You Want To Talk Sports Misery? Let's Talk Sports Misery.

Growing up in Southern California, I was going to be born into one of two baseball fandoms. The Dodgers or the Angels. By some incredibly bad stroke of luck, I was born into a family of Angels fans. Who do I blame for this? Mostly my dad. I still love him. From the time I can remember, my dad split Angels season tickets with his buddy Chris. So this meant the majority of my childhood into teenage years were spent at Angels Stadium. Being born in 1996, I don't really remember 2002. I do remember having thunder sticks in my bedroom at home that I brought home from playoff games but beyond that, I remember nothing from that run. Why does that matter? Cause that is the last time the Angels sniffed relevancy. Instead the highlight of my dad having season tickets was the food I'd eat whenever we went, not the sorry product on the field.

That 2002 team was special. Bengie and Jose Molina, David Eckstein, Benji Gil, Troy Glaus, Mickey Callaway, Jered Weaver, Jarrod Washburn, Darin Erstad. I mean that team was SPECIAL. I have spent far too many hours watching highlights from that team instead of whatever dumpster fire this team has put out on the diamond the last 10 years or so.

Speaking of highlights, I wish I was old enough to remember that moment. I still have a bottle opener that every time it touches metal, it plays the recording of the final out. I guess I am just a little psychotic like that. "Erstad says he's got it. Erstad makes the catch! The Anaheim Angels are champions of baseball." What a moment. The last time this sorry franchise did anything worth celebrating.

Instead all I remember as an Angels fan has been incompetence. Incompetence from the top down. From Arte Moreno (Please sell the team), John Carpino, and down to every GM we've had along the way. Just awful. All of it. It is one thing to root for a bad team. It is another to root for a bad team with generational talents on the roster. Every Angels fan would tell you that we thought Mike Trout was our saving grace. When we added Ohtani to the picture, it was playoffs or bust. And realistically, it should have been. What have we done instead? Oh just missed the playoffs for 8 straight years. That is tied for the longest active drought in baseball by the way.

Yet, this is what makes sports fandom so special. Despite all the misery, suffering, letdown, and disappointment, in my stupidity, I will somehow think next April that "this season will be different". And for once, I damn hope I will be right. Until then, I'll be here opening beer bottles with my bottle opener from 2002, listening to that final out call.