The Ners' 2018 Season has Been Bad...But at Least We're Not the Angels!

Before the season began, I wrote an article justifying why the Los Angeles Angels are my least favorite team in all of sports. The reasoning, in my opinion, was quite good: the Mariners are my favorite team (duh) and the Angels have this nasty knack of getting the best of Seattle day in and day out. Of all the teams that the M’s have faced over 400 times, they have the fourth-worst record against the Halos – trailing only postseason studs New York, Boston, and Cleveland. The Angels dominate the Mariners in the West, and recently have played spoiler to the M’s when Seattle was hitting its stride. (Remember Edgar weekend last year?)

Then, this past off-season, just as it was looking like the Mariners were becoming the up-and-coming favorites to sneak into the playoffs, the Angels decided to ruin our parade. When all eyes turned to Seattle as the likely landing spot for MLB’s next Ichiro, Shohei Ohtani, the California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Irvine, California said “nah” and swooped into our party like ninjas. They nabbed Ohtani out of nowhere, then figured they’d just tack on to their now-very-good roster and added a good late-inning guy in Zack Cozart and veteran infielder Ian Kinsler. My hatred for the Angels only increased: here the Mariners were, building off of a +.500 season and ready to make a push for October…and LAA came out of nowhere and built a better team.

The Angels continued their dominance of the Ners throughout the early parts of 2018, showing brute strength in the teams’ first meetings in early May. Remember this series? The Halos destroyed the M’s in the first game and Ohtani mowed them down in the third. The sole win Seattle managed to obtain was on a walk-off Ryon Healy double in the middle game, after Edwin Diaz blew the save with two outs in the by giving up a two-run dinger to Justin Upton. The AL West was HOU, SEA, and LAA, and it looked like the Angels were every bit the

scary team they were rumored to be.

And then sweet justice was served.

I never am one to cheer for injury, but something about Shohei Ohtani going down with elbow tendinitis in May felt unfortunately good. Maybe it was because Seattle wanted him; maybe it was because we had published an article stating “Well, if there’s any team other than the M’s who we trust to screw up the Shohei situation, it’s Mike Scioscia’s club," but somewhere deep down within me, I pumped my fist. Ohtani’s injury turned out to be contagious, as a plethora of Halos hit the DL and the team’s record plummeted. (I justify my feeling good here by reflecting on the Mariners’ incredible DL members last year).

And so here we are, nearing the end of the season – and while the Mariners have unfortunately fallen off the playoff race, there’s salvation to be found in saying “Hey, at least we aren’t the Angels.” After starting the season with a bang, California/Los Angeles/Anaheim has now fallen below .500 and appear to be spoiling yet another season of baseball’s best player, Mike Trout (above). Meanwhile, the Shohei Ohtani saga just continues: after stirring up a pre-season hype unlike anything I’ve seen before with an international signing (he was compared multiple times to Babe Ruth, for crying out loud), the Japanese star is now staring down the daunting barrel of Tommy John surgery and may not pitch again until 2020. I know it’s only been one season, but I don’t think it’s too improper to call Shohei Ohtani a total bust as of right now.

And after whiffing on the star and watching him go to my least favorite team in the world…damnit, that feels good to say.

#Opinion