Instead of Village Idiot ...

[mrskippy]

Can I be

Typical American Asshat

[McSweeny]

or

blustering baboon

[mrskippy]

or just plain

Waterboy

[Bad-example]

Sorry, but the shoe fits way too well to change it now!!!

[FrogMan]

Dunce Cap Wearer

[mrskippy]

Or how about

Mrs. Kippy

[JeeberD]

Awww...he got changed back...

[Bad-example]

I just hope the people over at the Anaheim Angels official message board didn't get wind of the Village Idiot title. It would have really hurt his standing in the community.

[mrskippy]

Hmmm ... I haven't posted on the Angels message board since ... November.

BTW, what is the Angels record this year?

[Chief Rum]

2002 World Series championships held by Angels: 1
2002 World Series championships held by mrs. "Village Idiot" kippy's fave teams, the A's and Giants: 0

Nuff said.

CR

[mrskippy]

2003 Standings

San Francisco 	74 	50 	.597
Oakland 	72 	53 	.576
Anaheim 	60 	66 	.476

What happened to the Angels being in contention this year? What happened to those doomsayers against Oakland and San Francisco?

If the Giants can get out of their slump and the A's can pick up their pace, perhaps this is the year of Bay Bridge Series II ... We need another earthquake.

[Chief Rum]

Nyah-nyah. We have a championship!

"Welcome, folks, the A's look like certain winners in the 2002 ALDS, playing the weak AL CEntral champs Minnesota Twins...six days later...the A's fail miserably, choking to the Twins and allowing them to move on to the ALCS against the ANAHEIM ANGELS..."

"Welcome folks to the World Series Game 6, where the Giants are just nine outs away from winning their first ever World Series!...nine outs later...what a CHOKE JOB by the Giants! They lose Game 6 after pitching pathetically in the final three innings, and watching as the great Barry Bonds boots an easy left field fly to allow the ANAHEIM ANGELS to keep their rally going..."

"The CHOKE JOB continues, as the Giants fall in poor fashion to the ANAHEIM ANGELS in Game 7 of the World Series! Will the Giants EVER win a championship in San Francisco? Who knows!"

"Now presenting your 2002 World Champions, the ANAHEIM ANGELS!!!!"

Talk to me again when you got the hardware, chump. Midseason records are for losers.

CR

[Marmel]

Chief, I still hold onto my belief it was a fluke, and their performance this year is proving me correct!


Still you have one and nobody can ever take it away from you, and you went through the Bronx to get it, even more impressive. *thumbs up*

[mrskippy]

The A's have more hardware the the Angels. 72-73-74-89

The A's choked because they didn't have the right pitching combo. Now they do. And because they seem to always struggle with the Twins.

The Giants lost the World Series because Dusty Baker had a hard-on for Livan Hernandez. Fortunately both are gone. Dusty also has a penchant for keeping pitchers in games longer than he should.

[Chief Rum]

Save your excuses for this year. I got mine. And it was recent.

CR

[Ksyrup]

Anaheim was a great story last year, but if you didn't see this year coming...well, you must be a die-hard fan. I didn't necessarily expect them to be challenging Texas for last place, but I figured .500 would be about what to expect from a team built like they are. They've had some injuries contribute to the slide this year, but really, that wasn't a great team last year, and they tried their best to keep the pieces exactly the same for this year.

I don't blame Stoneman for not making many moves, but he had to realize that the Ecksteins, Kennedys, and Appiers were going to start performing more in line with what you would expect.

[SackAttack]

yeah, ah, kippy...what happened in 1988 and 1990, bro? Weren't the A's supposed to be worldbeaters then? Seems kinda telling that the only team they could beat in October then was one that hadn't seen a SNIFF of October since the '50s...

[Chief Rum]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Anaheim was a great story last year, but if you didn't see this year coming...well, you must be a die-hard fan. I didn't necessarily expect them to be challenging Texas for last place, but I figured .500 would be about what to expect from a team built like they are. They've had some injuries contribute to the slide this year, but really, that wasn't a great team last year, and they tried their best to keep the pieces exactly the same for this year.

