As I thought about ideas for what would be my debut column I thought to myself the worst thing I could do is write about something that every other wannabe and legit sports writer has been writing about over the last few days. I thought long and hard about this and decided to write about it anyway. Mainly because it’s the most talked about topic in sports and because I believe this will be the demise of the Angels (I’ll eat crow here if the Angels pull it out). Growing up in the 1980s in Kansas City I am very familiar with blown calls in the playoffs and World Series. Everyone remembers Don Denkinger’s brain-fart in game six of the series that some argue cost the Cardinals the championship. As a Royals fan I have a different viewpoint on that call than baseball fans that were not rooting either way. Yes, it was a blown call, but blown calls happen all of the time and good teams overcome those bad calls. Better yet, great teams don’t let bad calls get to them.
In 1985 the Cardinals’ Jack Clark proceeded to drop a routine fly out and Darrell Porter let a pitch get by him, allowing the runners to advance before Dane Iorg could knock in Onix Concepcion and Jim Sundberg to win the game for the Royals and force a game seven. Yes, that’s right people forget the Cardinals had another chance to win the series and they tanked, losing 11-0 in the final game.
Most Cardinal fans are probably wondering why I’m making them relive this dreaded moment in their team’s history. Beside the fact I like to stick it to them when I can, I do have a point here. And that point is, just like the Cardinals in ’85, the Angels had a chance to get themselves out of the inning. Instead they let Pablo Ozuna swipe second without a throw and then they let the runner come around to score. The chance to make the horrid call a non-factor slipped by the Angels and instead they began their nosedive from thirty thousand feet.
I may be wrong here. Mike Scioscia is one of best managers in the game and the Angels showed amazing resiliency last week by playing three games in three days in three cities and coming away with a Division Series title and a game one win over Chicago, but that adrenaline is gone now, plus the mental and physical fatigue must be setting in.
The Angels had quite a mountain to climb before all of this controversy. Despite the argument the White Sox play small ball, they can bash with the best of them and I’ll take Garland, Buehrle, and Garcia over Byrd, Washburn, Lackey, and an injured Bartolo Colon any day.
It’s hard for good teams to overcome an emotional tidal wave like the one that hit the Angels on Wednesday. The Angels are just that, a good team. Who knows, they may prove me wrong in the next few days. We’ll see.
One reply on “Angels will crash and burn”
Word of Advice Next time don’t sound so cofident and then in the end pull of a “maybe they will prove me wrong.” makes you look like you dont know what you are talking about. good article otherwise.