Top-50 Greatest Moments in Angels Baseball
Greatest Moments 41 - 49


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#41 – Oct. 30, 1999: Angels hire Bill Stoneman as GM


By Craig Malone, Angelswin.com Editor

Sexy! Daring! Bold! Risk-Taker! Words you will not see used when describing Bill Stoneman’s reign as general manager of the Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels. Stoneman didn’t need fancy words or daring risks; the former pitcher, who finished his career with the same Angels 25 years earlier, needed to rebuild a franchise from the ground up. He inherited a team rich with turmoil, coming off a 70-92 record good enough for a solid grasp on fourth place.

With the hiring of Stoneman, the Angels were looking to put a horrible decade of baseball behind them, and looking hopefully toward a brighter future. That future started with the hiring of Mike Scioscia, who has now become the all-time winningest manager in Angels history.

Stoneman, working with limited Disney resources, looked to build up a farm system that consistently ranked near the bottom of MLB. His first draft was not as successful as many would have liked, with top pick Joe Torres barely making it out of A-ball. But then along came a guy named Mike Napoli and things were looking a little better. Over the years, with improved scouting, Stoneman was able to draft guys like Casey Kotchman, Jeff Mathis, Joe Saunders and Howie Kendrick, a group that forms the young nucleus of the current team. More importantly, Stoneman was able to open up scouting in the Dominican Republic and convinced the accountants at Disney it was worth the money to sign players like Francisco Rodriguez, Ervin Santana and Erick Aybar.

His 2000 team surpassed expectations, thanks mostly to unprecedented power from Troy Glaus, Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson, and an unbelievable season from Darin Erstad. In 2001, however, the Angels slipped back to their losing ways and finished 41 games out of first place.

Heading into the 2002 season, Stoneman’s biggest moves were signing serviceable starter Aaron Sele and swapping Mo Vaughn’s huge contract for Kevin Appier’s. But it was the smaller moves that illustrated Stoneman’s discerning eye for talent: picking up David Eckstein, Ben Weber and Brendan Donnelly off waivers; trading Kimera Bartee for Chone Figgins.

It’s funny in a way that Stoneman’s legacy will undoubtedly be centered around the World Championship in 2002, though it is the accomplishment in which he perhaps had the smallest hand. In reality, Stoneman’s presence was most felt during the run of three division titles in four seasons from 2004-2007 (and, no doubt, for the next two or three seasons to come.) It is the signing of Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar and Jose Guillen in one eye-popping offseason; the staring contest he won against Scott Boras in the Jered Weaver negotiations; and the development of a farm system that is the envy of baseball year in and year out.

Often chided for his refusal (or inability) to pull off trades perceived to be necessary to the club’s success, Stoneman’s record speaks for itself. During his eight-year tenure, the Angels compiled a 703-593 (.542) record and appeared in the postseason four times — the team made just three playoff appearances in the 39 years that preceded him.

Stoneman took the Angels from obscurity and mediocrity to being recognized as one of the elite franchises in all of baseball. He built a model that many subsequent clubs have chosen to follow. And he leaves behind some might big shoes for Tony Reagins to fill.

Sexy or not, Stoneman slowly, methodically, conservatively and above all else successfully served as the architect of the greatest era in Angels history and will always hold a special place in the hearts and minds of Angels fans.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/10/31/archive/main55685.shtml


#42 – GA steals the All-Star show


By Geoff Bilau, Angelswin.com Editor

#42 – July 14-15, 2003: GA steals the All-Star show

If the Angels were to retroactively come up with a slogan for the 2003 season, it might have been “Come bask in the afterglow of 2002.”

As April rolled around, and pennants were hoisted up gold painted flagpoles, Angels fans were still drunk on World Series emotion. Only trouble was the players seemed to be, as well.

The team sleepwalked through April, May and June and arrived at July with a perfectly mediocre 40-40 record. But with fans flocking to Edison Field in record numbers (attendance would surpass 3 million for the first time ever in 2003), most of them wearing something bearing the words “2002 World Champions,” it was difficult to be too disappointed.

Heading into the All-Star break, however, the team finally seemed to recapture a little bit of the 2002 magic of which it was constantly reminded on the scoreboard in right field. They won nine of their first 12 games in July, including five straight before the break. Sure, they were still 8.5 games out of first, but it was better than the 12.5 deficit they faced when the month began.

