Today (August 20th) is the 34th anniverary of Nolan Ryan setting the Guiness Book of World Records fastest pitch record.  Here's something I wrote over at The Halo Is Lit.

On August 20th, 1974 against the Detroit Tigers, Ryan went for the fastest pitch record.  I had spent the summer of 1974 in Alaska with my brother and his family, as he was in the Air Force and was stationed outside of Fairbanks.  Back then, there wasn't much satellite coverage for T.V. (if at all) causing all of the programs to be two weeks behind the "lower 48" and the news was a couple days later too, making it harder to follow my favorite team.  Upon my return home and for my approaching birthday, my mom took me to an Angels game that featured Ryan going for the Guiness Book of world records for the fastest pitch thrown.  Since having a guy sitting behind the plate with a Juggs gun was still a few years away, aerospace contactor and builder of the Apollo space vehicle, Rockwell International, were called in to set up their sophisticated measurement gear to record the velocities of Ryan's pitches.  At the time, my mom worked for Rockwell and I remember thinking it was pretty cool that her company was responsible for measuring the pitches and she had, what I thought, a small role in the event.  I don't remember much about the actual game, but when doing research for this piece at Baseball-Reference, it appears to have been a really good game.  Ryan dueled Tigers' pitcher Mickey Lolich for 11 innings, with both pitchers throwing complete games, but Ryan ended up getting the loss by allowing a single and stolen base to Ben Oglivie and a run scoring single to Bill Freehan in the top of the 11th.  These were only two of the four hits Ryan allowed in the game, which also included 19 strikeouts.  The results of the measurements of Ryan's pitches weren't shown until after the game and were displayed inning-by-inning on the Big A scoreboard.  I don't remember the exact inning Ryan broke the record, but I do know it was late in the game, either the 7th or 8th.  They showed the results for each inning, with a pause between each to build the suspense.  When they finally showed the record breaker of 100.9 MPH, the crowd went wild...well about as wild as 12,000 fans can go.

After suffering one of the more life-sapping losses of the season, it may be hard to believe that there is something worthwhile to glean from an otherwise disastrous road trip.  Yes, we witnessed a typical August bed-shitting by Scot Shields, who was in rare yet all too familiar form as he exhibited the composure of Frosty the Snowman in the proverbial greenhouse.  We saw our lauded “defensive specialist” catcher air mail a throw that taunted Rays fans in the luxury suites with hopes of a souvenir.  And perhaps most unfortunately, we saw an outstanding start by Ervin Santana wasted faster than Barney Gumbel at an open bar. 

The reaction to continued failure at Tropicana Field?  Initially, we responded with widespread choruses of curses and expletives (likely in unison), pointing fingers of blame at the numerous struggling Angels.  Worse, a fair share of us, in the daze of full blown Tourret’s syndrome, validated our significant others’ disdain for our love of Angels baseball.  Granted, it was amplified by sour defeat, but nonetheless. 

The lesson learned from this?  The Angels need home field advantage.  Badly.  Sure, you may say this is the talk of a defeatist.  It is true that our lads have been very good on the road this season.  However, the Halos’ regular inability to play in the ugliest MLB stadium and simultaneously swallow the dense, drowning godawful pulp that Tropicana Field continually pours down our throats is, for me, testament enough.   

While that’s not what we want to take from this series, it’s all I can offer.  Stay the hell away from Tropicana Field at all costs.    

Los Angeles de Anaheim have last four of their last five. Granted they were playing really well prior to this most recent losing streak, but during another painful loss last night, I couldn't help thinking how we're suddenly making this home field advantage thing very interesting. I had an ugly 2005 Steve Finley flashback.

I think the team needs a shot in the arm. I think the Izturis injury was more of a setback than anticipated. I think Howie needs a day off. I am interested to see what Soth has up his sleeve.

I'd like to see a lineup change for a game or two. Maybe DH Morales for Rivera. Maybe sub out Howie for a day off. The guy's hitting .224 in August. Figgins can't buy his way on right now. Aybar needs a day off soon, who's going to play SS?

