MVN: Most Valuable Network

The Angels could finally put the rest of the AL West out of their collective misery and clinch the division with a win tonight over the New York Yankees and a Texas Rangers loss.  It would break the record for the earliest a team has claimed the division, a distinction currently held by the 1971 Oakland Athletics who clinched on September 15th of that year.  I'm not sure if it is a celebration of how strong this Angels team is or how weak the rest of the AL West is.  A bit of both I think.

Last night the Angels (in the immortal words of Captain Insano) 'opened up a can of whoop-ass' on the New York Yankees as they pummeled the Pinstripers 12-1.  Nothing new there as the Angels have pretty much owned New York since the Joe Torre era.  But things actually got physical between two guys who have not been apart of either team's legacy for that long.  Torii Hunter tried to score from third on a ground-ball (bad idea) and was easily thrown out.  Hunter gave himself up and lightly ran toward home and into Rodriguez.  Pudge tagged Hunter out and started walking towards the mound when Hunter stumbled a bit over the bat left on home plate and with their backs to one another he brushed up against Pudge who, without looking, flung his gloved hand behind himself to tag Hunter again.  At this point Hunter took exception and aggressively pushed Rodriguez in the back with both hands and it was on like Donkey Kong.  Though neither player landed a serious blow the benches cleared and both Hunter and Pudge were ejected.  After the game the players met and apologized to one another.  This was clearly a case of both players thinking they had been disrespected.  First Pudge thought Hunter had pushed up against him (it was an accident) which led to the swat (on purpose) and the shove (also on purpose).  A classic misunderstanding esclating into a fracas.

In one sense it is good to see the Angels still have some edge and feistyness, particularly among the veterans.  It was also very good to see the youngsters hitting well as Brandon Wood belted a pair of home-runs and Sean Rodriguez hitting one out as well.  The biggest fear is the Angels clinch too early and enter the post-season flat.  No doubt Mike Scioscia is aware of this (and don't believe the 'they are veterans and will be ready for the playoffs' BS) and will try and light a fire under his players for the remainder of the campaign.  The Angels have the best record in the AL (currently by 1.5 games over the skidding Rays) and home-field could be huge if the Halos play Tampa in the ALCS.  They have not fared well at Tropicana Field this season (1-5), a massive ballpark that gives the Rays a tremendous edge at home.  Limiting their potential playing time to 3 games would be a plus for the Angels in the post-season.  So that very real goal should be enough to keep players interested in winning over the next three weeks and hopefully the enter October with some momentum.

In the meantime, enjoy tonights game where we can hopefully toast the third AL West title in four years and make plans for October baseball in Anaheim.