Feeling the Love with the Angels

It’s Sunday night. The Angels have completed a three game sweep, and I’m listening to my favorite Ice Cube song. What better time to blog.

So this year in interleague play the Angels are playing the NL East. That means an extra trip to the east coast for my beloved Angels. I had wanted to see a game at the Phillies new stadium and here was a chance to not only do that but to see the Angels as well. I ordered the tickets on line and Dan and I headed up to the city of brotherly love.

This was a two fold mission. Watch the Angels play the Phillies and get my hair cut at the chop shop. After being in Washington for two and a half years I still haven’t found a place where I think they do a good job cutting my hair. When Jenn lived in Philly I would get my haircut at this place called the Chop Shop. They consistently gave me modern haircuts at a great price. I could explain to the person what I wanted and they would do it. So since I have lived here I have only liked the haircuts I got from Mary who has been cutting my hair since high school (she cut three generations me, dad, grandpa for Jenn and Marc’s Wedding) back home and at the Chop Shop. Despite our best efforts to get to the CS in time. The good people of Pennsylvania weren’t about to let us get through traffic. We called an audible and headed for the Stadium.

Philadelphia has a cool sports complex that has the Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey facilities all in one area with a common parking lot. With the exception of the old Spectrum they are all rather new.

Even though they have been doing it for ten years (I remember the first interleague game I went to was Angels Padres to see Wally play) the concept of interleague play is still novel. It’s cool to see your team play against someone they play only every four years. So the place was packed and I had to get “standing room only tickets”. Now I had been warned about going into enemy territory wearing Angels gear. This isn’t Baltimore or DC, Philly fan takes this very seriously. But after wearing my Angels gear to Yankee Stadium and my Lakers gear to the Sixers Lakers game, I knew I could expect some heckling but if I cheered respectfully and politely I wouldn’t have any major problems. So I wore my muted heather grey Angels T-Shirt and took my Angels hooded sweatshirt. The Angels and Phillies having the same colors probably helped as well. We found a place to stand in the pavilion behind left field and enjoyed the festivities.

I know that words and even a few pictures will not be enough to fully illustrate the scene that unfolded before us. To give you an idea though, on one side there was a rowdy bachelor party and on the other side was a group of foul mouthed drunks, who were having a very good time. Despite the fact that a young family with two small kids was right next to us, the filters were not on. In addition we had a perfect perch to people watch, and let me tell you there was no lack of strange, amusing, stunning, and just bizarre people to take note of. In order to avoid getting beat up by Phillie Fan (PF) I made sure to let the guys around me that Vlad Guerrero has six kids, lives with his mom, and enjoys roasting goats. As one guy said to me “He’s pretty well living the dream.” I guess it depends on if he has a dog.
As we were standing there watching the game we noticed that the group standing next to us was quite eccentric. It was a wide range of PFs out enjoying the game and life. How do I know this? Well, they let it be known. This apparent group of friends (although they might have not even known each other) were laughing, swearing and taking random pictures of each other with their SLR cameras. My favorite was this guy with a moustache. He had clearly had too much to drink and been out in the sun too long, but that didn’t put a damper in his joy or enthusiasm. He just kept telling those gathered around “I’m Aces, I’m Aces.” Yes my new friend…you are aces. Throughout the evening Dan updated me on the the stus. They were aces most of the evening.

The game itself was great. Vlad got the Angels on the board first with a towering home run. I cheered but I did it politely. PF tried to do their best to encourage whoever caught the ball to throw it back. No chance. The groom’s brother who was standing next to us had an eloquent way of describing how he would personally react if others made a similar demand.

Joe Saunders was pitching a gem of a game. Vlad hit another mammoth home run to virtually the same spot. It was good times for the Halos. It was however not good times for the Cubs fan. I am not the only person who has the pet peeve that you do not wear the gear of a team not playing in the contest. That is to say, if I am going to a Nats vs Yankees game I am not wearing my Angels hat and jersey. That just sort of bugs me. Well nobody told the poor cubs fan that.

Our new friends just hammered away at the guy. And there was nothing he could do. He was stuck in line getting absolutely lit up. We of course got in on the heckling and it was great.

The Phillies made a game of it, and even tied the game. The crowd was going crazy. I was impressed by PF they know how to cheer and the place was rocking. However some bad base running led the Angels to get the third out and prevented the Phillies from taking the lead. Erick Aybar came up in the next inning hit a two run home run and I told Dan, never doubt the power of the rally monkey.

The good guys won and we headed out to the parking lot and proceeded to sit there for twenty minutes trying to get out. It was a total disaster but once we were out we headed towards Gino's for a cheese steak (which is the second of three total components of a man's afternoon), We got to Gino's (redacted 6/26/2008 it was actually Pat's thank you DJN) devoured a cheese stake, got a little lost trying to get out of the city (the same exact thing we did when we went to the sixers game last year). http://petechat.blogspot.com/2007/03/lake-show.html

We made a last pit stop to complete the third component and then headed back for the Commonwealth and good ol southern hospitality.

Special thanks to Joe Biden and the people of Delaware for their tolls (and lobster bites), that guy who didn't let us merge on to exit 17 and made me miss the Chop Shop. Those many minxes who were at the game for no other reason than to watch the game. The guy in the adjustable Giants hat. The awkward couple standing next to me having a DTR during the sixth inning, the good people of Philly who haven't won anything in 25 years but still love their teams. And of course Dan Nelson who drove the whole way, with a terrible co pilot (yours truly).

I didn't even have to use my AK...I got to say it was a good day.