Dusty Baker, 73, leads the Astros into the World Series this weekend against the Phillies still in search of his first championship as a manager. Twenty years ago, Oct. 27, 2002, Baker’s Giants lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Angels in a series that was notable for its big home runs and bigger rallies, not to mention Dusty's 3-year-old son running onto the field to fetch a bat while the Giants were storming around the bases in Game 5. This story, by senior writer Stan McNeal, about what remains the Angels’ only world championship first appeared in the Nov. 4, 2002, issue of The Sporting News, under the headline, “The Angels laugh last”.
Robin Williams, zany comic and Giants fan — not necessarily in that order — is chumming up to Bobby Bonds, the father of baseball's most ridiculous slugger. The two embrace, chat and provide a cool scene for those fortunate enough to be hanging out on Edison International Field before Game 6 of the World Series. Williams is spitting out jokes with such rapidity that there isn't time to laugh at them all — or even understand some of them. Bonds is keeping up with a few cracks of his own, which is somewhat surprising considering the sourpuss reputation of his son.
Williams and Bonds have more in common than their wisecracking. Both have traveled to Disney's land with hopes of watching the Giants clinch their first World Series championship since the franchise moved west in 1958.
"The city was insane the other night, and it will be even more insane tonight," says Williams, reflecting on San Francisco's mood after one Giants victory and with the expectation of another. "And you know, it's a city that's not all that sane to begin with."
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In the end, though, Williams left disappointed, but it was fitting that someone with the wild wit of Williams made it to this World Series. For seven games, the wild-card Angels and Giants produced thrills up and down California — if not the rest of the nation — with the electricity and unpredictability of a Williams guest spot on Leno. From monstrous home runs to dramatic rallies to thunderous crowds in sparkling ballparks, this Series had everything but the Yankees — and wasn't that nice for a change? — and good starting pitching.
But Sunday night, when the Angels' eyes were burning from the sting of champagne, the 98th World Series already was lining up for a place among the classics. Unlike last year, when the Diamondbacks needed ninth-inning heroics to win the seventh game, the Angels wrapped up the Series with a rather matter-of-fact 4-1 win. They took advantage of five solid innings by rookie John Lackey, pitching on three days' rest, and a three-run, third-inning double by Garret Anderson to become the eighth straight home team to win a Game 7.
By then, of course, the Series already had treated baseball to a historic comeback by the Angels, some jaw-dropping slugging by Barry Bonds and record clutch hitting by Scott Spiezio. And that was just Game 6.
Eight outs from elimination last Saturday and trailing 5-0, the Angels accomplished what had never been done before. They scored three runs in the seventh and three in the eighth and won 6-5, overcoming the largest deficit ever by a World Series team facing elimination. Even for the Angels, who rallied for 45 wins this season, it was, as Darin Erstad said, "borderline crazy."
For six innings, they were held to two singles by Russ Ortiz, who delivered the closest thing to a dominant outing in a series where the starters combined for a 7.46 ERA. After the Angels managed two one-out singles in the seventh, Giants manager Dusty Baker took out Ortiz. His decision backfired. Against hard-throwing reliever Felix Rodriguez, Spiezio typified the Angels by fouling off four pitches, working the count full and then drilling a low fastball barely into the low seats in right field.
Spiezio had cut the deficit to two and tied a postseason record with 19 RBis. The homer could have been caught, but Giants right fielder Reggie Sanders bumped into the fence. "I seemed like it took half an hour." Spiezio said. "I was praying, 'God, please, just get over the fence.'"
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Erstad hit a leadoff homer the next inning off Tim Worrell to make it 5-4. Two singles later, Baker called on closer Robb Nen to face Troy Glaus, the Angels' most feared hitter and the Series Most Valuable Player. Glaus scorched a two-run double to left-center. The Giants were down 6-5, and they would not get back up.
The Edison Field crowd, which had banged its ThunderStix incessantly even as the Angels fell five runs behind, roared even louder, proving that anyone who assumes baseball fans in southern California are laid-back deserves a swift kick from the Rally Monkey
"These games, they're incredibly long," Spiezio said. "To hear the fans like that is a huge adrenaline boost."
