The second half has begun! Hopefully everyone is doing well! If not, then things will get better just keep holding on

And right now. It is HOT! I’m just sitting doing nothing and I’m sweating bullets. It’s horrible. In fact it’s been the hottest summer on record! This concerns me beyond belief and I can only imagine what the players are going through. Hopefully the crew takes care of them with fans and spray bottles  

As of now the Angels are 4.5 games behind the Rangers. This upcoming series has me worried beyond belief! We need to win the series against the *gulp* Bombers and the next one against the Rangers for us to stay in reach of first. As of right now the offense hasn’t been helping our starting pitching. It seems to be waking up but not enough power Today Scott Kazmir (our worst pitcher in the rotation) went on the DL with shoulder fatigue. Whether it’s for the worse or for the better I have no idea really. 

What am I expecting from the trade deadline? Hopefully a player to help our ailing bullpen. Teams with a weak ‘pen don’t go anywhere! The Angels are known for not making any big moves which sometimes bugs me because if you can’t take risks then you can’t make it to postseason either. I’m still confident in Tony Reagins and the front office to get things done. We do have a pretty good farm system

Hello! I hope you all enjoyed the great All Star Game and its festivities. To those who went I hope it was a great memory. I personally enjoyed it very much! The game itself was amazing as well (we’ll get to more of that later!).

Congrats to Big Papi for winning the HR Derby! Corey Hart led the first round with 13 but at the end it was up to Hanley Ramirez and David Ortiz. It was fun to see them battle it out and to see the players having fun

The All Star red carpet parade is one of my favorite events! It’s nice to see the players all dressed up and enjoying things with their families. It’s a sight to see The All Star parade was held in Disneyland which made things that much better!

Hip Bumps are my favorite type of celebrations. I know there is a threat of injury but still it’s highly entertaining

That bases clearing double gave NL all it needed to win their first ASG in 14 years! MVP worthy indeed

Dedicated To: Sweetie (aka Ervin Santana… why yes my nickname for Ervin Santana is “Sweetie“. He has a baby face. He’s adorable. My grandma and I adore his lovely pearly whites and well mannered personality. Family Favorite!) and all starting pitchers everywhere that have to deal with the following tragic events every now and then.

Ervin Santana has the best stuff in the starting staff and you all know it. It’s electric. When he is on the mound and Jeff Mathis is 60 ft away he dominates like no other. Most Likely to Get a No-No award goes to Ervin “Magic” Santana. Apparently, Most Likely to be Left Stranded By the Offense Award goes to Ervin as well. 

Ahh speaking of no-no’s…. let’s take a look back at tonight’s game shall we? On this beautiful Fourth of July weekend, Sweetie went 8.5 innings, gave up 2 hits and 4 walks to only end up with a big fat L to his record.

Why is that?

Maybe it’s because the offense didn’t get to chat with Billy Butler until the 7th inning!!! That is right! You were thiiis close to being on the wrong end of a perfect game! That is not only embarrassing it is a big no-no. Watching Ervin leave the 9th and eventually lose the game was heartbreaking because he did the best he could have done. Any better and it would have been a no-no showdown! Not to mention Billy Butler almost beat him up for plunking him twice. We all know Ervin would never do such a thing on purpose. I can’t imagine him in a fight. He was truly alone tonight. I would not be so angry if this happened every once in a while but it happens to him quite often. Maybe it’s bad luck. Maybe it’s the lineup that Sosh writes up. Who knows? I, for one, am tired of watching a great start go to waste. This must be what Zack Greinke feels like every 5 days! 

Sometimes I feel as if the phrase “when it rains, it pours” really applies to this club because nothing ever seems to go perfectly right. Not only is the offense horrendous the bullpen isn’t helping either. Joakim Soria (I’ll have you know that he is one of my favorite closers in the game) is better than our entire bullpen. He shut us out two nights in a row! Friday night’s game went into extra innings and Brian Fuentes nor Scot Shields could hold it. Tonight’s game, Francisco Rodriguez couldn’t handle it either. It really is starting to worry me. Having enough confidence to know that there will be support for a pitcher is crucial to the Angels’ success. We all know it’s true. 

