the East Coast series

Well, the Angels lost the sixth game of the American League Championship Series tonight. It wasn't just the loss, though. It was the form in which they lost, an inning in which they committed two stupid and fatal errors.

The Dodgers were eliminated by the Phillies previously, so the World Series is now an East Coast affair, between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. Which means that I don't care that much about the Series, other than that I want the Phillies to beat the Yankees only because I am anti-Yankees.


At least I have the NFL.

no Angel left behind

The Angels who pretend to be in Los Angeles but actually have a stadium in Anaheim play the first game of the American League Championship Series today against the New York Yankees. They had clinched the America League West, but their celebration drew some criticism.

It's customary in baseball victory celebrations to pop champagne and, instead of actually consuming it, shower fellow teammates with it. In their celebration and champagne dousing, they did not forget a member of the team who was no longer with them, Nick Adenhart, who had been killed early in the season by a drunk driver in a crash that also killed two others in the car and severely injured the fourth person. The Angels had Adenhart's jersey and included it in the dousing as well.

However, those actions drew criticism from some who thought it in bad taste to drench Adenhart's jersey in alcohol when he'd been killed by a drunk driver. I suppose on some level, it might be a little odd, but I guess I didn't look at it that way. When I heard what they had done, I was touched and in tears. It was the normal way for them to celebrate, but it's not normal to have one of your teammates murdered early in the season. And they never forgot about him. He wasn't an ex-teammate. He was right there with them, and they wanted to celebrate with him, to include him in their victory.

Shortly after this happened, I was talking to the husband about the entire situation, and he relayed to me that a friend of his had been at the Angels game the night they clinched the title. The friend hung out for a while after the game ended, and then those still in the stadium noticed the Angels coming out of the dugout and heading for the center field wall. I hadn't known about this, but since Adenhart's death, a picture of him and his number had been up on that wall. The Angels went to that spot to be with Adenhart for a moment before going back to the clubhouse for the traditional celebration.


Here's an article about the celebration and tribute.


And then in looking around, I found that someone who had also been at the game that night actually captured the moment on video when the team was at the wall with Adenhart's picture.







When the team takes the field today, they will do so knowing that one Angel will be looking down on them, cheering them on.

identity crisis

There's a part of me that feels sorry for Anaheim. They have no idea who they are. They're trying to be so many different things.

First, they have a baseball team that doesn't want to be associated with them so much that they'd rather change their name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and they have "Anaheim" in their name only because there's some kind of contractual requirement. But the Angels don't play in Los Angeles. They don't even play in the same county as Los Angeles. But the Angels would rather be associated with Los Angeles.

And now, we're in the midst of the NBA finals. (Yeah, the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic, handily, in game one by a score of 100 to 75. Everyone seems to be celebrating and thinking it's a done deal. It's fine that everyone else is, but I hope the Lakers teammates themselves are not. They've gotten 25% of the job done, but it doesn't count until you do all 100%. Tonight's game is probably not going to be indicative of the other games. They need to stay focussed and not take anything for granted and continue to show the same fight they did tonight.) And because the Lakers are playing the Orlando Magic, there's this whole fake Disney connection because Orlando has Walt Disney World and Southern California has Disneyland. And now, Disneyland is on some Lakers kick, and WDW and Disneyland are making this friendly wager, like you'd see with the mayors of the opposing cities.

But there's one problem. They're not the Anaheim Lakers. And they're not the Southern California Lakers. They're the LOS ANGELES LAKERS. Who play in Los Angeles. Not Anaheim. Who play in Los Angeles County. Not Orange County. Who really have nothing whatsoever to do with the Walt Disney Company except that Disneyland might have some kind of parade with the Lakers if they win, but then, Disneyland does little parades with all kinds of people, and if the Lakers win, they're going to have their own spectacular, much larger kick-ass parade to attend. And it will be held in LOS ANGELES.

So Anaheim has one team that wants nothing to do with them, and now, they want to co-opt a Los Angeles team that has no association with them.

Huh?


So I follow various Disney feeds on Twitter. And when I read a particular tweet, I really didn't understand. Here's the information from one of the Disney sites.





I'm having a hard time making it past "Disneyland ... Lakers pride" because that concept just doesn't compute for me. That's not to say someone from Orange County or San Bernardino County or wherever can't be a Lakers fan, and that's not to say some random company in another city, county or state couldn't have some affiliation with the Lakers, but this whole association comes out of nowhere. It's like the ultimate bandwagon-jumping.

