Shhh....I think I hear something....

Do ya hear it....?

Can't quite make it out.........

Getting a little louder.........

Uh-oh..........

I hear footsteps....And I think they hear them in Oakland too.


Psst, Adam. Whenever they tell you bunt, foul one off, then swing away. Trust me.

So anyway

I hear this Tiger Woods guy is pretty good. It's called history, folks. You're watching it.

Actually, I've met Tiger once. Back in 1992 when I was a freshman in college, I played with my dad as a guest in a corporate tournament at Riviera about three weeks before the L.A. Open. It was the year Tiger played in a professional tournament for the first time at Riv, and he was on the course that day as a guest of the folks putting on the event playing a practice round. At the buffet after the event, there were a couple of empty seats next to my dad and me, and Tiger and his father sat next to us. As someone who played high school golf for four years prior, I knew who he was. Can't remember much of the conversation, and he wasn't one millionth as famous as he is now, but still, that's my brush with golf greatness.

And on another note, posting will infrequent to non-existent for the next week+. I leave Wednesday on vacation. Driving back to Montana to visit relatives and to meet up with my parents who will be attending my dad's 50 year high school reunion. I'll be playing the top three courses in North Dakota at various stages of the journey. The first day will be a roughly 840 mile drive to Bismarck, which is about 160 miles short of my longest one day drive, but still plenty long. Should be fun.

6.5 Back

Dear Angels Offense,

In case you haven't noticed, the pitchers are stepping up. Howzabout a little response. What say you guys swing the sticks a little better tomorrow night so that we don't need Frankie to come in to pitch the ninth. And bring your extra good swings, because Lackey's on the mound, and he can't seem to get anyone out without throwing about a million pitches in the first five innings. So please get some hits and score some runs, and while you're at it, start playing defense a little bit better. For those counting, that's eight hits for, and 4 errors committed by the Angels in the last two games. You can't keep winning by doing that. So stop it.

Sincerely,
Me

For the second time in three days, the Angels gained ground on the A's. They're now seven back in the loss column, and at that magical place where if they were to take all remaining games against Oakland, it would be a dead heat to the post-season. I still can't see them getting there, but at least there's reason for hope.

Tremendous effort by Jered Weaver tonight. Seven shutout innings, and he broke his two game losing streak. Extra props to Adam Kennedy who drove in the game's only run, and Mike Napoli who, despite a rough day at the plate, threw out two runners trying to steal for big outs. The defense finally nutted up, with the only error coming on Weaver's bad pickoff throw to first. Biggest play of the game was the Ramon Hernandez's ground ball induced by Weaver and the crisp defense that turned it into a run saving double play in the bottom of the fourth.

Lackey turns the page on August and gets his first September start of the season tomorrow. Hopefully he burned that page in his calendar.