Crazy that it's been 10 years since he passed. Between him, Bob Welch, Tony Phillips, and now Rickey, one of my favorite teams of my childhood has been hit hard. He's not in the greatest shape these days, but at least it looks like The Cobra, who shares a birthday with me, will be around to celebrate another another one next week.
And for the record, that's not me fishing for a happy birthday. Just an acknowledgement that Dave Parker is the coolest person I share a birthday with. There are some other contenders— Peter the Great, Michael J. Fox, and I have my opening line if I'm ever in the same room as Natalie Portman, but in terms of pure cool, nobody is topping the Cobra.
In the early stages of Covid, I re-watched the entire Game 5. Al Michaels was simply spectacular doing play-by-play. It was peak 80s nostalgia. Most of the dudes in the outfield seats were shirtless. Both managers kept bunting (or trying to bunt). Constant cutaway shots of nervous wives in the stands. Police surrounded the field trying to stop fans from storming the field, a “tradition” that ended in that World Series. And don’t forget Hendu was only in the game because Tony Armas got hurt crashing into a wall — and I think Hendu just missed robbing a HR somewhere in that game too. Hendu’s leap in the air after his home run just might be my favorite home run celebration. Thanks for writing this. I need to re-watch the other six games of this series 😂
It's an all-time great celebration. In general, I don't go back and watch many complete classic games, even ones I really care about. I'm not sure why. You'd think it would appeal to the history nerd in me, but knowing the result takes away one of the things I love most about sports, so I have a hard time doing it, I guess. Highlights are a different story, but not whole games. That said, one of the silver linings of Covid was all the classic sports they aired. And maybe it was because I knew I wasn't missing anything else, but that was the only time I really sat down and watched complete classic games, and it was great. Fox Sports KC, as it was called then, showed the complete 2014-15 Royals postseason run, and then they went back and showed the 1985 WS, and then the 1980 WS, which I wasn't even old enough to watch the first time around. I also remember watching the 1988 NCAA basketball championship between KU and OU, and a bunch of classic NBA, which worked well alongside The Last Dance. You get so much more detail and nuances of the story, as you point out in your comment, so maybe I need to make an effort to do it more often. Thanks for reading!
One of the subplots of the 1986 ALCS was California manager Gene Mauch, who was in charge of the 1964 Phillies team that blew a 6.5-game lead with 25 games left, the 1982 Angels that were up 2-0 in the best-of-5 (at the time) ALCS, the 1985 Angels that lost three of four to the Royals in the last week of the season and finished one game out, and then...this.
Meanwhile, Sox manager John McNamara had managed the Angels in 1983-84, a term sandwiched by Mauch's tenures. And both of them made giant blunders in this postseason: Mauch left Mike Witt in too long and McNamara left Buckner out there so he could celebrate a title. Mauch never did manage in a World Series and this was his last really good chance.
This is good stuff. I knew about '85 for obvious reasons, but I'll admit I probably know less about Angels history than almost any other club in baseball. For most of my life, they've just kinda been there on the periphery. Yeah, they won a title in 2002, but beyond that, they had deceptively cool uniforms in the '70s and '80s, horrendous uniforms they made Mark Gubicza and Mo Vaughn wear in the '90s, pretty blah uniforms ever since, they were featured in a fairly weak '90s baseball movie (IMO, it was no Sandlot or even Rookie of the Year), they're the place where great players go to sign insanely rich deals and forget how to play baseball, their last playoff appearance was getting swept as the top seed by the Royals in 2014, and they couldn't figure out how to win with Ohtani and Trout at the top of their lineup. Oh, they did have Chili Davis and Devon White back in the day, both of whom I liked, and Wally Joyner in his brief prime before he came to KC. And they've changed where they're from several times, without actually moving, which is kind of impressive, honestly. That's about the extent of my Angels knowledge, so I'll take these kinds of insights any time.
Just looking through year by year, it’s crazy that the Angels didn’t win another division title until 2004. Obviously, they’ll take the WC WS championship in 2002 any day but still!