And for two amazing days at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, it was like October all over again. The Angels had three players selected to the American League squad: Garret Anderson, Troy Glaus and Brendan Donnelly, the latter of whom was in the midst of one of the best relief seasons in franchise history. He hit the break with a 0.38 ERA, having given up only two runs in 48 innings pitched.

On top of that, as American League champions the previous season, Mike Scioscia was the A.L. manager, bringing his entire coaching staff along with him. The Angels presence in Chicago was already assured, but this contingent seemed determined to be seen and heard.

The most improbable of events actually occurred first; in hindsight a harbinger of things to come. Garret Anderson, who hit 22 home runs in the first half of the season, beat out former teammate Jim Edmonds in the semifinals and then 23-year-old phenom Albert Pujols in the finals to win the Home Run Derby.

“I don’t look at myself as a home run hitter, but I know I'm capable of hitting the ball out of the park,” Anderson said. “It’s just another platform to go out and show America what I can do.”

The GA show wasn’t done, either. The next night, with the American League trailing, 5-1, in the sixth inning, Anderson smoked a two-run homer to right-center on Woody Williams’ first pitch to pull the A.L. within two runs.

Donnelly pitched a perfect top of the eighth to hold the N.L. lead at 6-4. In the bottom half, Anderson’s one-out double off the Dodgers Eric Gagne, his third hit of the night in four at-bats, started a three-run rally that was capped by Hank Blalock’s game-winning two-run home run.

The A.L. won, 7-6, Donnelly was the winning pitcher, Scioscia the winning manager and Anderson named the game’s MVP, his second trophy in as many nights.

It was an outstanding night and the perfect denouement to the championship season. But, of course, all good things must come to an end, and those two nights in Chicago were indeed the end of the afterglow. The Angels lost their first five games after the break and finished the season 77-85, in third place, 19 games behind the A’s.

For a couple of days, however, the defending champs looked every bit the part.


#43 – July 6, 1983: Lynn simply grand in the All-Star Game


By Kurt Swanson, Angelswin.com Contributor

#43 – July 6, 1983: Lynn simply grand in the All-Star Game

For the first 40 years of the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels history, the 1982 season was arguably the franchise’s best – albeit one with a real stinker of an ending.

Preceding the collapse in Milwaukee, however, was a fine campaign. The Angels won their second division title with a 93-69 record; Reggie Jackson led the league in home runs with 39; and Fred Lynn, acquired the year before, but sidelined by injuries, had his best season with the Angels, batting .299/.374/.517 with 21 home runs and 86 RBI.

Though the Angels blew a 2-0 lead in the ALCS against the Brewers, Lynn was still named series MVP after batting .611 (11-for-18) in the five games.

On the heels of the 1982 season, 1983 was a season of great promise for the Angels. It was not to be, however, as the team slumped badly to a 70-92 record and a fifth-place finish in the division.

One bright spot was Lynn. The USC graduate, who had longed to play for a team in Southern California after beginning his career in Boston, was voted to start the All-Star Game in Chicago. Old Comiskey Park played host to the 50th anniversary of the mid-summer classic. The nod represented Lynn’s ninth consecutive All-Star game appearance.

In the third inning, with the National League trailing 3-1, San Francisco ace Atlee Hammaker elected to load the bases by intentionally walking Milwaukee’s Robin Yount, taking his chances instead with Lynn, who hadn’t seen the batter in front of him intentionally walked since becoming a professional. Big mistake.

Lynn took a 2-2 slider from the lefty and deposited it into the right field bleachers for the first grand slam in 54 All-Star Games. (And to this day the only such home run.)

The American League scored seven runs in the inning and cruised to a 13-3 victory, snapping an 11-game losing streak for the junior circuit.

“I hadn’t won a single All-Star Game in eight years up until that point,” Lynn would later say. “That grand slam put us up 7-1, and I knew we wouldn’t blow that lead. I didn’t care that they walked Robin to get to me. I wanted to win.”

It was Lynn’s final All-Star appearance. He finished with four home runs and 10 RBI in 20 career All-Star at-bats. At the time, only Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Ted Williams had more home runs and RBI, respectively. Musial finished with five homers and 10 RBI in 63 at-bats, Williams with four homers and 12 RBI in 46 at-bats.


#44 – Angels become first franchise with four 30-home run hitters


By Adam Dodge - Senior Writer

#44 – April 3-Oct. 1, 2000: Angels become first franchise with four 30-home run hitters

Going…going…going…gone!

