Oh, Those Rascally Angels!

Bats are afraid? Gloves jinxed (especially Mark Trumbo's!)? Need magic? Call Jobu, but be sure to use a live chicken! Another frighteningly bad night. These guys are about to lose their fourth series in a row and third in a row within the division. I'm calling this series against the Mariners because the Angels don't look like they are even competitive in most games. And as depressed as we must feel, the guy I feel worst for is Mike Scioscia. Just think, he has to run these guys out there every day knowing, no matter what his rah-rah BS within the clubhouse is, that he does not have the personnel to stand in there on a regular basis. Especially when things are going like this.

He also knows no help is on the way unless it's in the form of Wells and Hunter regaining their career averages. They have no one in the minors to use for trades or on the verge of being ready to bring up. Oh, sure, some team might take a couple of second rate minor leaguers (of which we have plenty) at the trade deadline in a salary dump. But the kind of player you typically find there is Yuniesky Betancourt, players with ghastly contracts and sub-par performances. Nope, we have what we have and Mike has to live with it going forward. Poor guy.

Let me beat on this dead horse again since the Angels won't be in it in a real sense in July. They must cut Bobby Abreu loose at that time. I don't care if he had two hits list night, that was his best performance in a while (.212 and 4 walks in the last 10 games.) and it very closely resembled a good Reggie Willits night. A worm burner and a blooper that the outfielder couldn't quite get to. Throw in that strike out and the brilliant game-ending GIDP and it was a great night for Reggie, ERRR!, Bobby. Without speed, power or bat speed, this guy is reduced to hoping that opposing pitchers can't hit the strike zone. That's something, like the woman I watch's Alzheimer's, that will only get worse, never better. We absolutely can NOT have the albatross of his vesting option hanging around the team next season.

Oh, and is there anybody out there who still advocates for the Angels scooping money into Weaver's bank account for an extension? Velocity down, opponent's BA up, strikeouts in the Shawn Estes range. Anybody? Bueller? I didn't think so. Pitchers are just way too volatile to throw big money at. *COUGH, John Lackey* That April was completely unsustainable. We had our time to revel in his good luck but we must now face reality.

Not Hibernating, Just Busy

OK, we didn't just die and leave this blog to stagnate forever. October 11 of last year saw my wife and myself embark on a continuous and seemingly never ending mission. We have an older friend who was on vacation in Europe with her adult daughter. The dream vacation of a lifetime for the daughter, if you will. Mediterranean cruise and then trip to Switzerland to stay for a while. That didn't work out very well. Immediately after leaving the cruise base in Greece, the woman was no longer able to hide her Alzheimer's and completely fell apart.

We were summoned to pick them up at the airport as the daughter was able to get seats on a flight as soon as the ship returned to Greece. We have been taking care of the woman ever since. I stay with her during the day and my wife stays with her at night. It has not been fun, but there you are. It's life. We promised to stay with her so she wouldn't have to be moved into a home and we're going to do just that for as long as we can. We're not professionals in the health care field and we know there will come a time when we can't care for her appropriately. Then we're gone.

A lot has happened since the intended use of this blog, which was to talk about the elections in November. The Republicans took back the house and then decided to act like they lost. They got some seats in the Senate but still have to worry, whenever there's a vote, about the Maine Girls who could vote against them at any time. Not pleasant.

The baseball season started. This is an especially important event for me. Baseball is the only sport I still follow since the NFL and NBA have degenerated to insignificance. It's a far more nuanced story, of course, but major league baseball is still "it" for me.

I used to follow the Dodgers but then the O'Malleys sold the team to Fox. I was pleasantly surprised  as they did a pretty decent job of running the team with both Dan Evans and Paul DePodesta performing far more adequately than I would have imagined. Then we got the McCourt Era. What a mess. Not only am I singularly unimpressed with Ned Colletti, McCourt has reduced attending a Dodgers game to approximately the level of going to a L.A. Raiders game. I know, I made the mistake of taking my very young son to a game there shortly after McCourt took over and swore I'd never go back. Am I surprised those guys got beat up earlier this season? No, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

Anyway, I only follow the Angels locally now. I have National League teams I have enjoyed and I guess I'll be rooting for the Cardinals if/when we get moved to Missouri. In any event, I will be writing more here soon and I even hope to get some input from Sperry in the future.

Cheers!