And, I happen to like Sleeping Beauty Castle. I think it's beautiful, especially when it's lit at night. I don't want it to be purple and gold. I will, however, reserve final judgement until I've seen it for myself, which I'll be doing this weekend.


Hmmm, the French Open has been going on for a couple of weeks, and Disney has a park in France. Wonder why they're not jumping all over that co-promotion?

Mets beat themselves, gift wrap win to Dodgers

So the Los Angeles Dodgers (of Los Angeles) beat the New York Mets (of New York) tonight by a score of 3-2. Other than that it took 11 innings for the game to be done, fairly uneventful score, it would seem, right? WRONG.

The Mets APPARENTLY decided that they didn't want to win this game. They had a total of 5 errors in the game, 2 of them coming in the bottom of the 11th inning while the Dodgers were up at bat. The score was tied at the top of the 11th, and a triple by the Mets brought another Mets player in to score. Or not. Turns out Mets player Ryan Church missed third base when he rounded it, so when the Dodgers tagged third base with the ball, Church was called out, making the third out of the inning and rendering the just-hit triple useless.

Then in the bottom of the 11th, the Dodgers had managed to load the bases, and the Dodgers player hit a fairly easy infield ground ball. Mets first baseman scooped it up and threw it to home plate for the easy out - which it would have been had he not thrown it away instead, allowing the Dodgers to score and win the game.

Here's a link to the really funny recap.

And courtesy of the Mets themselves, here's the video of Vin Scully's call of Church's missed bag. Once that video finishes, subsequent ones will pop up, or you can just pick which next video you want to see.

rot in jail, asshole

Bail was increased to $2 million for Andrew Gallo, the guy who killed Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart and two other people in the same car. The fourth person in the car is currently in serious condition.

Gallo was driving with a suspended license and with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit. He had previously pled guilty to drunken driving in 2006.

Gallo is charged with three counts of murder, drunk driving and fleeing the scene of a crash.

I'm hoping that the $2 million bail will mean that he doesn't get out before his trial date. Frankly, I don't know why they're even offering him bail, in any amount. He has already proven that taking away his license means nothing, and letting him back on the street again means that he's going to kill more people.

His lawyer says that he's devastated by what happened and that he's distraught, which is why he was in tears in court.

Really. And how devastated do you think Nick Adenhart's parents and other family and friends are? How distraught do you think the family and friends of Courtney Stewart are? How many tears do you think have been shed and will be shed by the family and friends of Henry Pearson? How do you think the family and friends of Jon Wilhite have felt over the past week, as he's been in surgery and still in the hospital, hoping and praying that he recovers? And who is going to take away the pain from Wilhite, who for the rest of his life will have to live with what happened that night?

So Gallo is sorry. Yeah, so what if he is? Even if he is really and truly sorry - what is that going to do for Nick Adenhart or Courtney Stewart or Henry Pearson or Jon Wilhite? Was Gallo not sorry when he pled guilty to drunk driving last time? So this time, after he's killed three people, injured a fourth, and forever changed the lives of countless others connected to the four people in that car, oh, now he's learned his lesson, he promises to never do that again, so just shake a finger at him and then let him go?

No, Mr. Lawyer for Gallo - it wasn't a terrible accident. It was terrible all right, but in no way was it an accident. You are scum for trying to characterize it that way. An accident is something that just happens, that has no way of being prevented, a fluke. This wasn't a fluke. Gallo knew he had a problem with drinking and driving. He'd already pled guilty to it. Not been *found* guilty - PLED guilty. He admitted it. And then he just kept doing it. Exactly how much did he have to drink to have THREE TIMES the legal limit? I know that alcoholism is not something easily controlled. But he was given a chance. And the price for that chance he was given are the very lives of three people who will never see another day, and the life of a fourth whose life will never be the same.

Mr. Gallo, if you are truly sorry for what happened, then be a man and take the punishment you deserve. Don't shirk your responsibility yet again. You already did that when you decided to not complete the terms of your sentencing from your previous case, when you decided to drink enough to have three times the legal driving limit of alcohol in your blood, and when you decided to get in the van and drive. There are consequences to actions, no matter what the actions. There are consequences to YOUR actions. You've already taken the lives of Nick and Courtney and Henry and taken so much from Jon. Now you need to take the consequences of what you did.

consequences

When you choose to engage in a particular course of action, I don't understand how you can turn around and say that you don't understand why you have to pay the consequences that resulted from that course of action. One of my biggest irritants is when people take no responsibility for their actions - yeah, I did that but look at what they did! They made me do it! Ummm, yeah, what, are we back in second grade?

