I would like to first thank all of you for even taking a glance at my blog! I am very grateful and appreciative for your comments and your greetings. With that being said let’s go on with the topic at hand shall we?

Now feelings of want and need usually come around January because before that I have school to keep me busy, college applications to worry about and basketball, football to distract me etc. However I think its coming a little bit early. Now i’m a fan of basketball and football mind you but baseball is a favorite and the offseason just kills me. 

Because baseball news is so scarce these days and its almost the end of 2009 (a decade has passed… can you believe it?! Its fascinating!) I have decided to come up with a little “greatest angel related moments” as a nostalgic and commemorative goodbye to 2009. Reading all this stuff about “the decade’s best (insert topic here)” and articles about how this decade was compared to others inspired me to write this blog. So here we go!

Jered Weaver pitched his heart out that day. He was very close to Nick and they were going to be room mates too. I loved how the 2009 team under an even keel Mike Scioscia turned tragedy into success. So the Angels didn’t win the World Series but they overcame a lot and went beyond even my expectations. I know that the media mentioned Nick’s death a lot and there was controversy on spilling beer/champagne on his jersey. Overall the Angels didn’t exploit his death nor did they want to. Its about always keeping him in our hearts and being there for the families of those 3 who died. Also his last game was his 4th start not his first. It was however the first time he actually blossomed in a major league start. Though the Angels lost he threw 6 innings of shut out ball against the Oakland A’s, 7 hits, walked 4 while striking out 5.

9th inning. 4-3 Angels (against the Kansas City Royals) Brian “hold on to your seatbelts” Fuentes comes in and the first batter (Miguel Olivo) just blasts it! My family and I are thinking “$%#!” but my man Torii comes in and robs him of a homer. OH MY GOD! That was unreal…

Ervin Santana pitched a shut out against the Texas Rangers and the Angels won the game 11-0 thus winning the AL west division once again. I’ll be honest and say that this decade and this organization has been good to me. I’m spoiled all right? As long as I have been a fan I have only experienced one bad season where the Angels weren’t the ones in postseason. 2003: 3rd place, under .500 and Oakland Athletics went to the playoffs. However this AL west win was different. It was special just like the 2009 team. They overcame so much and played their hearts out. So i’m proud of them . I don’t know what this next decade holds (my brother strongly believes that our era is indefinitely over ) especially because other teams (hem hem SEATTLE) in the division are getting stronger but I’ll be there until the end

The curse has been lifted!!! Okay so that’s just going overboard. The Boston Red Sox are a tremendous organization and they are just so hard to beat especially in postseason with that rotation of theirs. History lesson: The Red Sox have been on our backs since the ’86 season! Boston v Angels ALCS, 3-1 series lead, game 5 (the opportunity to go to the WS for the first time ever), Donnie Moore in for the 9th, Angels blow a 3 run lead in the 9th inning (I blame Dave Henderson’s two out two strike two run home run) leading into a 7-6 loss in extra innings. This sweep were three VERY close games! That rally against Papelbon @ Fenway? IN-sane…

Do you know who Jeff Mathis is? Known for being the better defensive catcher, he shares the spot with the offensively better Mike Napoli. His stats overall regular season? .200 average, .277 OBP .320 SLG (8 doubles in the 2009 season mind you). His stats overall postseason? .450 average .240 OBP .700 SLG (with 5 doubles all in the 2009 postseason). Who is this person?! We were shocked with his postseason performance last season. Just flabbergasted! It was a roller coaster ride for sure the ALCS was with good moments (Lackey was awesome, Weav, Santana and Oliver great from the ‘pen and Vladdy’s two run shot to keep the Angels alive in the 3rd was great too) and bad but the experience was great. Congrats to the Yanks  

So this year was fantastic in baseball overall in my opinion. We had a lot of bad news but this game continued giving us as much joy as it always has. What I love about baseball is that it truly is America’s greatest past time. It has been here with us through thick and thin and it will continue to stay trrrruuuuuust me  I have the great pleasure to enjoy baseball with my family and with fans like yourself all over the world. I am forever grateful. So goodbye 2009 hellllooooo 2010! Here’s to a great 2010 season!