I don't blame Stoneman for not making many moves, but he had to realize that the Ecksteins, Kennedys, and Appiers were going to start performing more in line with what you would expect.

Nowhere in here am I claiming the Angels are world beaters right now. Did I hope for better? Of course. But I'm not entirely sure where you are coming from in responding in this manner about this. My sole purpose in posting here is to agitate skippy with the plain fact that my team is a defending world champions, and his isn't--a fact he seems to have forgotten in his false superiority, and needed to be reminded of.

As for this year's Angels, most teams aren't going to get by losing their best slugger for half the season, their hottest hitter for half the season, their closer for a month, their centerfielder and inspirational leader for two months, and across the board slumps from their pitching and their shortstop, which, if you compare to past season results, is far lower than even their normal range of performances. And despite that, we're still just a few games under .500 and were just five games out of the wildcard as late as mid-July--when we swept the A's in Oakland, I might add.

But my main point is that nowhere in this thread did I once expound on the virtues of this year's Angels, so I'm uncertain as to what inspired you to respond about this.

CR

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by Chief Rum
As for this year's Angels, most teams aren't going to get by losing their best slugger for half the season, their hottest hitter for half the season, their closer for a month, their centerfielder and inspirational leader for two months, and across the board slumps from their pitching and their shortstop, which, if you compare to past season results, is far lower than even their normal range of performances. And despite that, we're still just a few games under .500 and were just five games out of the wildcard as late as mid-July--when we swept the A's in Oakland, I might add.

But my main point is that nowhere in this thread did I once expound on the virtues of this year's Angels, so I'm uncertain as to what inspired you to respond about this.

CR

Hey! Kansas City has done that and more and we're just now starting to run out of steam a little (still hoping to pull it out of the fire the last month of the season). Beltran and Sweeney have both missed extensive time and are currently playing hurt. The joke used to be Sweeney's bad back is the symptom of having to carry the team too many times. Now, when he went down Beltran carried this team but then went down himself. Berroa, Relaford, and Harvey are all still in the lineup despite hand injuries.

A couple of weeks ago, this was the case (pulled from an old ICQ log): our starting rotation consists of an ace making like $40 a week because they got him out of japan because he couldn't hack it in his first mlb stint (May), a guy named runlevys in his first year as a major league starter (Hernandez), a guy who was paid $15M to NOT pitch for Anaheim (Appier), a guy whose start against Tampa was his first in the majors in a year and a half after major arm surgery (Abbot), and a guy who might be 20 years old max and didn't even see AAA (Gobble)

Our winningest pitcher is in AAA this year because, quite frankly, that's about all he's good for in his career (Chris George, his 9 wins, and 6+ ERA). I think Lima is our second most winning pitcher and he was pitching in an independent league in May before the Royals gave him a few bucks to sign up and he promptly won 7 straight. Two more from our starting rotation in April are hurt: Kyle Snyder, out for the rest of the year; and Miguel Asencio (might be back in the next week or two). And our last one from then is in the bullpen because, despite #1 stopper (as in the term for a starting pitcher) caliber stuff (and if you don't believe me- check his relief stats or starting boxscores in the first couple of innings), he can't throw more than 3 innings before he gets a blister on his finger (Affeldt).

Yes, injuries happen- but you can't tell me that Angels team didn't get their fair share and more of luck last year.

SI

[Chief Rum]

Of course they got lucky. Every champion does. Every team with a winning record does.

That said, I highly recommend you check scouting reports on the guys the Angels have and had before you start comparing the Royals to them. There aren't too many Japanese or independent league imports on the Angels' roster, and they are mostly guys whom scouts have thought highly of at one time or another.

I said it before, and I'll say it again: the Angels got what they got last year mostly on skill, and the only reason the rest of baseball fandom didn't know about it was because you didn't take the time to look close enough at their talent to get past your assumptions that they were the same old Angels.

