A season to remember: A fan's look back at the 2009 Angels

This was a season to remember.  From the way the team rebounded from the loss of a teammate early in the season to the way they collected on some baseball karma by dispatching the Red Sox.  To lose to the best team money can buy is no tragedy.  The Angels lived through tragedy and a 4-2 series loss to the Yankees is not it.  The Yanks are playing good baseball and deserved to move on.  Now it's time for Angel fans to reflect on a season unlike any other.  It's a time to look back with fondness and forward with anticipation.  Sure, it's corny but true baseball fans, true Angel fans understand.  Fans that never felt "right" after 1986.  Fans that still think the outfield of Salmon, Edmonds and Anderson rivaled the infield of Garvey, Lopes, Cey and Russell and should have had the chance for as much time together.  Fans that miss Nick Adenhart after having so little time to enjoy watching him play.  Fans that think Arte Moreno is just...cool.  Those fans know and understand that this was a special season; one to be remembered.

Teams have suffered through the loss of a teammate before but to lose someone so young on the same day he blanked the Oakland club over six innings left the Angels and baseball stunned.  As a fan I admit, with great disappointment, that the club was hard to watch after that.  Watching them play somehow seemed wrong, out of place.  The memorial should have lasted much longer than the cancellation of a single game I thought. Players were quoted admitting the games didn't matter much to them after that and a funk fell over the team that was there for months.  Managers at the big league level have to be motivators.  They have to be strong leaders that unite a club and motivate each player and the team as a whole to be their best.  In the long storied history of organized baseball I doubt any manager was faced with a tougher challenge than the one Mike Scioscia faced in having to motivate this team after that loss.  If he is not named Manager of the Year then there is no sense giving out the award.  Led by Scioscia the funk began to lift as the mourning turned to remembrance.  The team began to play with a purpose and the wins began to follow.  The memorial I thought was limited to the cancellation of a single game in fact went on game after game and continues today.

The Angels ended the regular season with a center fielder who had firmly entrenched himself as a leader and voice of the club.  A first baseman that started the year with a question mark and ended it with an exclamation point!  The left fielder didn't quite make us forget G.A., but he came close.  The third baseman was a non-prototypical player for the position who earned a well deserved All-Star invitation.  This years Angels had a shortstop with range we have never seen at the position.  A right fielder that doubled as an assistant hitting coach; preaching and practicing patience at the plate our free swinging Angels hadn’t seen in some time.  A platoon at the catcher and second base positions that did what platoons regularly don’t do, they worked! A Designated Hitter who proved he still has some pop.  Starters who worked deep into innings as a general rule and a bullpen that was put together on the fly that bent but rarely broke.  This was an exciting club that was primed to erase one of the darkest moments in club history after suffering through the darkest moment in club history.  What a roller coaster ride the regular season was, but it was just the opening course that led us to the main dish in the playoffs.

True Angel fans instinctively cringed at the very mention of 1986.  We remember Mike Witt pitching well and being pulled.  We remember Brian Downing's exaggerated open stance.  We remember where we were the moment the ball landed in the left field stands off the bat of you know who.  It pales in comparison to what the 2009 Angels had to endure but the 1986 Angels certainly suffered through their fair share of struggles because of that blast.  Boston represented more than a first round opponent this year, they were unfinished business.  No one breathed easy when the Angels took game one or even game two this year.  Game three was the key and the Angels, in defeating Boston the way they did, healed a twenty-three year old wound.  Angel fans everywhere let out a collective sigh and will never again buckle when a New Englander wants to talk baseball.

It's fun as a fan to have a team, owner and manager that aren't satisfied with anything less than holding up the Commissioner's trophy at the end of the year.  Looking forward to 2010 lets remember that champions are generally built through adversity.  The way the year ended stung, but the Angels will field a team in 2010 that will have learned from the roller coaster ride that was 2009 and be better for it.  If I may be so bold I would like to speak for every Angel fan when I say to Angel players, management, and owner - Thank you! 

Thank you for making Angel Stadium a fun place to be.  Thank you for playing fundamentally sound baseball.  Thank you for the Rally Monkey.  Thank you for not being satisfied with anything less than a championship.  Thank you for beating Boston three games to none!!  Thank you for healing an old wound (we know it means more to us as fans than it might to you as players).  Thank you for showing not only us but the country if not the world how to memorialize a fallen teammate in a way that was classy and thoughtful.  Thank you for an amazing 2009.  We can't wait to see what the off season brings and to support you again in 2010 and beyond.  Thank you for a season to remember.

-- Jose Salviati

Comments

[Tom Elliott]

As a Boston fan, I was rooting for the Angels in the ALCS on the theory that my enemy's enemy is my friend. Sorry it didn't happen for the Angels this year. (Sorrier about the Red Sox, but that's another story.)

But I did want to say I've been very impressed by Torii Hunter, not just because he's an excellent ballplayer - duh - but because he seems to be a real grown-up, which the game could stand a few more of. Small moment: when a door in the outfield wall at Fenway Park accidently opened he didn't wait for a groundskeeper, he didn't call his agent to see what he should do, he just trotted over and closed the door so the game could go on. Like a grown-up.

[Adeela]

And thank you for a great article!! Can't wait to see what 2010 brings for the Angels

[matthew]

I could expound and go on and on, but really, you said all that needed to be said. Thank you.

[angelsfan]

Yes, thank you angels and thank you Joe, you said it all.

[Grandpa]

Although I seldom agreed with his analyses, I wish to thank Steve Bisheff for keeping baseball fans' heads in the game through his blogging. He can stay on my lawn for about an hour, no more...

[call_me_cassandra]

Say amen, somebody!

[Jose]

Thanks for the comment Grandpa. Just to be clear though Steve Bisheff didn't write this blog entry, I did. Can I get a lil sun on your lawn for maybe 30 mins? :)

[jg]

Although Mike Scioscia has done a great job in at least getting the Angels into the post-season even winning WS in 2002, his effectiveness as a manager has run its course.

It is now time for tha Angels to start looking for another manager as getting the Angels into the post-season is not good enough. Scioscia has all of the components to really win a WS Title, but Scioscia just doesn't seem to have the killer instinct or to be able to seal the deal.

If anything Mike Scioscia has had multiple failures with respect to being either booted out of the playoffs by the Red Sox or Yankees. It is time for a change of management as getting into the post-season is not good enough and not winning an WS title is an injustice to the Angel line-up, its fans, and the organization.

[Terry Crow]

I, too, wish to thank Steve Bisheff for his insightful comments during the year. I hope he returns next season. I agreed with him more often than not, but even those blogs I disagreed with I respected his opinion.

[Tom S]

WEll said.

[Scott Duncan]

Bravo, Jose! Wish one of the many sportswriters who cover the Angels would have penned such a piece, but no need now.

[jtbwriter]

I'm wiping away tears at such a true and heartfelt article-thank you Jose for saying it for all true Angels fans. As one whose birthday was ruined by Henderson (he who shall not be named!) in 1986-seeing him jinx the Sox this year made up in spades for my broken heart! Thank you Angels, and in particular, Mike, Mike B, Mickey, Dino,Ron,Alfredo, and the rest of the leadership for your bringing this team together! Now Arte, please sign Bobby, Chone, Big John, and Vlad and keep this team together for another run!