October is over, which means two key things.
First, THE ANGELS WON THE WORLD SERIES! Much more on them
later.
Secondly, we will never have to see another of FOX’s
brilliant ideas ““ those stupid October’s Magical
Matchups commercials.
The commercials themselves weren’t that bad the first few
times I saw them. However, FOX seemed to play that commercial at
least once, if not twice, during each commercial break of baseball
and football games.
Just how many times was that commercial from hell shown? Well,
if FOX had 18 breaks between innings, 4.6 pitching changes during
the game, plus three pre-game commercial breaks, that’s 25.6
times per game broadcast. There were 22 playoff games on FOX, which
means viewers were brainwashed with that promo 563.2 times. And
that’s just baseball.
For those who watched football, there are about 20 commercial
breaks per game, with six games on FOX, and four pre-game shows
with six commercial breaks each ““ a total of 144 times that
October’s Stupid Commercial was stuffed down our throats.
Add on the 31 times in October sports fans may have watched the
promo during the sports segment on the nightly news, and the grand
total is 738.2 viewings of October’s Moronic Mutterings.
A subcommittee should be formed to investigate why FOX showed
the world’s most stupid commercial so much.
Now that I’ve freed my body of anger, I can focus on the
best story of the month ““ the Anaheim Angels. The Angels were
a team that finished 41 games out of first place the year before,
were chosen by most people to finish last place in the division,
and were given 50-1 odds of winning the World Series.
The Angels ended up leading the league in batting average, and
more importantly, productive outs.
This explains how they made the playoffs, despite finishing 29th
out of 30 teams in home runs.
The Angels were matched up against the evil New York Rich Guys
in the first round. The Rich Guys had tons of history and
“magic” while the Angels had a history of choking.
Still, the Angels beat the Yankees in four games and the Twins
in five, giving them their first World Series berth ever.
The defining moment of the World Series came in game six, when
the Angels were down three games to two and 5-0 in the seventh
inning of the game.
No World Series team had ever come back from a five-run deficit
to win the game. Also, the Angels had done nothing offensively all
game, and the Giant bullpen was pitching very effectively.
Scott Spiezio came up to bat and hit a three-run homer to bring
the Angels within two runs.
The next inning, the Angels finished the best comeback in World
Series history, and the ANGELS WON THE WORLD SERIES the next
day.
“¢bull; Someone that went highly overlooked in October: Zach
Wells.
Wells may have had the best weekend ever for a goalkeeper,
especially in the first game of the weekend.
On Oct. 25, Oregon State fired 25 shots towards the goal, a huge
amount for soccer (the average is usually around 12).
None of them went in.
Wells had 11 saves, a school record, and also got an assist, the
first by a UCLA goalkeeper in two years.
In his next game, he recorded another shutout, his sixth of the
year.
“¢bull; Also in October: The men’s water polo team lost to
Stanford again.
Twice.
That’s five times in a row.
“¢bull; Nate Fikse has turned into an offensive juggernaut. Who
would’ve thought it? A punter-converted-place-kicker got 16
points and should’ve gotten 17 (If Bob Toledo hadn’t
made a bad two-point attempt decision, again).
“¢bull; And last, but definitely not the least: there was no
gymnastics at all in October. A great month indeed! Unfortunately,
that ends this month.
The Angels have won more world series than the Bruins have
championships since Fall 2001. The Stat Geek’s column appears
every Friday.