If the Angels and Yankees wind up facing one another somewhere on the way to the next World Series, it'll be tough to beat the playoff atmosphere that was already evident at the Big A last night.
Yes, those bastards in pinstripes eked out the 6-5 win (after blowing a 5-0 lead–HAH!), and they clinched their 14th trip to the playoffs in the past 15 seasons.
But, according to our highly placed source who was sitting in the Angel Stadium stands, fans who have been painted by the East Coast-dominated media with the “flaky Californians” brush were refreshingly really, really, really into the game.
Why, no one even started the wave!
Wait, are we talking about the same Angel Stadium?
]
Oh, yeah. We are:
“It was so weird being there because it was like we were the visiting
team in the section I sat in,” said our source, who we'll identify as
“Shecky Quake.” “There were more Yankee fans than Angels fans. We
ended up making friends with the ones around us, though.”
Can you imagine those lunkheads in New Yawk making friends with
visiting SoCalians? Of course not. Unless you hear “Kumbaya” when someone yells “You suck!”
Sure enough, “The only few comments I heard were people
making fun of our Rally Monkey,” Quake reports. “They were saying things this like, 'Oh, bring out the monkey
'cause he is going to save the team' or 'I'm going to spank the monkey.'”
Actually:
1) Someone who loves New York saying they are going to spank the monkey could have been referring to something else, something some have sickeningly witnessed on the streets of New York, by the way.
2) Admit it: the Rally Monkey is pretty fucking embarrassing.
Moving on . . .
“I
also recall hearing somebody yell, 'The Yankees are going to kill the Angels but
it's okay 'cause they already have wings!'”
Caring about your murder victims reaching the afterlife? Priceless. It just shows the respect fans of the Bronx Bombers had for an opponent they had not beaten on Anaheim soil in five previous tries.
But don't tear up with compassion just yet.
“There was also a lovely Yankee
fan who decided it would be smart to throw a beer bottle from the right field
pavilion into center field.”
There's just no beating the classics. At least a bottle is easier for Torii Hunter to dodge than those batteries they chuck up in San Francisco.
As for welcome boorish behavior by the home crowd, “Every time [Mark] Teixeira came up, the Angel fans booed. People are still really butt hurt about him leaving the Angels for the
Yankees.”
As well they should be.
“I can only image that happening with [Chone] Figgins since his
contract is up this season.”
Bite your tongue, Shecky Quake! Don't give the Halos' spark plug any ideas.
Quake found it entertaining that at least one Angel fan yelled out “We
believe!” like in Angels in the Outfield. Despite the loss, letting the Yankees know that, along with the fact that no win will come easy, can't be all bad.
* * *
What are they saying about us in other playoff cities? More 2009
Postseason Throwndown action can be found for the following teams:
New York Yankees: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/baseball/
St. Louis Cardinals: http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/baseball/
Colorado Rockies: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/baseball/
More teams will be added as the playoffs near.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.