Another Reason to Love Baseball

For myself and I think most baseball card collectors, the thing that hooked us in wasn't the cardboard as much as it was the sport. We begin as baseball fans and eventually our fanaticism leads us to begin devouring everything baseball related. As a kid it began for me with baseball cards, but then it became collecting mini-helmets and authentic hats, and playing strat-o-matic baseball. As I got older, I gave up on some of my collections and turned to fantasy baseball. And after all these years, i find myself going back to the baseball cards and being excited when I can get ice cream at the stadium, knowing it means a mini Angels helmet.

I love baseball for more reasons than I could possibly begin to count right now, but one of them reared its head this week...rookie hazing. Whereas in other sports, hazing seems to take a financial toll (rookies picking up insane dinner bills for their teammates) or an emotional toll (forcing a guy to buy donuts, etc. every morning while carrying the bags of half the teams), baseball seems to do it the right way. In baseball, hazing is about one thing and one thing only, embarrassment.

I give you, the 2009 Angels rookies in all their glory. What makes this even more special this year was that players had to wear their unique outfits in front of a sold out stadium for the Angels playoff rally.


Chris Pettit in pretty pink dress.


30 year old rookie Matt Palmer, appropriately sports the big baby outfit.


Sean O'Sullivan and Trevol Bell make their way off the field to the bus. Torii Hunter's face is priceless and fits well with a few of his past Allen and Ginter cards.


Trevor Bell is Reno 911 gear is perhaps the best. Very cool to see him embracing the light-hearted fun and not sulking through it.

In a season that spans up to 8 months at times, having some fun and releasing the tension is definitely needed.

Go Halos!

Matt Palmer: Halo Hero

With all of the injuries to the pitching staff to open the season, plus the untimely and unfortunate death of Nick Adenhart, the starting pitching of the Angels appeared to be the dimmest of spots for the team. Anthony Ortega has been pretty bad, Dustin Moseley has pitched like, well Dustin Moseley and Shane Loux hasn't been awful, but not terribly impressive either. On the other hand Joe Saunders and Jered Weaver have both stepped up huge and pitched wonderfully.

The biggest surprise of all has been Matt Palmer. 4 games started, 4 wins.
First start of the season? 7 innings against Detroit, surrendering 4 runs, but picking up the W.
2nd start at new Yankee Stadium against C.C. Sabathia? No problem. 1 ER, and the W.
3rd start against the 1st place Royals? Psssh, 1 ER and another W.

Then came the 4th start Wednesday night against the Red Sox. As a diehard fan I was starting to get excited about this guy and you have to love his story. 30 years old, on his way out of baseball, clears waivers from the Giants, heads to Venezuela for winter ball and suddenly he's in the Angels rotation. If you haven't read about Matt, do so now, I'll wait.

Are we good? Ok, you gotta love that right? "I was in the bullpen before the game in New York," Palmer said, "just moving around, looking around. I told myself, `You know, I love baseball.' It just came to me, and I felt good, calm."

So there he was Wednesday night facing the Sox after another bullpen implosion the previous night. 1st inning? Bad. 2 run home run to J. Bay. 2nd inning? Bad. 2 more runs. The familiar feeling of "Well, it was fun while it lasted" started to creep in. But then, Mike Scioscia showed why he's a managerial genius. After the second, he walked over to Palmer and said, "No more". Apparently that's all Matt needed to hear. The 30 year old rookie has learned to listen during his struggles in the minors because he heeded Scioscia's instructions and went on to let in no more. In fact, he retired the final 19 Red Sox hitters. Complete game Halo victory.

Obviously I want Matt to go on and dominate all season. I want him to flourish and become a front line starter, but if he falls apart after tonight, I'll still always remember Matt Palmer fondly. 2009 has already been a very memorable season for Angel fans, but most of those memories are not of the positive variety. This however will always be one of the highlights of the season.

Every time a new player is suspended for steroids or a new scandal arises people question why we love baseball. Why do we follow this sport so closely? Basically, why do we care? Well, I care because of Matt Palmer. I care because it's fun rooting guys like Matt. In this past week alone I've felt the excitement of a great pitching duel between Greinke and Saunders, felt the elation of Torii Hunter going a couple of feet over the wall to bring back a game tying home run in the 9th and felt the pure goodness of watching Matt Palmer throw his first career complete game against the Sox.

Damn, I love baseball. Thanks for being a part of that Matt.

Go Halos!