Look, I know you are all trying. And maybe I’m not giving the Royals enough credit. They are tough every time we face
them. Bruce Chen was amazing tonight and so was Joakim Soria. I just feel like the offense, pen and Scott Kazmir need to step up to catch up to the Rangers because it’s crucial that the Angels do! Oh yeah and get a first baseman while you’re at it…

Tomorrow on our nation’s birth, Joel Pinero is looking for his sixth straight win and I’m expecting it. I do not want tomorrow’s game to end with Hideki Matsui striking out like it has been these past two nights (It’s like deja vu!). Redeem yourselves and I shall take almost everything in this letter back. I hope you have given your heartfelt apologies to Joe Saunders for literally taking on the Royals team all by himself. I hope you gave Ervin Santana your heartfelt apologies for stranding him in so many games and for carrying you all to the finish line. For a lanky fellow like him to carry an entire load on his back must have left him beat. You better have bought him a drink.

So hitters everywhere– whether it be Major Leagues, Minor Leagues, Independent leagues, Little League… give your pitchers some support. They’d surely appreciate it. Us fans would surely appreciate it.

Until next time,

~Mimi

“It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame… Let’s play two!”, ~Ernie Banks

And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today

To take you to his mansion in the skyyyyyyyy~

*Cricket* 

Uh sorry about that karaoke moment there but that song has been stuck in my head for a long time. I heard it somewhere and I thought I could get it out by writing it down. Anyways! The title was supposed to be:

The Player Spotlight: Howard Kendrick

What I love about the Angels is the strength of their farm system and who better to show that than our second baseman Howard Kendrick! Howard is having a good year. In fact he’s hitting .269 with 6 hr and 43 RBI’s. I’m proud to have him on the team because of his amiable character and great work ethic. It’s great to see him succeed in such a high level especially considering where he came from.

Born in Sarasota, FA, Kendrick grew up without a father and his mother was in the army so she wasn’t around much. He was basically raised by his grandmother (who passed away a couple of years ago) who taught him right from wrong and kept him out of the streets. After high school he had trouble finding a place to play so he tried out for a couple of Community Colleges until he finally met Tom Kotchman (scout for the Angels). Kendrick was drafted in the 10th round in the 2002 draft and made his major league debut in 2006.

He took the place of the fan favorite, Adam Kennedy (who, if anyone remembers hit 3 home runs in one game to beat the Twins in the ALCS in 2002) which was pretty overwhelming! He overcame his struggles in 2009 and is now an important part of the Angels’ success. Not to mention, he rightfully co-starred with Sosh in a couple of Howard’s TV and appliances commercials. He didn’t deserve that Those commercials are just awful!

He’s slowly becoming a fan favorite because of all the things he does for the community. He’s truly a role model on and off the field. I wish him the best of luck the rest of the year!

In other news,

I finally graduated

The crew is having a wild time! Interleague has been good to us this year.

Tomorrow’s Father’s day so treat your fathers well!

~Mimi

“It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame… Let’s play two!”, ~Ernie Banks

Guess what ladies and gents? 

Despite the long road trip the Angels actually improved their record to 11-3 I guess they actually enjoyed playing on the road because they got beat silly by Ryan Braun & The Brew Crew tonight. 

Until then

Hello there

Oakland (2-2): They’ve been doing pretty well this season thus far

We had to extend the road trip because U2 was scheduled to play at Angels Stadium on the 6th of June. So thanks for the road wins U2!

Can’t wait until the guys come back to Angels Stadium. There’s no place like home really. And the fans are waiting!

1. Glee season one is over: I’m a Gleek. This is my favorite show. I’m head over heels obsessed with this show! My girlfriends and I even went to the Glee concert in May! I had a blast . I’ve never seen a show that made me so incredibly happy. Glee always made my week better. No matter what kind of day I was having it made sure I slept with a smile on my face. Now i’m waiting for September  

2. Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup!: Congratulations! Very deserving  

3. NBA Finals and my love for #20: Ray Allen is my favorite player in the game. I have a lot of players that I follow around the league but Ray (or as I like to call him Ray Ray) is a personal favorite. I don’t have a favorite team but I do enjoy basketball very much and playoffs in any sport is just a blast. So despite the fact that I live in Los Angeles and the fact that i’m surrounded by Laker Fans I am secretly rooting for Ray Allen .

