Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Compton

Good morning Fackers. I have to travel once every month or so for my job. In the past few years, this has enabled me to take in games at Safeco Field in Seattle, Minute Maid Park in Houston, and Fenway Park. Actual work got in the way of me going to the Metrodome, Citizens Bank Park, Comiskey Park, and Rogers Center.

This summer I'll be stuck in the hell hole that is Southern California for a full week. Both the Dodgers and Angels will be in town during that time frame. Since Anaheim will be my base of operations in that time, I was figuring on getting to at least one Angels game.

Then late Wednesday night came the news that following the Angels-Rockies game that evening, there was a parking lot altercation that resulted in someone taking a beer bottle to the skull and an off duty cop using his department issued firearm on two of the hooligans, leaving one critical and one in serious condition. This all comes following an Opening Day concourse altercation that left a fan dead. Dead! I may have to reconsider my plans.

For the past five years, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have been the punch line of quite a few jokes thanks to their ludicrous name. They were a 1961 expansion franchise initially known as the Los Angeles Angels, named after the old Pacific Coast League team. In 1965, in preparation for their move twentyfive miles southeast to Anaheim, they renamed themselves the California Angels. In 1997, finally realizing the four other MLB franchise called the Golden State home, they changed to the Anaheim Angels, before settling on their current moniker for the 2005 season. Turns out the Anaheim is a bit closer to South Central L.A. than previously thought.

I Think We Can Drop The "Maybe"

It turns out it's not only Yankee fans that aren't huge fans of Dustin Pedrioa. He made some disparaging remarks about his hometown of Woodland, California in a Boston Magazine article, which not only resulted in this awkwardly configured but still hilarious sign, but something a lot more serious:

The Woodland Democrat reported that 47-year-old Kenneth Samuels allegedly made multiple phone calls to the Pedroia family business and threatened to shoot and kill the men of the Pedroia family. Those calls were traced and Samuels was subsequently arrested. The reason why Samuels allegedly threatened the Pedroias was not stated by the Woodland police.

Well at least he only threatened the men, right? Wow.

Some friendly advice: If you are going to insult a town/city, go for a bigger one where people won't take it so personally. Observe: FUCK BOSTON! In addition, you'll be less likely to offend a gun owning whack-job who is going to threaten to kill your family.

Happy Trails, Plaxico Burress

It was only a matter of time.

"I am an optimist, and I believe most situations can be worked out," general manager Jerry Reese said in announcing the decision. "We hung in there as long as we could in hopes that there could be a resolution to this situation other than the decision we made today to release Plaxico.

"It wasn't to be, so now we have to move on. Like everybody else here, we want nothing but the best for Plaxico, and we are appreciative of the contributions he made to this franchise."

Amen, Jerry.

For the moment, I'm going to try to forget about the fact that this all could have been easily avoided if Plaxico wasn't a paranoid fuck-for-brains who thought carrying a gun in his sweatpants into a nightclub in Manhattan was a good idea.

Just remember the good times, friends:


After the NFC Champsionship in Green Bay:



And of course:

Coughlin: Easy There Jerry

Again, from Ralph Vacchiano, Coughlin had this to say when confronted with Jerry Reese's quote that Plaxico could "absolutley" return to the Giants:

You know what? I'm not ready to say that. I'm not ready to say that because we need to sit down and think about it and talk about that and see what the circumstance might be. And I told everyone, I told the world, that Plaxico is a member of our team and I am concerned about him, for his well-being and that of his family. But the issues that I have to think about are that there are 52 other guys in that locker room as well."

Let's not forget that Plaxico goes to trial in March and by the time the season rolls around, this could be a non-issue because he's wearing a different uniform all together. He retained Benjamin Braffman, who got P. Diddy off of his 1999 gun & bribery charge stemming from an shooting in a Manhattan nightclub, but the three year mandatory sentence still looms.

I think if you are a Giants fan, you should be concerned for him. Only a few weeks before the incident, ESPN The Magazine had a cover story called Living Scared which talked about the increasing occurence of crimes against athletes including Sean Taylor's death, the Darrent Williams shooting and the robberies of Eddie Curry and Antoine Walker. Only a week before, teammate Steve Smith had been robbed at gunpoint outside of his house, which is something I'd imagine Burress was aware of.

This in no way excuses him for carrying a gun in Manhattan. Steve Smith's situation probably would have gotten a whole lot uglier if he was packing. As it was, he gave up a cell phone, some cash and a little jewlery. He's probably got insurance, and if not, that stuff is pretty expendable. If Plax was afraid, he should have gotten a bodyguard or pooled together with A.P. for a full security detail. He just siged a $35M contract, so I think he could have dropped a little scratch if he legitmatley feared for his life and still really felt the need to go out.

I don't think he brought the gun to play the role of Mr. Big Shot and be a tough guy in the club. I can sit here and call it ridiculous (which I pretty much did), but nobody knows how real the threat floating around in his mind seemed, except him. The guy has some issues. I'm guessing he's too proud to sit down with a therapist and make any headway, but he could probably use it.

He made a really dumb mistake and luckily no one else got hurt. I hope one awful decision doesn't ruin his whole life, but his time with the Giants has come and gone.