The Royals are an amazing story this year, and I am rooting for them. But to compare Darrell May and Runelvys and Lima to talents like Washburn (well-regarded young pitcher with a proven track record prior to last season), Ortiz (called a l'il Pedro by scouts), Percival (known top closer), Glaus (a former AL homerun champ), and GA (one of the most consistent, underrated stars in the league) is just laughable. I'm not talking about comparing them as who has a better team or something like that, but I mean in expectations by baseball insiders and people who follow the game closely: those people knew the Angels had talent. I don't know that that could be said of the Royals prior to this season, and I still don't know where to put them.

It should also be noted the Royals are playing in the AL Central, and that has helped them significantly this season. The Angels did their work last season in one of the toughest divisions in baseball.

Yes, there was plenty of luck, as with all winners, but if you think the Angels were a talentless hack of a team (as it seems you are supposing your Royals to be), you need to do a little more homework on the team.

Chief Rum

[kingnebwsu]

The 2002 Angels would have gotten a lot more respect if they played on the east coast. It's taken me a long time, but after 20-22 years of my life, I can easily see the "east coast bias" everyone is talking about. It's very real in the media. The media sucks...but that's a topic for another day

[Alan T]

I never really understood why it is called "east coast bias".. I don't know that I think the media purposely does that.. Its more like "east coast ignorance" or "east coast laziness" that the writers do not want to stay up till 1am to see what happens in west coast games, or their deadlines for the next day articles are due well before the games on the west coast finish.

I do think that many east coast media outlets pay more attention and focus on teams or players in their time zone, but I never really thought it was on purpose.. just a by product of time zones.

[Ben E Lou]

Alan T:

Good point about time zones. In Atlanta, there is no afternoon newspaper. For those of us who want to read our sports page at breakfast in the morning, having all the West Coast games in the paper simply isn't an option. I want my paper sitting in my driveway by 5:45AM at the latest, and I'm not alone.

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Chief Rum
But my main point is that nowhere in this thread did I once expound on the virtues of this year's Angels, so I'm uncertain as to what inspired you to respond about this.

Just talkin' baseball, and picking up on Marmel's "fluke" comment. I really have no interest in getting into a SoCal/NoCal discussion, I just wanted to talk baseball. Sor-RY!

[Ksyrup]

I could NOT live on the west coast. During the summer, I live for watching baseball from 10pm to midnight/1am. I could not fathom having all sporting events end by 10:30, and all of the east coast games going on while I'm still at work.

I wouldn't mind Sunday football starting earlier than 1pm, though.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Alan T:

Good point about time zones. In Atlanta, there is no afternoon newspaper. For those of us who want to read our sports page at breakfast in the morning, having all the West Coast games in the paper simply isn't an option. I want my paper sitting in my driveway by 5:45AM at the latest, and I'm not alone.

Newspaper? Sports page? Wha....you mean they still publish these things?

[Blade6119]

can someone tell me what skippy did to get banned?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by cuervo72
Newspaper? Sports page? Wha....you mean they still publish these things?

Yes. Some of us traditionalists still like to go to the local diner when it is still dark, eat a grits/eggs/bacon breakfast, read the paper, and argue about sports with the other men in the diner. Happens every morning in Tucker at Matthews Cafeteria on Main Street.

[VPI97]

Originally posted by Blade6119
can someone tell me what skippy did to get banned?

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/f...0&pagenumber=6

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Yes. Some of us traditionalists still like to go to the local diner when it is still dark, eat a grits/eggs/bacon breakfast, read the paper, and argue about sports with the other men in the diner. Happens every morning in Tucker at Matthews Cafeteria on Main Street.

Mmmm, grits and eggs (I'd opt for sausage instead of bacon, myself)......my breakfast was a big bowl of life cereal, eaten in front of a computer while arguing about topics (some related to sports) with other men on a message board.

I don't know about getting up and out while it's still dark...at least not until winter.