September can't seem to come soon enough to see guys like Brandon Wood, Jason Bulger and Matt Brown.

Is anyone else worried about the team right now? I think losing homefield advantage has really hurt us in playoffs past. It doesn't seem to be a big deal for Soth. I know we have been a good road team in 2008, but I'd rather be playing at the Big A in October.

Obviously we have been spending a lot of time wondering if he is going to be resigned and how much he should get, but I think first we have to know: Where does he rank among baseball's best closers?

We all hope he sets the all time record for single season saves, but his peripheral numbers don't seem mind boggling.  I mean his ERA is almost 3, but 4 of the other closers in the top 10 in saves have ERA's under 2.  ERA is not exactly the best stat for relief pitchers, of course, you also need to account for how they do with inherited runners, and if they are in the National Minor League or not.

So, my question is, where do you put K-Rod?

The fans have voted and the votes are in. The top 3 Angels according to the votes gathered by ESPN are as follows

#1 Nolan Ryan (#2 HH)

Nolan received 60% + of the votes

#2 GA (#5 HH) came in second

#3 Tim Salmon (#1 HH)

The wonderful smurf Tim Kurkjian voted Garret Anderson as the teams #1 Angel. He backed it up with the numbers.

#1 in games played, AB's, Runs Scored, Total hits, DBL's, RBI's

He also talked about how he has been a All-Star 3 times winning the MVP in one, and being part of the only World Series winning team that the organization has ever had.

Seems to me the nation voted for the player that brought exposure and notoriety to the club.

Whats Halo Heavens thought on this?

I was waiting for the night game to start on ESPN, so I had Baseball Tonight on in the background, and to my surprise, today was the day that they revealed their "franchise player" for the Angels.

Number 3 was Tim Salmon.

Number 2 was Nolan Ryan.

Number 1 was our lazy man himself, Garret Anderson.

Personally, I think Salmon would've been a more appropriate choice, but that's just me. It really could've gone either way, I guess. After the "reavealing", they actually had some really good things to say about GA.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised.

So... does GA deserve it, or should it have been Salmon or Ryan?

OK, well maybe "Invades" is a bit too strong, but my wife, my infant daughter, two friends (Indians fans, but we'll excuse them for that) and I (wearing my Halos Heaven t-shirt!) went up to Cleveland for Saturday's game against the Indians. 

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The big rumour on this blog, the internet, and the radio is that the Halos might trade for beloved David Eckstein.

It seems like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim already have plenty of depth to survive the bummer of  "The Boy King" going down for the season and the playoffs.  I guess the thrust of all the rumours is if Aybar goes down, who do we replace him with?  Figgins,  Brandon Wood, Gary Discarcina, or if you ask Acuda Kendry Morales?

Thoughts?

Dateline Beijing: Michael Phelps beats second place finisher by coming from behind and beating him by one one-hundreth of a second! This ties him for the record for most gold medals in one Olympic games. In the men's 100 butterfly phelps time was 50.59, while the silver medalist had a time of 50.58. Is anyone else pumped up about this awesome US Olympic team? USA! USA!! USA!

via z.about.com

According to Fox Sports, Angels' shortstop Maicer Izturis is going to have season-ending surgery on his left thumb.

Link To Story

So what does this mean for the Angels? Well, for starters, Erick Aybar just became the full-time shortstop, and Sean Rodriguez became the full-time backup. Will we see another platoon? I doubt it. But I'm sure we'll see more for Rodriguez than we all thought we would.

This year, Maicer was hitting .269 with 3 HRs, 37 RBIs and 11 SB in 79 games. Can Aybar dupicate that same production? I think so. Is there reason to panic? Not right now, no. If Aybar gets injured, then we can panic.

Another thing we may see is uber-prospect Brandon Wood getting some solid time at shortstop. While that may not happen for a few weeks, it remains an outside possibility.

Get well, Gazoo. We'll miss you.