Angels: Not the Series I Had in Mind…Again
You all know the feeling. You have a really long day at work (or school), or even an outright bad day. You come home and all you want to do is relax in front of a good game, preferably cuddled up with your honey, and cheer. But, alas, this time it’s not a good game. And somehow the day is just that much more deflating for it. This has been the story of my last week and change.
I am in the final stages of a huge project and I’ve been working 12 hour days during the week and eight to ten hour days on the weekend to get it done. It’s a great project and I am thrilled to be involved but these have been long days, days in which I hoped to help the the last few hours of work (or, you know, the first few hours of the weekends work) feel less like work by completing them in front of a good game. Instead, I got last week’s not-the-series-we-wanted-it-to-be against the White Sox, followed by the weekend’s not-the-series-we-wanted-it-to-be against the Rangers and then this latest mini really-not-the-series-we-wanted-it-to-be against the A’s. Sure there were a few high points, but they were buried in a mound of blah. And it just didn’t pay to be an Angels starter this weekend. Come on Angels, haven’t you considered my needs in all of this? 😉
This evening, as you might have inferred from the score, was especially terrible. Shut out 14 – 0. Ouch. The Angels had no pitching. No bats. And I swear someone rubbed butter in a few of the gloves just to see what would happen. MST3K-ing our way through Transformers II this Saturday? An excellent strategy for turning a bad, bad movie into a really fun evening and a nostalgic nod to the bad movie Fridays of our college years. MST3K-ing our way through an Angels game, on the other hand? That’s a last resort coping mechanism I would prefer not to employ again. But, desperate times, my friends. Desperate times.
…First, a brief digression for the sake of the uninitiated:
MST3K (n) – Mystery Science Theatre 3000. a cult American comedy series featuring a human and his robot sidekicks living on a space station, forced by an evil scientist to watch a series of bad Sci-Fi C and D movies for research. The audience watches the so-bad-it’s-laughable movie with the series characters, who are depicted as silhouettes at the bottom of the screen and provide a hilarious running narrative to that episode’s feature.
MST3K (v) – the act of improving any less than desirable spectacle by providing your own snarky, ideally hilarious, running commentary to the events in question. MST3K-ing is best when indulged in by a moderate sized group of quick wits, though it only outright requires two.
And now we return you to your originally scheduled MLBlogs programming…
So, my question for the team (Of course, they read this blog and take my comments very seriously. Why do you ask? 😉 ) is this. Are you done now? With the botched plays, the WTF base running, the broken clutch at the plate, the wasted great starts, the self-destructing bullpen and all of the unnecessary “excitement” between outs two and three? Every team has off games and every team experiences minor slumps over the course of the season. So, are you done with that now? Are you ready to put it all behind you and play great baseball again? This season you have already shown that you can hit, you have great gloves and boy can you pitch and, this last week notwithstanding, all in the same game even. I love you guys like crazy and will keep watching no matter what you do, but I think we’d all have a lot more fun if you wrapped up this slumping thing and moved on from it like I know you can…oh, and someone give Jordan Walden a hug please, because boy did he look like he needed one after Monday night’s game.
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So, about Kendrys Morales. He got a second opinion on the broken ankle. He will have additional surgery soon and be out for the rest of the season. And my reaction? I’m thrilled. Yes, you read that right. Between the plateau, the setbacks and the pain he it sounds like he was continuing to experience, I had serious concerns about scar tissue and his ability to return to playing in any kind of good condition. I want Kendrys back and playing now as much as anyone, but I want him to have a career playing like he used to even more. I would rather do without him for the rest of the season, than bring him back too early and risk killing his career.
This is a very simple game... 
Kristen,
Great post! I feel your pain when all you want to do is enjoy your favorite team and only to have them disappoint you. My Cubs made 4 errors last night leading to 7 unearned runs and a loss. It was terrible! Also, I agree with you 100% that it’s better to get Kendrys complete healthy than risk this season and his career.
Ron
http://strictlycubsbaseball.mlblogs.com/
Thanks Ron! I’m with you, the errors are especially frustrating…doubly so when you know they can do better.
— Kristen
The amount of tallent on the Angels team will keep the A.L. West an exciting division to watch. 0.5games back, may as well be a 3 way tie at this point. Even as an A’s fan I had a tough time watching that 14 to 0 route. Those games are not as much to watch as a 5 to 4 nail biter. Dont get me wrong though, I hope my A’s crushed the Angels spirit so they feel hopeless when playing us. : P I love the MST3K humour in this post. Good stuff.
Jon
Thanks Jon! Yeah, I dont see this as anything more than a slump…though tonight’s game is making a liar out of me so far. I think all three teams are going to be dukig it out through September. And, hey, your guys are hitting again…grrr. Absolute crushings are boring whatever side you’re on, though a win is good no matter what. Though I think the Angels spirits are likely to be more vengeful than hopeless when your guys come to town. 🙂
— Kristen
Does it really take two years to recover from a broken ankle? I don’t know the whole specifics of the injury, but at first glance, it seems a little strange.
Catherine
Catherine – Not a silly question. It can if you’re an elite athlete. What you and I demand of our ankles is different than what he does and it sounds like the scar tissue build up is something else. This surgery is for scar tissue removal. I have a friend with a similar but less severe injury and three years later he still can’t run because of scar tissue. For my friend this means he bikes to work out instead of jogging. For Kendrys that would mean the end of his career.
I sure hope Kendrys gets back to his old self eventually. He was a thrill to watch. As for the Halos’ current bump… well, I still have faith… though that was one wicked trouncing by the A’s! I mean, the A’s don’t score runs to begin with… so one has to assume this is just all a bit flukey.
–Jeff
Jeff – I have faith this is just a slump. Though after tonight I think this slump may last until they get home or they have a day off. I hoping for the first. It comes sooner. But I’m a patient person. Hopefully the A’s blew their runs for the month against us last night.
– Kristen
MST3K, I almost forgot about that show. Great reference. I was just watching the Angels-Mariners game. Another excellent performance by Haren waisted. And to watch a 9 time Gold Glover to lose a ball in the Sun to end the game ……Ouch!!
Russel – Thanks! Glad you liked it. Yeah, this was a an ouch of a game. All those missed opportunities. Haren’s wasted gem. And now Torii’s great Gold Glove catch into a roll at the wall will be over shadowed by his last play. Really disappointed doesn’t cover it. But Interleague starts soon and that usually breaks the Angels out of their funk.