Over the past few seasons, the Angels have entered Spring Training with seemingly just one concern — a general lack of home run power throughout the lineup. Some fans, specifically those who jumped on the 2002 bandwagon, may forget that just eight short years ago the Angels, in manager Mike Scioscia’s first season with the club, fielded an historic group of sluggers.

In 2000, Angels third baseman Troy Glaus led the American League with 47 home runs. Glaus became only the third Angel ever to lead the league (Grich, 1981; Jackson, 1982) and at the time set the record for most home runs by an AL third baseman (tied by Alex Rodriguez in 2005 and surpassed by Rodriguez last season.)

To complement Glaus, the Angels had not one, not two, but three others who hit more than 30 home runs, becoming the first team in MLB history to have four players hit 30 or more round trippers.

Mo Vaughn clubbed 36, Garret Anderson walloped 35 and Tim Salmon rounded the bases 34 times. (And if that wasn’t enough power for you, Darin Erstad added 25 homers from the leadoff spot, just for good measure.)

The 2000 club’s power fit hand in glove with the newly born Rally Monkey, as a significant chunk of the Angels’ 82 victories were of the come-from-behind variety, due in large part to the team’s power surge.

While the 2000 Angels fell short of the postseason, the team did inject hope into a suffering fan base, a hope that would be realized just two years later when the Angels won the World Series.


#45 – Sept. 9, 2005: Vlad’s Mad Dash


Thomas Crow - Angelswin.com Contributor

A reasonable argument can be made that 2005 was the second-best season in Angels history. The team won 95 regular season games and again defeated the favored New York Yankees in the American League Division Series. They might just have made it back to the World Series, too, if not for a now infamous umpiring call that certainly won’t be referenced anywhere else on this list.

The team formerly known as the Anaheim Angels was the Los Angeles Angels again. (Well, almost.) Fitting that in order to win this standout September game against the Chicago White Sox, Vladimir Guerrero and the Angels had to steal a scene straight out of Hollywood.

The play brings immediate comparisons to the climax of the 1989 film “Major League.” In the film, the perennially lousy Cleveland Indians, comprised of a bunch of washouts and no-names, somehow forces a one-game playoff against the division rival Yankees (Remember when the Indians and Yankees were in the same division?) for the AL East pennant. The ending features bad-kneed catcher Jake Taylor calling his shot before laying down a bunt on which speedster Willie Mays Hayes scores from second base to send the Indians to the playoffs.

In the Angels version, the team was clinging to the slimmest one-game lead over Oakland and locked up in an extra-innings donnybrook with the White Sox. In the 11th inning, the White Sox appeared poised to win the game, but Juan Rivera nailed Aaron Rowand at the plate to preserve the 5-5 tie.

Leading off the 12th, Guerrero scorched an 0-1 pitch from Dustin Hermanson to deep center field. Believing he’d just given the Angels the lead with one swing, Guerrero was slow out of the box and barely got into second ahead of the tag once he realized the ball had remained in the park. Frustrated at himself for his mental blunder, Guerrero seemed determined to score by any means necessary.

Up stepped catcher Bengie Molina to lay down a sacrifice bunt and move Guerrero to third. (Molina did not call his shot and, sadly, unlike Taylor he didn’t get the girl, either.) Molina bunted to third baseman Geoff Blum, who threw to first where Tad Iguchi was covering. Guerrero, who will never be confused with a great baserunner, charged straight through third base coach Ron Roenicke’s stop sign and galloped, as only Vlad can, toward the plate.

“I never got to the yes part,” Roenicke said. “I was ‘No, no, no.’ I didn’t hold my hands up but I said ‘no’ a couple of times. When his mind was made up to go, he got going in a hurry.”

Iguchi’s throw home got there well ahead of Guerrero, but was offline, leaving catcher A.J. Pierzysnski (Booo!) out of position. Guerrero awkwardly shifted his momentum to avoid Pierzynski’s tag and fell down with his hand landing on home plate to score the go-ahead run. Stunned by the play, Angels broadcaster Steve Physioc instinctively called Guerrero out before seeing that home plate umpire Ron Kulpa had indicated safe.

“You look back at the last 150 years of baseball and you can probably count on one hand how many times that play has worked,” Blum said. “So you can call it luck, you can call it savvy, you can call it whatever you want.”

The Angels held on to win the game, 6-5, with Frankie Rodriguez striking out the side in the bottom of the inning.

All of his home runs and clutch hits not withstanding, this play captures so much of Guerrero’s almost certain Hall of Fame career in a nutshell. Even blessed with such immense talent, he still plays the game how most of us imagine we would: with joy, passion and occasional recklessness that remind us why we love the game so much.


