Is This Time Different?

Say what you want about the Angels.  The fact that they continue to make the playoffs year after year is a testimony to how solid their organization is.  However, they have only been to the ALCS twice during that time.  In fact, three times this decade, they have been eliminated in the playoffs by the Boston Red Sox, whom they will all but certainly face again this year. The stigma is that when the chips are down, the Angels can’t win the big one.  The fact that they are beginning to resemble the Atlanta Braves of recent years, who won 14 division titles in a row and only 1 World Series in that time, is eerily uncomfortable for Angel fans.

Strange things seem to happen every time the Angels visit Boston, and maybe that’s in their heads.  (See our story “Choke Job”)  But this year has been unlike any other year for the Angels.  Three of their five starting pitchers were out for several months.  Early in the year, they lost Scott Shields, widely regarded as the best set up man in baseball, for the season.  Almost a third of the way through the season, they were 8 games under .500.  And most notably in the first week of the season, just a few hours after a stellar pitching debut yielding 6 scoreless innings, they lost their number five starter and rising young star pitcher Nick Adenhart, not just for the year, but forever.

So when the Angels clinched the American League Western Division Monday night, there was talk of no champagne.  No celebratory beer shower.  Just a few congratulatory hugs, and on to business.  After all, the Angels have been here before, and Boston is waiting.  Every year, it seems, for Angel fans.

But they did celebrate Monday night.  There were beer showers.  There was champagne.  And there was also something else.  The players grabbed Nick Adenart’s jersey, present at their side every night in the dugout, and showered the number 34 with beer and champagne.  The chant was A-den-hart…A-den-hart in the clubhouse.  It’s doubtful the emotion captured in that photo could be duplicated any time soon, but doubt is what the Angels are trying to exorcise.  The players took to the field, and after briefly showering the fans with beer, champagne, and a field hose, they jogged in unison to the outfield.  They chanted again, A-den-hart…A-den-hart, and showered the photo of Nick Adenhart that adorns the centerfield wall.  They tapped it, put their heads on it, and thanked it.  Then, they took a picture with it, with Adnehart’s face behind them and above them, perhaps looking down on him as he has all season.

The Yankees have their superstar roster.  The Red Sox have perhaps been the organization of the decade.  The Cardinals have the best player in baseball.  The Phillies are the defending champions.  And the Dodgers, for all their woes and underachieving since they won it all in 1988, still dominate the Southern California baseball market.

But no matter who you root for, as a baseball fan, or even a sports fan, if you watched the Angels tribute to their fallen comrade Monday night and your heart didn’t jump into your throat just a little bit….then maybe you don’t have one.

And maybe, just maybe, that will make it different this year.  We’ll find out in early October.