The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Looking Toward 2009

The first 100 win season in team history. The best record in baseball including the most road victories (50). Home field advantage all the way to the World Series. 2008 was supposed to be the year the Angels won it all. Everything was aligned in their favor. Then Boston was announced as the ALDS opponent. A chill went through the Angel nation. That was not supposed to happen. Boston was expected to win the East not be the wild card meaning a ALCS showdown or ducking them completely.

But the Angels took 8 of 9 regular season games from Boston including a July sweep at Fenway in which the Angels dismantled the Red Sox. Angel killer Manny Ramirez was traded away to the Dodgers. Fellow Angel killers David Ortiz and Josh Beckett had injury afflicted subpar years. The Angel lineup was bolstered by the acquisition of Mark Texeira. So this in 2008, things would be different. Right?

In three and a half hours, a whole season's effort evaporated. Boston and Jon Lester took the opening game at Anaheim and along with it the hopes and dreams of Angel fans. You knew it was over. The Angels did muster an extra inning win at Fenway but too little too late. History had repeated itself. For the third time in five years, Boston knocked the Angels out of the ALDS. Add that to the infamous 1986 debacle, it is clear the Angels simply cannot beat the Red Sox in the post season.

Since this latest train wreck, it has become open season on the Angels who have been the baseball darlings in Southern California since winning the 2002 World Series. They have been held up as a model organization while the rival Dodgers disintegrated into laughingstocks. But the Dodgers are again top dogs by virtue of sweeping the Cubs in the NLDS and at least making the NLCS. Mike Scioscia has gone from being regarded among the very best managers to being hailed as the new Bobby Cox of the annual one series and done Braves.