mpcincal

I remember watching Game 6 on TV with my parents. Lots of times when I watch a game and things aren't going well for my team, I'll turn off the TV or leave the room and sulk. I remember them being down 5-0 and it really didn't look like they were coming back and would lose the Series. But at this particular moment, something inside me just decided that I'd been sticking with them all year, heck, the previous 26 years or so since I started following baseball, and even if they went down meekly over the last three innings I was going to be there in spirit with them to the very end. Of course, it's good that I did, and I didn't miss a single moment of that comeback.

Well, it's just after midnight on Oct. 27, so in the midst of constantly hearing about the Dodgers being back in the World Series, I can take a moment (or few) to reflect on the special night 15 years ago: Of Lackey's five innings, Garret's 3-run double, the bullpen coming up with one more shutdown performance, and finally the moment when that last out settled into Darin Erstad's glove. Happy anniversary, fellow Angel fans.

Actually, he had a pretty solid season in 2003 (.265, 16 homers), but then signed a free-agent contract with the Mariners, and then his career went down the crapper.

Interesting how the affiliation dance will go after next season. The Mets purchased the Triple-A Syracuse franchise, so they will be with the Chiefs after that team's deal with the Nationals runs out. Most expect the 51s to be the proverbial last remaining girl at the dance again. But if solid progress is made on the construction of the park in 2018, teams like the A's (now with Nashville) or San Diego (now with El Paso) could take a look at Las Vegas if it looks like the new park will open for 2019 or 2020. Granted, though, both Nashville and El Paso have very new ballparks and facilities that the major league teams are probably happy with, so it remains to be seen. P.S. The Angels have already extended their deal with Salt Lake (which they always seem to do early), so they won't be a candidate.

I think the details in the article are a little off in the article: Judging from the video, I think Schofield actually hit it into the bullpen in left field and it cleared the taller BP fence by a good couple of feet. And as shown in the video, there was no leaping attempt from Collins; he just watched the ball fly over his head. My experience that night was a lot like Chuck's. I was 18, and had just gotten off work at my fast-food job and turned on the radio in my car on the way home. It was 12-5 when I started the car, and they were able to put a couple runs on the board by the time I got home. My mom was in the living room with the news on and told me the Angels probably lost, and my Dad had given up and gone to bed. I went to my room to listen to the rest of the game on the radio. When the call for the grand slam happened, I couldn't believe it; I started jumping around and burst into my Dad's room and woke him up. I then went back into the living just as the KTLA news was coming into its final segment. Apparently, they had just finished up the sports report, and Keith Olbermann was saying that the game wasn't over yet, but the Angels would probably suffer another loss. News came back on for the sign-off and Hal Fishman swung it back to Olbermann, who had a sheepish grin and said "Well, guess what happened?" Over 30 years later, still a very memorable moment, even though it was a regular season game and I think the Angels probably would have won the division even if they had lost that game. I'm glad to see so many still remember it. P.S. Sorry Dtwncbad had to miss it, but I'm sure he had a better night than 99 percent of us that night.

If they're going to do anything, I think they could just switch cap colors to navy crown and red bill, keeping the logo intact. The jersey wouldn't have to change either. As the photo showing all the different unis shows, the Angels always had red lettering on the jerseys with the navy hats. One other thing I would do is take the primary logo off the sleeve, it's just unneccesary. Keep the secondary on the other sleeve. I like the idea of bringing back the sleeveless vests. I think the players would love them for the summer day games. I'd like to see them do it a little differently on that one -- like putting the logo on the chest a la the classic A's or Reds uniforms.

I was looking at sportslogos.net and on its message board some guy posted that he heard rumors the Angels were going to make some kind of change on their uniforms. It very well could be the usual message board BS, but I was wondering if anyone on this board had heard/read any news on it.

Arkansas announced today it signed an agreement with the Mariners. Story seems to suggest the previous relationship with DiPoto had something to do with the switch. The Travelers exec was polite talking about the Angels, but I have to figure the state of the farm system probably had something to do with it also. http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/sep/20/arkansas-travelers-switch-mlb-affiliates-sign-cont/

Don't forget Joe Torre teaming up with Starr from 1985 to the middle of 1990 when he left to become the Cardinals manager. I always thought he did a great job on commentary.

I used to look at the message board on the official Angels website along with this one, but gradually just started going to this one exclusively. A couple days ago, I decided to check out the other one after a long absence, but couldn't find a link. Then I Googled it to try and get in from the back door, but there was a message that the board was no longer available. Does anyone know what happened with that board? Did the Angels just decided to shut it down? Was there a problem with stuff being posted? It seems unusual for a team to do that, and the other MLB.com sites I checked still have theirs.

Just started tuning in. Who's the third man in the booth today?

It's an older book and might be harder to find, but I've always enjoyed "Damned Yankees" by Bill Madden and Moss Klein, two guys who covered the Yankees through the 1970s and '80s. This came out in 1990 as the Yankees were headed to the low point of the Steinbrenner era before regrouping and starting the late '90s dynasty. It has the usual Steinbrenner-Billy Martin stories, and some others detailing the Yankees' rise to World Series titles in 1977-78 and moderate success into the '80s before their slow decline mainly due to Steinbrenner's meddling. Some funny stories in there. I also enjoyed the books by former umpire Ron Luciano, mainly the first two "The Umpire Strikes Back," and "Strike Two."

Um, no, why should it "disturb" anyone? "Annoy" or "irritate," I could see, but "disturb" is a bit strong. Is he also "disturbed" at the fact the basketball team is called the "Lakers," and there are no major lakes around?

Well, Sean Rodriguez sure made an impression tonight: He's probably launched a thousand memes and tweets with the sick knockout of the Gatorade cooler. Also, it had been a long time since I've seen him. I didn't realize he went for the "son of Rico Suave" look.

Did anyone notice the actual AL West standings for this season were almost exactly reversed from what they picked? They got the Angels right, but their top two picks ended up as the bottom two, and of course the Rangers were first and the Astros second. The only thing that kept from perfectly reverse order was the A's finishing last instead of the Mariners. EDIT: Chalmers beat me to it.

I remember that one -- we only had to give up money for him, I believe, and he was a great presence behind the plate for the next few years. The one thing I'll always remember about it is that I first heard of it when Tony Hernandez, then the weekend sports anchor at Channel 7, reported it and then ripped the Angels for the acquisition, saying they were in desperate need of pitching and getting a veteran catcher was a stupid move. Apparently, it didn't occur to the supposed former minor-league baseball player-turned-broadcaster that getting a player known to be a great defensive backstop might be a big help to the pitchers (which, of course it was). Oh, and I'm surprised we got this far without someone mentioning the Doug DeCinces-for-Dan Ford deal.

I'm glad someone brought that up. I was at the Sunday game as an 11-year-old in which Grich hit the walk-off; I believe he had all five RBI in the 5-4 win. That's still the best game I've seen live. Also, the previous night, the Angels actually fell behind 6-0 to the Yankees early and had narrowed it to 7-4 before Baylor's HR, and a run in the 10th to win it.

It wouldn't be a matter of WHOM I would root for, but WHAT I would root for -- mainly for the stadium to explode, or maybe something like that football-game incident in "The Dark Knight Rises."

Man, nice win, but I hope they're not all like that.

Contrary to the complaints on this thread, Richards did a great job today. He just gave up a single that should have been harmless except for the two defensive gaffes.

We need a couple more innings just like that for Weaver.