Remember When...

I had the plehzure of going to Mormon night at Angel Stadium on Friday, but not get stuck with the crappy discount seats that they have to offer. Thanks to Dave and Caitlin at Call, Jensen, and Ferrell (sp?) I was able to sit field level toward the left field foul pole. The night started off innocently enough. Caitlin mentioned hearing a song on her launchcast and she wanted to listen to the CD on the way to the game, but she never gave away what song it was. Much to our delight, it was Erasure. That in turn made me remember the Scrubs episode that I don't have to explain because the clip is right here:

We arrived early to partake of a buffet style dinner provided by the firm. Dave was his usual charming-self during the pre-game festivities. If you know Dave then you know that he is a perfect combination of funny and flattering. It kind of reminds me of the soirees that are in Pride and Prejudice and how the women would swoon over a particular man because he was so delectably charming. That is Dave and he kind of thrives in these types of situations. Sometimes I think he would be such a good politician.

Our seats were good. I got a bunch of free food. Free parking. At first the Angels went down two in the first inning, but Gary Matthews stole a potential grand slam and then we came back with 6 the next inning. You know what is one of my favorite things about the Friday night games? Big Bang Friday Nights. There is an awesome fireworks display that follows the game and after your team just won, it is a pretty good way to finish things off. This has to be my favorite fireworks show just because they have a soundtrack to the whole thing, and I like that they even vary the music that goes to the fireworks. My absolute favorite is when they play that song Calling All Angels. I fully get teary-eyed because it is so apart of the Angels baseball experience.

Prior to the game they start with a highlight film that traces great moments in Angels history and they will dub in clips from the radio broadcast of those moments. The whole thing is set to that particular song. Which brings me to the title of the post...

Remember the 2002 playoffs and World Series? We had come in and won 99 games. That is a ton of games to win and not even win the division, but that's what happened that season. We were paired up with the Yankees who were in their familiar seats as favorites to win the title that year. After losing the first game, we won the next three. What was awesome was the second game where we scored something like 9 runs in one inning and at that point it was like...omigosh...not only are we not afraid of these guys, we could win this series. And so we did.

Against the Twins in the ALCS, we were also the underdogs. I remember watching ESPN and seeing most of the broadcasters picking us to lose in 6 games. I think it was the final game of that series where Adam Kennedy decided to do his best Mr. October impression and hit 3 home runs, even though I'm pretty sure he's never hit more than 10 or 15 in an entire season.

The World Series was the same story. The Giants were favored to win. Barry Bonds had just come off his 73 home run campaign the year before and was going through that postseason trying to shake-off the the prior playoff demons he had while playing for the Pirates. And the guy was on fire. He hit a home run in the first game that we lost at home. Even in the second game. He seriously was unstoppable. We salvaged one of the games in San Francisco, but were down 3-2 going home for 6 and a possible 7.

Dave and I watched the game in our apartment in Provo. The guys across the hall from us were from SoCal as well so they were into the game just as much as we were. The guys downstairs too. It was so awesome to be watching those games and hearing other guys cheer in different apartments for the same thing you were cheering for. It reminded me of serving in Chile when the whole country goes quiet except for when their team scores a goal. That game 6, however, had us go down 5-0 in the 7th inning.

I'm very irritable when my team is losing. Very. I couldn't watch anymore and we hadn't eaten all evening. I had already been through so many losing seasons and even through '95 when we blew something like a 9 game lead, then had a one game playoff that we lost to Seattle to make the postseason. It killed me to see us come so close just to blow it. So we were going to head over to Pizza Factory for dinner with Dave's sister, Annalee.

When we arrived we had some time to wait and they happened to be playing the game. It was the 7th inning. The Giants were 8 outs from winning the World Series. At that point, the people preparing for the celebration had put all of the champaign and draped the lockeroom in plastic in anticipation of the impending victory.

With two men on, I watch Scott "Beerkeg" Spezio hit a 3-run home run while we were waiting to eat. Just as we were arriving to our apartment after dinner, Darrin Erstad hit a solo home run, and they rallied for 2 more runs that same inning to take the game and eventually the World Series.

There are a lot of things to love about that season if you're an Angels fan. The Rally Monkey was born that year. He even sparked that 3-run rally in Game 6. What I think is also really cool is that same season we almost had to go through another strike-shortened, no World Series year. The collective bargaining agreement between the Owners and the Players associations was up and it went down to the 11th hour. In fact the last game that was played before the deadline was at Angel Stadium. I don't remember who it was that they were playing, but I was driving up to school that Sunday to start the new school year. When they finished the game and it was still looking like the strike was going to occur, the fans at Anaheim Stadium started to throw all of their trash onto the field in protest. Fortunately, negotiations turned and we were able to see the first title in the history of the organization.

If you're a guy, there is just nothing better in the whole world than to see your team win it all. What makes it even better is when your team doesn't have a history of winning it all, or it just isn't something that you would have ever expected. I was sure that season that they would meltdown at some point, but they never did. I still get teary-eyed when I hear that song, or when I see Darrin Erstad catch the final out, or see Troy Percival lean back and yell in jubilation. I'm not gonna lie, not much gives me greater joy than that kind of stuff.