fanfromday1

Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault.

In Houston will they be including the sound of a trash can being hit with a bat? Or will they just have a cardboard cut out of a man with a camera sitting in centerfield?

Mike Trout 'Rookie' baseball card sells for 900 thousand dollars. Any of you card collectors out there have one? Hope so. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mike-trout-rookie-card-sells-for-record-breaking-900k-at-auction/

I was introduced to Baseball by my Dad back in the in the late 1940s, but didn't learn to fully appreciate the game until the early 1950s when I became older. There were no major league teams on the west coast back then, so we followed teams from the old Pacific Coast League, mainly the LA Angels and Hollywood Stars. My hometown hero back then was Steve Bilko who played for the PCL Angels, and in 1961 also played for the MLB Angels. My Dad was also a fan of the old Brooklyn Dodgers and at that time that was the only connection I had to the MLB. I knew all the Dodger players names: Newcombe, Campanella, Furillo, Hodges, Snyder, Pee-Wee Reese, etc. It was about that time that I started collecting Baseball cards. Back then the baseball cards came in a small package of Bazooka bubblegum with 5 or 6 cards usually wrapped in a small comic. The gum tasted awful and often times stuck to the cards, or stained them. But collecting the cards was the only way that I was able to learn the stats, and names, of the other MLB players. (In December of 1960 when the AL held their draft to select the new Angel and Washington teams I spent most of the night going thru all my baseball cards trying to locate as many of the new Angel players as I could. I also made quite a few phone calls to trade cards with friends to get BB cards of players I didn't already have). When the Dodgers relocated here in 1958 it was my first chance to see professional baseball, and get to see all the great players that were in the National League. So the first couple years that the Dodgers were in LA, my Dad and I would go to see as many of the games as possible. We wanted to see as many of the great players as we could. Players like: Aaron, Mays, Musial, Banks, Spahn, Clemente, Mathews, etc. It was a once in a lifetime experience and also, kind of a dream come true to see all these great players in person. When the current Angels came into existence in 1961 it gave me a chance to see the best players in the American league. It also allowed me to return to the place where I learned to love baseball, Wrigley Field. My Dad and I went to the Angels inaugural home game against Minnesota back in 1961. We lost, but it didn't matter , because now I was once again an Angel fan, and this time it would be for a lifetime. For me it would be hard to pick one favorite player from the Angeles or any other team. I have seen so many fantastic players over the last 65 to 70 years of my life that it would be almost impossible to chose just a single one. But I would have to admit that Mike Trout is right up there. (Here's an obscure fact that many of you may not know. In 1957, a year before the Dodgers moved here from Brooklyn, they bought the PCL Angels from Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs. They moved the Angels to Spokane, Wa. and, for a few years, it served as one their minor league teams. The other Los Angeles PCL team, the Hollywood Stars left town that same year and moved to Utah and became the Salt Lake City Bee's. Who are now an Angels minor league team).

Personally, I would like to see the Angels keep Simmons. His defense is a plus over anything we have in our system right now. However, I think it depends on how much Simmons believes in his worth. The Angels should offer him a fair price with a moderate raise and a reasonable extension in years. (I'll leave those 3 considerations up to Eppler). If Simmons doesn't like the offer, at least the Angels have put the ball in Simmons court, and it will be his decision to make.

Didn't Las Vegas experience a partial blackout several years ago when there was a severe drought and they were limiting the amount of water flowing through Hoover Dam?

