White Sox 5; Angels 4

Ugh. Ya know, I've been to probably 10-15 Angels games in the six and half years I've lived in Illinois (a couple while making the two hour drive from Champaign), and I think the Angels have won two in that time. And they don't even have the decency to lose big. Well, except for that time that Ken Hill pitched. Seriously, I would prefer a 10-0 loss, where most of the crowd (including me) exits early, and everyone is pretty docile. But no. They have to keep playing close games that end with the White Sox winning in their final at bat, with drunk fans all charged up. Or games in which they're way ahead, and the White Sox stage an impossible comeback to win in what should have be their penultimate at bat. Of course, neither of those were as embarrassing as the time I saw them lose to a guy with a pitching arm that was hanging by a thread. That means the long walk out of the stadium is filled with drunken shouts of "Angels suck!" and "Percival sucks". No violence, though. I mean, what do you think this is, Dodger Stadium?

Lackey looked pretty OK, and shook off some trouble in the first inning. Really couldn't tell from out seats whether Figgins should have had a play on the Iguchi triple, but seeing how he judges fly balls in right, I'll say he should have had a play. You could tell that he took just an awful route. Once again, the offense chipped away, only to have it torn apart by lousy defense. Oy. That misplay by Figgins on the Everett "double" was the worst play I've EVER seen by a major league outfielder (hell, at least Canseco judged it well enough to have it hit him in the head) and how it went as a double is beyond me. Do we expect that little of a major league outfielder that we've determined a batter deserves a hit on a routine fly ball that gets completely botched?

Nice to see GA starting to swing the bat a little bit. Dallas didn't look bad, although for a power guy, he hits more soft liners than anyone I can remember. Kotchman, well, pretty much what we saw last year. Won't strike out, but won't hit it very hard.

Not much to say about the finish, other than it was incredibly predictable. I'll put myself through the same misery tomorrow night, this time without the 6'5", 250 lbs. guy sitting next to me and walking me out of the park. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, you'll know I snapped and started mouthing off at a bunch of drunk guys. Hey, I used to do it all the time when I played hockey.

And to the dipshits sitting behind me, I know it's fun to pronounce "Chone" phonetically, or perhaps you simply haven't progressed past hooked on phonics, but it gets really stupid after a while. I mean, in the abstract, phonetically speaking, is the proper pronunciation of Chone THAT much worse than the pronunciation of Sean? I know, it's Gaelic, but that's not the point, dammit.