This is the organization that had Ohtani and Trout at the top of their lineup and couldn't figure out how to build around them, so I'm sure they'll take whatever they can get. LOL
RIP Hendu. 🥲
Crazy that it's been 10 years since he passed. Between him, Bob Welch, Tony Phillips, and now Rickey, one of my favorite teams of my childhood has been hit hard. He's not in the greatest shape these days, but at least it looks like The Cobra, who shares a birthday with me, will be around to celebrate another another one next week.
And for the record, that's not me fishing for a happy birthday. Just an acknowledgement that Dave Parker is the coolest person I share a birthday with. There are some other contenders— Peter the Great, Michael J. Fox, and I have my opening line if I'm ever in the same room as Natalie Portman, but in terms of pure cool, nobody is topping the Cobra.
In the early stages of Covid, I re-watched the entire Game 5. Al Michaels was simply spectacular doing play-by-play. It was peak 80s nostalgia. Most of the dudes in the outfield seats were shirtless. Both managers kept bunting (or trying to bunt). Constant cutaway shots of nervous wives in the stands. Police surrounded the field trying to stop fans from storming the field, a “tradition” that ended in that World Series. And don’t forget Hendu was only in the game because Tony Armas got hurt crashing into a wall — and I think Hendu just missed robbing a HR somewhere in that game too. Hendu’s leap in the air after his home run just might be my favorite home run celebration. Thanks for writing this. I need to re-watch the other six games of this series 😂
It's an all-time great celebration. In general, I don't go back and watch many complete classic games, even ones I really care about. I'm not sure why. You'd think it would appeal to the history nerd in me, but knowing the result takes away one of the things I love most about sports, so I have a hard time doing it, I guess. Highlights are a different story, but not whole games. That said, one of the silver linings of Covid was all the classic sports they aired. And maybe it was because I knew I wasn't missing anything else, but that was the only time I really sat down and watched complete classic games, and it was great. Fox Sports KC, as it was called then, showed the complete 2014-15 Royals postseason run, and then they went back and showed the 1985 WS, and then the 1980 WS, which I wasn't even old enough to watch the first time around. I also remember watching the 1988 NCAA basketball championship between KU and OU, and a bunch of classic NBA, which worked well alongside The Last Dance. You get so much more detail and nuances of the story, as you point out in your comment, so maybe I need to make an effort to do it more often. Thanks for reading!
One of the subplots of the 1986 ALCS was California manager Gene Mauch, who was in charge of the 1964 Phillies team that blew a 6.5-game lead with 25 games left, the 1982 Angels that were up 2-0 in the best-of-5 (at the time) ALCS, the 1985 Angels that lost three of four to the Royals in the last week of the season and finished one game out, and then...this.
Meanwhile, Sox manager John McNamara had managed the Angels in 1983-84, a term sandwiched by Mauch's tenures. And both of them made giant blunders in this postseason: Mauch left Mike Witt in too long and McNamara left Buckner out there so he could celebrate a title. Mauch never did manage in a World Series and this was his last really good chance.
This is good stuff. I knew about '85 for obvious reasons, but I'll admit I probably know less about Angels history than almost any other club in baseball. For most of my life, they've just kinda been there on the periphery. Yeah, they won a title in 2002, but beyond that, they had deceptively cool uniforms in the '70s and '80s, horrendous uniforms they made Mark Gubicza and Mo Vaughn wear in the '90s, pretty blah uniforms ever since, they were featured in a fairly weak '90s baseball movie (IMO, it was no Sandlot or even Rookie of the Year), they're the place where great players go to sign insanely rich deals and forget how to play baseball, their last playoff appearance was getting swept as the top seed by the Royals in 2014, and they couldn't figure out how to win with Ohtani and Trout at the top of their lineup. Oh, they did have Chili Davis and Devon White back in the day, both of whom I liked, and Wally Joyner in his brief prime before he came to KC. And they've changed where they're from several times, without actually moving, which is kind of impressive, honestly. That's about the extent of my Angels knowledge, so I'll take these kinds of insights any time.
This is an excellent summation of the Angels franchise. Underachievers and always in the Dodgers' shadow.
Just looking through year by year, it’s crazy that the Angels didn’t win another division title until 2004. Obviously, they’ll take the WC WS championship in 2002 any day but still!
This is the organization that had Ohtani and Trout at the top of their lineup and couldn't figure out how to build around them, so I'm sure they'll take whatever they can get. LOL
Haha. So true.