We're living in a very tumultuous time right now. Some people are scared and are panicking. There're wearing protective masks when out in public, and many are hysterically buying supplies off store shelves out of sheer ignorance or panic. I'm older than most on this board and lived through something very similar to this many years ago. It was 1949 and the Polio epidemic was just reaching its peak in Los Angeles. Back then my 17 year old brother caught the disease and was in an 'iron lung' for three months (and spent another three in a hospital bed recovering and re-learning how to breath and swallow on his own). I had a younger brother, 8 months old, who also caught the polio virus, but he didn't survive. Our home was put under mandatory quarantine for two months. Signs were posted on every window and door. The only occupants allowed to leave were my parents. And they were only allowed to leave to go to the hospital to visit my older brother. And even they were escorted to and from. The Diary truck would have to leave our milk & eggs on the front sidewalk, and the 'Helms man' who delivered the bread would have to do the same. Some of the neighbors would often leave cardboard box's of caned goods for us on the sidewalk as well. No one was allowed to approach the front porch or house any closer than the front sidewalk. My sister was 10 and I was 5 and we had to stay inside the house for the whole two months. We couldn't even go into the back yard. We didn't have a TV back then (not many people did), so we had to entertain ourselves. There weren't many programs on the radio for kids back then either. I'm pretty sure that I learned to read by repeatedly reading and memorizing 'Archie', 'Lil Abner', and Donald Duck comic books. I wasn't aware what was happening in the outside world at that time, but my parents later told me it was very similar to what is happening now. There was panic buying and confusion over the facts of how the (polio) virus was being spread. When people are scared they often do stupid things. And when sane people see other people doing stupid things they begin to panic also. My Prayer is that all of you stay safe and don't have to experience what I went through. But I assure you that before this epidemic is over there will be some families that will have gone through a living Hell.

The NBA just suspended their season. Many sports are now playing with out fans in attendance, and several colleges are hosting classes online. So the MLB probably has two choices: Play games without the fans or suspend the season until this epidemic plays out.

I have often wondered if one of the reasons Brad Ausmus and Doug White may have been let go was because they were aware that Eric Kay was suppling drugs to Skaggs (& possibly other players).

Whoever we pick up at the trade deadline.

That's why we should start the season opener against Houston with a 'one inning starter'.

Really looking forward to seeing how our new pitching staff develops through spring training this year. Hopefully the starting 5 (Ohtani, Heaney, Canning, Teheran, Bundy) can each give us at least 10 wins each this season. And I think they are all capable of doing that, and a couple of them even better. That would give us 50 wins right there. Last years starting 5 (Cahill, Harvey, Skaggs, Heaney, Canning) only gave us 23 wins between them. Three other starters (Pena, Barrera, Peters) added another 16 wins and if you add that total in you still only get a total of 39 wins for our main starters last year. I think this is going to be a much improved pitching staff. Adding another top starter at the deadline could be enough to get us into the play-offs. Here's wishing us all a great season in 2020.

Yes, my question was poorly worded, sorry about that. But thanks for the info. Brandon. I'v always wondered about that and assumed that was possibly a reason why many FA held out from signing before the new year.

Just wondering - Have the Angels signed Rendon? lol! Another question - If a FA signs a contract before New Years, does he have to pay income taxs for 2019? If so, maybe that is why some FA don't sign until January of the next year.

Wow! Just imagine, next year we could be looking at spending $30 for a hot dog, $50 for a beer, and $800 for a box seat if we sign Cole. Good Time's!

Eric Aybar 's nephew Wander Franco should be here soon with the Tampa Bay Rays. I also have my fingers crossed that Mike Trout has a few son's that the Angel's Draft in the future.

Thank you SlappyUtilityMIF and John Taylor for the feedback. I regularly attended the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes games when the Angel's single A Team' was there. But now that they have moved to San Bernardino, I usually only attend when the Big League Team is out of town. I went to a few Las Vegas Aviators games this year too. I have friends who live over there. Got to admit, Milb has a flavor all its own. Some of the between innings stuff are almost worth the price of admission alone. Again, Thanks for the feedback.

Some on this message board have way too much time on their hands, but it sure was a fun read to start a Saturday morning.

Just wondering, does anyone know what minor league players get paid at different levels? (A, AA, AAA, etc.). And do Host Families get some sort of financial assistance?

I think that if a player isn't looking for just the $$$, that he would take a serious look at the coach's and teammates that he would be playing for, or with, for the length of his contract. I am sure that a potential pitcher would take a hard look at the teams pitching coach to see if they were on the same page. Same with a hitter. I remember that there were several players on the Angels that didn't particularly like the way Rod Carew instructed player's on how to hit.

I wonder which business had the most client's?

I wouldn't miss any of them if they were either DFA'ed, released, or traded. We need better quality players than what they offer. When most of them came up this year we were a .500 team, now we're 19 games under .500 and falling (actually crashing). They are either way too green, or way to over-rated.

The Condensed injury History of the Angels in a nut (egg) shell.

Sounds like a Little League T-Ball score.