

2005-03-13T09:17:41Z

So the Spring Training thing is humming along here. It is almost like when pitchers go through the Dead Arm phase of Spring Training, the Angels bloggers are going through Dead-Blog phase.

I got a totally bitchen' cap on Amazon, it has the logo for the Angels 1967 All Star Game.
Did you realize the Angels hosted the All Star Game in the Summer of Love?
It is the only piece of Navy Blue clothing I own.
Also got a print of the famous locker room photo of Nolan Ryan holding four baseballs in one hand, each marked with a Zero, in honor of his four no-hitters. The matting has the old Angels haloed A.

And of course, fantasy baseball drafts are dominating the REAL fan focus now.

B U S T E D

2005-03-12T23:45:38Z

Would somebody inform Arte that his trademark is being infringed upon by hs own MLB Cartel brethren?
(Click Here!)

Bragging about my Fantasy Team

2005-03-12T22:33:38Z

I am in two Fantasy Leagues
The first one drafted today

6 of 25 players are Angels, and one is Jose Guillen.

D. McPherson (LAA - 3B)
J. Guillén (Was - LF)
B. Colón (LAA - SP)
K. Escobar (LAA - SP)
Fr. Rodríguez (LAA - RP)
B. Donnelly (LAA - RP)

Then I dumped Julian Tavarez and picked up Paul Byrd as a backup pitcher.

halofan @ 2005-03-11T03:35:00

2005-03-11T11:36:37Z

I think the reason Jose Canseco wants immunity for his Congressional testimony is that, although somewhat factual, a lot of his testimony would be self-aggrandizing L I E S.

All About The Barter

2005-03-10T07:33:34Z

Make me an offer I can't refuse...
(Click Here)

Destiny Paging #39...

2005-03-10T02:09:21Z

First the bad news:
Dallas McPherson is out for 2-4 weeks with a messed up back.
D-Mac was given a painkiller and will work to strengthen the muscles around the messed up part.
(I hate reading reports about medical stuff that give you no clue as to what is really happening, physically,
other than naming random body parts and medical terms, and then have comments from the team downplaying
the mystery condition - naming the bugaboo increases not our power over it)

Now the good news:

All Hail Robb Quinlan
Everybody's building the big ships and the boats,
Some are building monuments, others, jotting down notes,
Everybody's in despair, every girl and boy
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody's gonna jump for joy.
Come all without, come all within,
You'll not see nothing like The Mighty Quinn.

I like to do just like the rest, I like my sugar sweet,
But guarding fumes and making haste, it ain't my cup of meat.
Everybody's 'neath the trees, feeding pigeons on a limb
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, all the pigeons gonna run to him.
Come all without, come all within,
You'll not see nothing like The Mighty Quinn.

A cat's meow and a cow's moo, I can recite 'em all,
Just tell me where it hurts you, honey, and I'll tell you who to call.
Nobody can get no sleep, there's someone on everyone's toes
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody's gonna wanna doze.
Come all without, come all within,
You'll not see nothing like The Mighty Quinn.
--Bob Dylan, 1970

Cloudy

2005-03-09T01:44:44Z

Very glad we have a deep roster:
McPherson is seeing a back specialist and both Molina brothers are too achey to Catch.

The Big Picture

2005-03-07T08:50:48Z

There has been a little grumbling that the written results of Angel games have been saying L.A. Angels.
People are starting to express the shock and dismay. It seems too different.
I didn't have a blog in 1997 to expres how lousy it felt that my beloved California Angels were erased.
The media gets too much advertising form Disney to have ever manufactured any controversey over that name change.
But people still express their queasiness at seeing the L.A. in the standings.
They say it is difficult to get used to.

But let us cut to the chase...

The $8 pricteag on my season seat doesn't take any getting used to.
Thanks Arte!

Thanks for thinking about other revenue streams besides my wallet.

Thanks for thinking big about the team I have lived and died with since 1975.

Thanks for taking care of my team, for thinking of its future, its rightful place in the game, in the national consciousness.

Thanks for having the guts to put up with some strident tribulations by civic drama queens.

How many gutless, faceless corporations couldn't stand one-tenth of the whining aimed in your direction?

And you stand there alone and politely take it.

Thanks Arte.

Hey, let's be philosophical for a minute...

2005-03-05T08:53:15Z

Dallas McPherson's glaring weakness is not his glove, it is the whiffs, the K's, the SwugonuhnmissStrykthreeeeee.

And I will take a K over a Double Play any day of the week.

Kewl stat of the day courtesy of Baseball Reference:

Up to and including age 28, all time homerun leaders:
1. Alex Rodriguez (381 HR in 6385 PA)
2. Ken Griffey (350 HR in 5982 PA)
3. Jimmie Foxx (343 HR in 5932 PA)
4. Eddie Mathews (338 HR in 5810 PA)
5. Mickey Mantle (320 HR in 6053 PA)
6. Mel Ott (306 HR in 6642 PA)
7. Juan Gonzalez (301 HR in 4654 PA)
8. Hank Aaron (298 HR in 5868 PA)
9. Frank Robinson (291 HR in 5735 PA)
10. Vladimir Guerrero (273 HR in 4900 PA)

With All Due Respect...

2005-03-05T00:27:09Z

Before you get TOO bummed out about the Jered Weaver signing debacle, take a look at this fabulous and erroneous compendium:
16 years of top prospect rankings from Baseball America.

Some of the rankings are hilarious - Miss Clio could have done just as good.

Back in the early 90s there are Todd Van Poppel and Brien Taylor as #1. Hopefully the Jered Weavers of their day.
You would think that at the beginning of the 2002 season, the then-minor league pitcher who would go on to win 9 games after being called up midseason as well as winning Game 7 of the World Series would be somewhere in the Top 100 prior to that season, but Nope.

I hope Arte prints this out and tapes it into the inner-lining of his checkbook - scratch that, he probably already has.

Cuba Libre

2005-03-04T23:12:17Z

The Erstad-hatin' Dodger fan on the Angels' bandwagon reports that Kendry Morales is on his way.

Tix

2005-03-04T04:25:32Z

I took my own advice and bought single game tickets.
2 for the Sunday Red Sox game, 4 for the Sunday Yankee game.
With Ticketmaster charges, the previously $9 seats came out to $14.65 each.