<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Remember when you were little, and you\u2019d get scared by things that weren\u2019t actually there?\u00a0 You\u2019d see broad-shoulders waiting for you in the dark but then you\u2019d turn the lights on and it would just be a jacket draped over a chair?\u00a0 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 \u201cB\u201d in the dark and rather than turn on the lights and see there\u2019s nothing to be afraid of, they run out of the room crying.\u00a0 It\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n 1986 was the Angels\u2019 3<\/font>rd<\/span><\/sup> trip to the playoffs in their history and (at that time) their best shot of advancing to the World Series.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 The \u201986 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.\u00a0 In Game 5, they were up 3 games to one, and they were up 5 to 2 in the ninth.\u00a0 They got within one strike of winning the series before it all fell apart.\u00a0 The Red Sox scored 4 in the ninth taking a one-run lead but the Angels would battle back.\u00a0 They would load the bases in the bottom of the 9<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> but could only manage the tying run.\u00a0 They lost in extra innings.\u00a0 <\/span> 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.\u00a0 And they always came back to that one strike away.\u00a0 The Angels closer, Donnie Moore, was turned into the Angels\u2019 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\u2019s error against the Mets in that \u201986 World Series.\u00a0 Oh how the fates would have turned for both men if Moore could have just gotten that last strike.)\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The legacy of \u201986 is something the Angels still are yet to shake off.<\/font> I know what you\u2019re going to say: \u201cthe Angels have won a World Series since then, they\u2019re over it!\u201d\u00a0 But my response to that is, just because you got married and are happy now doesn\u2019t mean the thought of that first heartbreak doesn\u2019t still wreck you.\u00a0 \u201986 was the only Sox\/Angels meeting before that \u201902 Angels Championship but the repercussions (\u201904, \u201907, \u201908) are still being felt today.\u00a0 Like that first girl that dumped you, the Red Sox will always have something over the Angels.\u00a0 <\/font> 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But not all streaks make that much sense.\u00a0 Like some funky October ro-sham-bo, the Red Sox always dominate the Angels and the Angels then dominate the Yankees.\u00a0 Dating back to that \u201986 season, the Angels are 6-3 against the Yankees (winning both series that they\u2019ve matched up against each other) but then the Red Sox are 13-4 against the Angels (winning all 4 series against them.)\u00a0 In fact, dating back to that Game 5 of \u201986, the Red Sox have won 12 of the 13 postseason games against the Angels, including all 6 in Anaheim.\u00a0 <\/font> But it\u2019s not just that the Angels can\u2019t beat the Red Sox in October, it\u2019s that the Angels completely collapse.\u00a0 In 2004, their first postseason matchup since \u201986, the Angels came in #1 in baseball in batting average and #13 in ERA.\u00a0 But in the 3 games against the Red Sox their batting average fell nearly 80 points (.282 regular season, .226 against the Sox- 7<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> worst of the 8 playoff teams.)\u00a0 Their ERA jumped a point-and-a-half (going from 4.28 in the regular season to 5.86- also 7<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> out of the 8 teams.)\u00a0 2007 was the same story.\u00a0 Batting average fell from .284 (4<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> in the bigs in the regular season) to .192 against the Sox (7<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> worse again.)\u00a0 ERA jumped two-and-a-half points, from 4.23 in the regular season (11<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> best in the bigs) to 6.66 (dead-last in the postseason.)\u00a0 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<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> best but in the postseason it went up to 4.19, 5<\/font>th<\/span><\/sup> out of the 8 playoff teams.)\u00a0 Like the new girl on The Hills, every October the Angels suddenly just forget their lines. <\/font> But can 2009 be different?\u00a0 The Angels come in batting .285 (best in the bigs), but they come in with a 4.45 ERA (21<\/font>st<\/span><\/sup> in baseball.)\u00a0 There are reasons to be hopeful- for instance the Red Sox allow more stolen bases than anyone and the Angels (3<\/font>rd<\/span><\/sup> in baseball in stolen bases) have always been willing to run. However, it\u2019s never been about the regular season.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 <\/font> Last winter, during the height of <\/font>Where Will Manny Go<\/span><\/em><\/span>, I wrote a column strongly urging the Angels to sign him.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 <\/font> 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.\u00a0 One way that some eventually overcome that fear is by arming themselves- it doesn\u2019t matter that it\u2019s just a wrapping paper tube, to them it\u2019s a sword.\u00a0 That weapon is capable of anything no matter what the darkness may bring.\u00a0 The Angels needed that weapon, they still do.\u00a0 They needed Manny, even if he\u2019s just a wrapping paper tube, because they needed something that made them believe they were brave enough.\u00a0 Instead the Angels are going into the dark, empty-handed again, hoping that this time they are strong enough.\u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaky Pipes wonders whether this will be the year the Angels finally lay their October Boogie Man to rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}