#46 – April 27-28, June 9, 2002: Eckstein is thrice grand


By Geoff Bilau - Angelswin.com Editor

“Yes! No way! YES!”

Three reactions to three grand slams. More specifically, three grand slams hit over a six-week span of the 2002 season by diminutive shortstop David Eckstein, the first two coming in consecutive games.

Ultimately, these home runs would be justifiably overshadowed by some slightly bigger wallops by Eckstein’s teammates later in the season, but if 2002 is remembered as a magical season for the Angels, this is where the magic started.

Starting the season 6-14 on the heels of a 2001 campaign that saw the Angels finish 41 games out of first place, Anaheim seemed anything but magical as 2002 began. A 10-6 win at Seattle on April 24, snapped a four-game losing streak and the Angels headed home with at least a small puff of wind in their sails.

Back home again, Kevin Appier and three relievers combined on a 9-hit shutout over Toronto to provide a little more momentum. What happened the next two days, however, is the stuff people tell their grandkids about.

In the second game of the Toronto series, the Angels went to the bottom of the fifth inning tied, 4-4. RBI-hits by Troy Glaus and Brad Fullmer, and a run-scoring groundout by Bengie Molina gave the Angels a three-run lead. And following a walk to Scott Spiezio, Eckstein put the game away.

On a 1-2 pitch from Scott Cassidy, Eckstein snuck one just over the short wall in left field, near the foul pole, for a grand slam and an 11-4 lead. It was the Angels biggest inning of the season to that point, Eckstein’s first home run and only the fifth of his career.

A day later, things went from surprising to just plain silly. A back-and-forth game saw the Angels and Blue Jays tied, 4-4, in the 14th inning. Toronto finally broke the deadlock with a run in the top of the inning, however, and the Angels run of bad luck appeared to have returned. But Glaus led off with a single and Salmon doubled him to third. A one-out intentional walk to Molina loaded the bases, but Kennedy struck out, leaving it up to Eckstein.

The 5-foot 6-inch shortstop took a 1-1 offering from Pedro Borbon Jr. to nearly the same exact spot in left field for a second grand slam in as many days, this one a walkoff shot that gave the Angels their first three-game winning streak of the season and, finally, some serious swagger. Two days later, they’d defeat the Indians, 21-2, in Cleveland and not look back in winning 21 of 24 games following their 6-14 start.

With the Angels magic in full swing now, it was only fitting that Eckstein had one more trick up his sleeve. On June 9, in the second inning of an interleague game against the Cincinnati Reds, Eckstein again came to the plate with the bases loaded. No sooner than you could think, “He couldn’t possibly do it again, could he?” he did it again.

“I don’t know if one time is better than another for a home run,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, “... but (Eckstein) has hit them at three times which have been incredible and have won three games for us.”

Eckstein became only the second Angel ever to hit three grand slams in one season. Joe Rudi did it in both 1978 and 1979. Of course, Rudi hit 179 home runs in his career. Eckstein has 30.

That thing they say about big things coming in small packages — in 2002, David Eckstein proved it.


#47 – June 6, 2000: The Rally Monkey debuts


By Eric Denton - Angelswin.com Senior Writer

Picture it: An average Tuesday night game at Edison Field of Anaheim.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ANA/ANA200006060.shtml

In the midst of another mediocre season, the Angels were trailing, ironically enough, the San Francisco Giants, 0-3, in the sixth inning of an interleague game. The Anaheim crowd was its typical lethargic self when suddenly a clip from the film "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" popped onto the Jumbotron. It was very simple footage of a monkey jumping up and down on a stool with the words "Rally Monkey" superimposed underneath it.

The Angels scored a run that inning, on a hardly-riveting Mo Vaughn groundout to score Darin Erstad, but it was a run nonetheless. The monkey returned in the seventh inning and the Angels scored twice, cutting the Giants lead to 4-3. In the eighth, Tim Salmon tied the game with a solo home run.

The Giants regained the lead in the ninth, however, on a Marvin Benard double, but the Rally Monkey's work was not done.

Giants closer Robb Nen replaced Felix Rodriguez for the bottom of the ninth and gave up a one-out single to Adam Kennedy and walked pinch hitter Scott Spiezio. The Rally Monkey appeared again. Erstad singled to right to score Kennedy and tie the game. And following a Kevin Stocker fielder's choice, Vaughn singled home Erstad with the game winner. Angels 6, Giants 5.

