Birthdays and Baseball

I recently celebrated a birthday.  I'm the same age as the Angels as we were both born in 1961, however they have won more World Series - and I have yet to even make the play-offs.  With each birthday, I'm compelled to look back on my life and the mistakes I've made (okay, I don't need birthdays to help me wallow in my self-pity, I'm pretty good at doing that any day of the year), but one thing I've noticed about myself is the changes in my likes and dislikes.  My tastes and opinions are changing.  Slowly, but none-the-less, changing.  Subtitle changes are occurring that I didn't notice until one day, "When the hell did I start liking Rod Stewart?  And aging veterans??"  Rod Stewart and aging veterans, kind of redundant isn't it?  Anyway, where I work, they pipe in XM radio over the intercom system.  The station changes every 2 hours, so I'll go from singing along with A Flock of Seagulls to rolling my eyes when the latest country crap comes on.  I've gone through some pretty weird life changing experiences lately, one of them being the job I have.  I work at a place that doesn't have employees, but "associates".  And I don't have a supervisor; I have a "coach".  Needless to say, it's a no-brainer job.  This job however allows me to let my mind wonder while listening to the system's random music and what I've noticed is my new-found appreciation of older music other than the typical music I listened to when I was young.  Groups like Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Boston.  It's different "Classic Rock" stuff.  For example, Rod Stewart.  I'm not talking about his "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" disco shit, but songs like "Maggie May", "You're In My Heart", and "You Wear It Well".   I was aware of this Stewart's music when it was new, but for whatever reason, I didn't care for it.  But lately I'm groovin' on the Rod (wow, that didn't come out right!)  This new appreciation kind of scares me.   What's next, am I going to start wearing black sock with shorts and sandals?  Are my tastes going to migrate to "The Best of Lawrence Welk"?  Yikes!  Maybe I should start paying attention to those Viagra commercials.

So what does this have to do with baseball and the Angels?  I think Garrett Anderson is the shit, or should I say in the language of my youth...far-out.  I was never a big Anderson fan, probably because he doesn't do anything "flashy".  There's a running joke at Halos Heaven about how he's lazy.  No one's serious about him being lazy, it's more about the way he plays the game.  He's got more of a casual grace, so the jokes are usually like, "Anderson is so lazy he hits home runs instead of doubles so he doesn't have to run so fast".  Other than the first half / second half splits he's been doing the last two years, he's just a consistent player who puts up good number every year.  Now that he's old, relative to his teammates not me, I have a new found appreciation for him that I didn't Have before.  With the recent injuries to the Angels usual number two hitters, Anderson was moved from the 6th spot in the batting order and has been hitting behind Figgins.  I like that spot for him since he still makes decent contact and has the ability to hit behind runners, setting up RBI opportunities for Teixeira and Guerrero.  Anderson's contract expires at the end of this year, but the Angels have a $14M option for 2009 (with a $3M buy-out).  I seriously doubt the Angels will exercise the option for 2009, nor should they, but I hope they make a decent enough offer for him to finish his career as an Angel.  

Daily Notes:

• The Angels managed to get out of Chicago without getting swept by winning Sunday's game 3-2.  Joe Saunders got the win by pitching 7.1 inning, giving up 4 hits and 2 runs.  It was his first win since July 30th.  Just as important, his strong outing allowed the bullpen to get some rest after pitching 15 innings the previous two games.
• The Angels called up right-hander Kevin Jepsen yesterday after AAA Salt Lake was eliminated from the minor league play-offs.  Jepsen is a power reliever with a 96 mph fastball.  His ERA's this year were 1.42 in AA and 2.35 in 15 games at triple A.
• With yesterdays win and Tampa's loss to Toronto, the Angels again have the best record in the American League and would have home field advantage.
• Magic Number:  3  (with 20 games remaining)