One thing that I figure most people would know - you cannot physically assault your boss. A couple of days ago, Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon had a confrontation with general manager Ed Wade wherein Chacon ended up shoving Wade, effectively his boss, to the ground. Twice. He was suspended, and then today, he was released from the team for breach of contract. OK, there are technicalities involved wherein another team could pick him up, but that's extraneous. There is about $1 million in regular compensation owing on his contract as well as potential bonuses that could have been earned, none of which the Astros would have to pay him.

Counsel for the players' union said, "Based on the information we have to date, we believe the Astros' response violates the Basic Agreement. If Shawn Chacon clears waivers and is released, we will pursue appropriate relief on his behalf." OK, I have no idea what the union agreement says, but I would be incredibly surprised if there's a provision in there that says a player physically assaulting another member of the team, much less his BOSS isn't sufficient grounds to terminate the agreement for cause. Heck, Chacon is lucky that Wade isn't pressing criminal charges for assault.

Chacon's agent further says, "As the process unfolds there will be more facts revealed which will shed more light on the situation. By no means does that mean the physical confrontation was appropriate, and Shawn knows that." Really? What kind of facts are going to come to light that makes the assault ok? Did Wade insult Chacon's wife? His mother? His clothes? Wade says that he didn't yell at Chacon, didn't swear at him or make any insulting remarks to him. There were many witnesses to this confrontation, so I expect there are lots of people who know whether that's true or not. However, even if Wade *had* done all of those things, that's still not enough to justify Chacon's physical attack.

The article goes on to detail numerous incidents where Chacon was insubordinate and ignored the instructions of his manager and pitching coach, all of this before Chacon apparently became more upset because he had been pulled from the starting rotation for poor performance.

OK, so Chacon is having a bad year, so he's probably frustrated and angry and might have some issues with controlling those feelings and not letting them manifest in his actions. His manager asks to speak to him. He ignores him. His general manager comes down to the team dining room to ask him to go back to his office so they can talk. He refuses. All of those are actions he chose to take. And then he lost his temper and assaulted the general manager. But now, he's surprised that he's been cut, and it's not fair? Dude, step up. Admit that you made a mistake, that you lost your temper, and you're really sorry for it, and you understand there are consequences to your actions. You know that the physical confrontation wasn't appropriate. So what do you expect them to do? Just ignore it? Slap you on the wrist? Wag their finger at you? You've shown a history of ignoring your bosses, and they didn't pull you from the rotation because you're wearing the wrong color hat - they did it because your poor performance is hurting the team. You probably can't help but take it personally, but in the light of day, you cannot see that your actions were so wrong that they are entirely within their rights to terminate you for cause? And you are not entitled to whine that it's not fair?

Is Joe Torre going to bleed Dodger Blue?

OK, so the Yankees are following what they normally do and blaming their manager for what their players aren't doing, and anything short of winning the World Series is complete and utter, unforgiveable failure. So, rather than having the balls to actually fire Joe Torre, they give him a half-ass insulting offer that's designed for him to turn down so they can pretend to take the high road and say that he walked away, not that they fired him. OK, whatever.

And the Dodgers have Grady Little as manager, who has been embattled for some time now. I don't follow the Dodgers as much as I used to, but even I've heard the grumblings from various places about all the bad decisions that Little has made, and the speculation of whether the Dodgers would fire him at any given time. Well, Little resigned tonight. How much of it was voluntary and how much of it was "we'll let you resign to save face instead of firing you, but if you don't resign, we will fire you"? Who knows.

And now, I hear that there's talk that not only are the Dodgers considering hiring Joe Torre, but that they've already talked and a deal has already been made, and they're just waiting a respectable amount of time to formally announce it. So the Dodgers' new manager is going to come here fresh off 12 years with the hated Yankees? Wow! Of course, I still don't really associate Torre with the Yankees. I'm still remembering him from his days managing the Atlanta Braves in the early 80s, when I was really into baseball. Yeah, I know, serious time warp there.

Well, I did forgive Dusty Baker for being the manager of the other hated Giants, so who knows.

But I can't even begin to entertain the thought of Alex Rodriguez being a Dodger.

[cue exploding head]