Remember when you were little, and you’d get scared by things that weren’t actually there?  You’d see broad-shoulders waiting for you in the dark but then you’d turn the lights on and it would just be a jacket draped over a chair?  Theoretically, you grow up, stop being scared of the dark, and you eventually move on to grownup fears- money, jobs, why does it burn when I pee, ya know: grownup stuff- but for whatever reason, every year around this time the Angels see a faint “B” in the dark and rather than turn on the lights and see there’s nothing to be afraid of, they run out of the room crying.  It’s now October, so there are a few things you can count on- another crappy Saw movie, and the Angels playing the Boston Red Sox in the first round.  Those two are more alike than Angel fans would like to admit, because ever since 1986, the Sox in October have been the Angels’ Boogie Man.

1986 was the Angels’ 3^rd trip to the playoffs in their history and (at that time) their best shot of advancing to the World Series.  That team had Angel legends Bobby Grich, Brian Downing, Wally Joyner, Bob Boone, Chuck Finley, as well as baseball legends Don Sutton and Reggie Jackson (useless fact: they also had a former-player doing TV work for them by the name of Joe Torre).  The ’86 ALCS is still a sad one (partly for events that occurred later), but the Angels split the first two games in Boston and came home to Anaheim to win the next two.  In Game 5, they were up 3 games to one, and they were up 5 to 2 in the ninth.  They got within one strike of winning the series before it all fell apart.  The Red Sox scored 4 in the ninth taking a one-run lead but the Angels would battle back.  They would load the bases in the bottom of the 9^th but could only manage the tying run.  They lost in extra innings. 

The story of that game 5 was the story of the rest of the series, no matter how much the Angels battled back they always fell short.  And they always came back to that one strike away.  The Angels closer, Donnie Moore, was turned into the Angels’ Bill Buckner before Buckner was Buckner (strangely enough, it was Moore not getting that last strike that would let the Sox off the mat, into the Series, and lead to Buckner’s error against the Mets in that ’86 World Series.  Oh how the fates would have turned for both men if Moore could have just gotten that last strike.)  But where Buckner was turned into a punchline, Moore was turned into something worse: a few years later he was out of baseball and committed suicide.  The legacy of ’86 is something the Angels still are yet to shake off.

I know what you’re going to say: “the Angels have won a World Series since then, they’re over it!”  But my response to that is, just because you got married and are happy now doesn’t mean the thought of that first heartbreak doesn’t still wreck you.  ’86 was the only Sox/Angels meeting before that ’02 Angels Championship but the repercussions (’04, ’07, ’08) are still being felt today.  Like that first girl that dumped you, the Red Sox will always have something over the Angels. 

But most streaks are logical, when one side dominates another team consistently you can expect that the losing side from top to bottom is in disarray.  The Chargers over the Raiders, the Steelers over the Browns, these just make sense- one side is a well-run, dominant team, while the other organization is in chaos.  But not all streaks make that much sense.  Like some funky October ro-sham-bo, the Red Sox always dominate the Angels and the Angels then dominate the Yankees.  Dating back to that ’86 season, the Angels are 6-3 against the Yankees (winning both series that they’ve matched up against each other) but then the Red Sox are 13-4 against the Angels (winning all 4 series against them.)  In fact, dating back to that Game 5 of ’86, the Red Sox have won 12 of the 13 postseason games against the Angels, including all 6 in Anaheim. 

But it’s not just that the Angels can’t beat the Red Sox in October, it’s that the Angels completely collapse.  In 2004, their first postseason matchup since ’86, the Angels came in #1 in baseball in batting average and #13 in ERA.  But in the 3 games against the Red Sox their batting average fell nearly 80 points (.282 regular season, .226 against the Sox- 7^th worst of the 8 playoff teams.)  Their ERA jumped a point-and-a-half (going from 4.28 in the regular season to 5.86- also 7^th out of the 8 teams.)  2007 was the same story.  Batting average fell from .284 (4^th in the bigs in the regular season) to .192 against the Sox (7^th worse again.)  ERA jumped two-and-a-half points, from 4.23 in the regular season (11^th best in the bigs) to 6.66 (dead-last in the postseason.)  2008 was their worst regular season for batting average of the three (down to .268) but they actually improved it in the postseason (up to .273 against the Sox;) but the ERA still went up (3.99 during the regular season, 8^th best but in the postseason it went up to 4.19, 5^th out of the 8 playoff teams.)  Like the new girl on The Hills, every October the Angels suddenly just forget their lines.

But can 2009 be different?  The Angels come in batting .285 (best in the bigs), but they come in with a 4.45 ERA (21^st in baseball.)  There are reasons to be hopeful- for instance the Red Sox allow more stolen bases than anyone and the Angels (3^rd in baseball in stolen bases) have always been willing to run. However, it’s never been about the regular season.  The Angels have come in with gaudy regular season numbers before but then they revert back to scared little children when the Red Sox come to town in October. 

Last winter, during the height of Where Will Manny Go, I wrote a column strongly urging the Angels to sign him.  First and foremost because they had a gaping hole in Left Field and in the Cleanup Spot, secondly because he was a short-term solution to the lack of bats in the Angels minor-league system, thirdly because he and Vlad would make the best buddy-cop movie duo of all time, but lastly (and maybe most importantly) Manny would give the Angels an edge in their inevitable playoff matchup against Boston. 

Going back to that kid in the dark, they (we) are struggling to be brave, struggling to not fear that pile of socks in the corner.  One way that some eventually overcome that fear is by arming themselves- it doesn’t matter that it’s just a wrapping paper tube, to them it’s a sword.  That weapon is capable of anything no matter what the darkness may bring.  The Angels needed that weapon, they still do.  They needed Manny, even if he’s just a wrapping paper tube, because they needed something that made them believe they were brave enough.  Instead the Angels are going into the dark, empty-handed again, hoping that this time they are strong enough.