The next night, the Angels blew a 9-4 lead in the seventh and eighth innings and entered the bottom of the eighth tied with the same Giants, 9-9. A fan seated above the video control booth began yelling at the top of his lungs, "RALLY MONKEY!" Shortly thereafter, Dean Fraulino and Jaysen Humes, working in the booth, flashed the video of the monkey. The crowd, and the Angels, responded.

Bengie Molina singled with one out and after a Kennedy lineout, Edgard Clemente singled. The Rally Monkey again coaxed the fans to their feet and Erstad singled to left to score Molina with the eventual game winner. Angels 10, Giants 9.

The video proved very popular with fans and the Angels decided to film their own videos of the monkey. The Rally Monkey was now portrayed by "Katie," a white-haired Capuchin monkey, and the song "Jump Around" by hip-hop group House of Pain and a voice over were added: "Believe In the Power of the Rally Monkey."

Rules were implemented dictating how the monkey was to be used: The Angels must be tied or trailing by three runs or fewer in the seventh inning or later, and the Halos must have put at least one runner on base.

While the Angels fans and the Rally Monkey became fast friends during the 2000 and 2001 seasons, the mascot wouldn't became a national phenomenon until the historic 2002 World Series season.

The power of the Rally Monkey reached its peak during Game 6 of the World Series, against those same Giants and their closer Nen. Angels 6, Giants 5. But that's another story, isn't it?

Since then, the Rally Monkey has become a sports mascot icon, appearing in ESPN SportsCenter commercials and mentioned in the monologues of late night hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman.

She also became a staple of the Angels fan experience. Fans bring their stuffed animal monkeys to the game and the monkey video features — now a bit more slickly-produced — are still being shown regularly, with the monkey being superimposed into scenes of popular movies such as "Star Wars," "The Ring" and "Jurassic Park."


#48 - Chuck Finley becomes all-time Angels leader in Wins


By Lou Garcia - Angelswin.com Journalist

#48 – July 29, 1997: Finley passes Ryan with victory No. 139

"Fin to Win!" And he did. More than any other pitcher in Angels franchise history.

It was Tuesday evening, July 29,1997, when Chuck Finley took the mound in Cleveland to face an Indian lineup that included Manny Ramirez, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Matt Williams. In the bottom of the second inning, Finley gave up two runs on three hits — the only runs or hits he would surrender on the night en route to a 7-2 complete game victory. Jack Howell homered twice to pace the Halos.

In front of 42,975 at Jacobs Field, Finley upped his record to 10-6 on the season, but more importantly, he had just notched victory No. 139, surpassing Nolan Ryan as the team leader in career wins.

A five-time All-Star, Finley ended his Angels career with 165 wins — a record that still stands (and should for several more seasons — John Lackey is the team's active leader with 79 victories.)

Chuck Finley Trivia - Finley is the only Major League pitcher to strike out 4 batters in one inning more than once, accomplishing the feat 3 times (twice as an Angel)

Anaheim Angels IP H R ER BB SO
C Finley, W (10-6) 9 3 2 2 2 9


#49 - Saunders honors Virginia Tech


By Victor Varadi & Geoff Bilau - Angelswin.com Columnists

The All-Time Top 50 Angels Historic Moments continues and our selection for #49 happened on April 20, 2007 as Angels pitcher Joe Saunders honored Virginia Tech.

Four days after a rampage shooting at Virginia Tech University left 33 dead and several others wounded, Joe Saunders, the only Hokies alumnus in the Major Leagues, threw six scoreless innings while wearing a heavy heart and the cap of his alma mater.

Saunders was a student at Virginia Tech up until the Angels drafted him in the first round of the 2002 draft. His parents are alums and his father helped to architect the Hokies' football stadium. Saunders is engaged to a girl he met while attending college in Blacksburg. Receiving special permission from the Commissioner's office to wear the Hokies baseball cap, Saunders took the mound on an emotional Friday evening and battled his way through six shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners.

Saunders wrote "VT" on his cleats and scribbled "Virginia Tech" in the dirt on the mound.

"I think somebody upstairs was looking after me, and everybody in Blacksburg was looking after me," he said after the 8-4 victory over Seattle. "My heart was out to them."

"I was really nervous coming in — just the sheer fact of knowing what the game meant to me, to all the Hokie Nation out there in Virginia, to my family, and to this team because we needed to win," he added. "There was a lot riding on it."

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