Well here’s some prom photos I promised

This is inside the V2O club in Long Beach. It was a nice spot for a high school prom. Lots of dancing and the shoes came off the minute the limo dropped us off. High heels take so much sacrifice! My feet hurt! The food was yummy but I didn’t eat too much because I was busy dancing

This is me and my friend at the V2O club in Long Beach! We had a lot of fun

After prom ended at 11 pm, our community set up a “Prom Plus” aka an “after-prom” party so we had a safe place to go afterwards. We had it at the local gym. As you can see it was Alice in Wonderland themed. There was rock climbing, food, mechanical bull, games, fortune telling, etc etc! I came home at around 6 in the morning

Hello readers

I’ve always been impressed with my grandparents and their knowledge of the game and almost every player. My grandparents are originally from South Korea and moved to Los Angeles. They told me they got interested in baseball because they couldn’t understand all the other shows on television. I’m proud to say that my grandparents are as knowledgeable as crazy baseball fans come. I love going to games with my family and they always have a great time

I still don’t know why we’re not Dodger fans but my grandparents say that they preferred the Angels. Oh well that’s just silly talk now

2. If Ervin and Jered are having bad starts it’s probably because they don’t eat enough meat: My grandma hates that i’m vegetarian. She doesn’t understand or care about the whole “care-about-the-animals” business that I am very adamant about. She also has this thing with food. She (like many grandmothers in this universe) will stuff you until you either die of a food coma. I live with her so I always have to tell her multiple times that i’m not hungry or i’m just too full! She thinks Ervin and Jered are too skinny which is why she wants them to eat more food because skinny-ness leads to bad starts. Ervin’s breaking ball is off, “he needs to eat more meat!”.. Jered’s throwing junk pitches “that’s what you get when you don’t eat enough meat”. I wonder what she thinks about Timmy Lincecum……

3. If the entire team is doing bad then they’re probably still trying to pass their hangover from last night: My grandma likes to think that all the guys drink on the road and that affects their bad play. So that is her reasoning every time Torii doesn’t hit in a key situation or when Matsui swings into a double play

4. She loves Joe Girardi: Apparently she’s in love with Joe Girardi. She thinks he’s divine. In fact she loves how classy the Yankees look in their pinstripes. She likes the Yankees…. and loves Joe Girardi period.

5. She hates when pitchers get 2 outs and start breaking down: Ervin gave up 6 runs after he got 2 outs once. I guess that somehow traumatized not just the entire family but my grandmother in particular. So whenever we are all jubilant about getting 2 outs (because there’s 2 less outs ya have to get! Right? ) she always mentions how Ervin gave up 6 runs with 2 outs. Anything can happen in baseball and grandma always reminds us of that.

Grandpa:

2. Thinks Sosh puts too much trust in his players sometimes: My grandpa has the highest respect for Mike “Sosh” Scioscia. However he has his days where he just doesn’t understand why Brian Fuentes is in the game after all he put us through. Sosh is a tough manager and a very good one but he’s not perfect of course. His moves are questionable sometimes but we couldn’t ask for a better manager!

3. “We should have kept Figgy just for the sake of having a good defensive third baseman”: Oh how true is that statement! 

4. The 2001 World Series helped save his life: My grandpa had some medical problems that needed surgery. However he was at a point in his life where he didn’t want to do the procedure and just wanted to go peacefully. Of course (I was about 7 or 8 somewhere around there… I first got into baseball because of the 2001 WS) we were watching the post season and the epic D-backs Yankees match up. He got very excited watching these two teams play each other and I specifically remember seeing him very happy and us anticipating the ending. (Uhh we were cheering for Arizona ) As we lifted our arms up in happiness my grandpa decided that he was going to go into surgery and things have been great ever since! So okay maybe the 2001 WS has no direct correlation to him deciding to have surgery or the surgery making him all better but he did go into the hospital happy.

5. He loves baseball: We all do. I do. My grandma does. My brother does. But my grandpa truly loves it and I thank him for giving me that love. We watch other games too. Sunday night baseball or a Dodger game. It’s fun and even when our team is losing it’s always a blast just watching it with him and hearing him complain about how things aren’t going the way they seem. He always comments on how I feel bad winning against a team that isn’t doing well. He says i’m too nice with things. Well i guess i am. I’m biased when it comes to certain players i like. 

 Baseball really brings us altogether and it’s nice to spend time with people who’ve been their for you your entire life. I think that’s what I love most about baseball. Is that it’s not just a game but it’s something that brings people together and in the end that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? The people you enjoy games with are just as enjoyable as the game itself. I thank baseball for always being there much like my grandparents. This lovely game is something that we all love and that’s one of the things that we share with each other. It’s a beautiful thing  

Going off to college is pretty scary for me. I’ve been with my close knit family my entire life. Although it is liberating it’s also very… I don’t know scary I suppose. I’m going to California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA which is an hour away from home. I’m glad it’s close enough but not too far so I can come back on weekends. My grandparents are getting worried and I know they’ll miss me (feelings are mutual!) but I know that i’ll have their support even from far away. I thank them for everything really. Just everything

Go Angels!