"I remember '88 when I got a chance to play," said Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, who was on the champion Dodgers of that season. "It was exciting and all with Kirk Gibson’s home run, but there were more games to come. This game was the most exciting game I’ve ever been a part of. This will be the most memorable game of these guys’ lives.”
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Bonds made his own memorable moments, despite seeing few strikes. Burdened with a .196 career postseason average before this October, Bonds hit .356 (16-for-45) with a record eight homers in the three series. At 38, his legend is growing. In the World Series, Bonds reached base in 21 of 30 plate appearances. Benito Santiago, in the pressure-filled job of hitting behind Bonds, made 20 outs in the same number of appearances. Bonds was walked 13 times, seven intentionally, and swung at 25 pitches the entire Series. He still hit four home runs (total distance: 1,800-plus feet), two doubles and two singles. In Game 6, he did not swing at a pitch until the sixth inning. Boom! There went a 485-foot homer off Francisco Rodriguez, landing in nearly the same place as his Game 2 blast off closer Troy Percival.
Players wearied of answering questions about Bonds, who waved off reporters with a "Go, go, go," more often than he saw strikes. Still, they remained awestruck. “He never ceases to amaze," Erstad said. "He's the best player I've ever seen. He's redefining what home runs are."
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But what Bonds could not do was overshadow the Angels. They won the World Series one year after finishing 41 games out of first place. Their .320 average was the best postseason mark since divisional play began in 1969. They were led by home-grown troops: Five everyday players as well as 18-game winner Jarrod Washburn, Percival and Rodriguez, the phenom setup specialist, have been Angels their entire professional careers. Three of the four Game 7 pitchers, Rodriguez, Lackey and Brendan Donnelly, weren't on the Opening Day roster.
In winning the club's first championship in its 42 years, the Angels had to overcome the Giants' momentum-changing rally in Game 4 at Pac Bell Park. The Angels were four innings from taking a 3-to-1 Series lead when a 20-foot single and a 45-foot bunt turned the Series in the Giants' favor.
Trailing 3-0, Giants leadoff hitter Kenny Lofton was trying to sacrifice when he rolled a bunt toward third that zigzagged along the line like a car going down Lombard Street. As the ball turned foul, Glaus, a 6-5 third baseman, reached to pick it up. By the time he could bend all the way over, the ball spun back onto the line, and Lofton had a single. Instead of one out and a runner on second, the Giants had two on and no outs. A hit, error and sacrifice fly later, the Angels’ lead was gone. "It's not easy for (Glaus) to get down like that," Angels first base coach Alfredo Griffin said. "A short guy has a better chance."
Then again, Glaus could have crouched lower. “It came off the line maybe an eighth of an inch," Glaus said. "By the time I got there to grab it, it was maybe a 16th of an inch on the line."
Over the next 20 innings until the seventh inning of Game 6, the Giants outscored the Angels 25-4. If a fraction made the difference in Game 4, there was nothing close about Game 5. Washburn lost his second Series game after 23 of his first 31 pitches didn't find the strike zone. Jeff Kent hit two home runs in a 16-4 runaway that may have been his last home game as a Giant. Throughout the Series, owner Peter Magowan refused to endorse the return of Kent, a free agent, or Baker, the free-agent manager. Magowan said Kent was welcome to seek his fortune elsewhere" and that he hopes to resolve Baker's situation by next week.
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Even if Baker returns, the dugout might be missing some of the younger members of the Giants family. Giants offspring are welcome in the dugout during games. A few even have lockers in the clubhouse. That was all cute and cuddly until Darren Baker, Dusty's 3-year-old son, ran onto the field to fetch a bat while Giants were storming around the bases in Game 5. Trouble was avoided when J.T. Snow crossed the plate and scooped up young Baker. “J.T. knows how to pick up a kid like that," Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia says. "He has a young son at home."
Major League Baseball didn't think it was so funny. On the flight to Anaheim the next day, MLB vice president Sandy Alderson made it clear to Magowan that allowing youngsters to roam in the dugout is an issue likely to be addressed in the offseason.
“We've fostered a family-type atmosphere here for the past 10 years," Magowan says. "Our fans love our batboys. I would be surprised if there is a change made without us having a chance to discuss the situation."
Williams, a longtime Giants fan, never will have trouble getting into the club's dugout. He glad-handed with Snow, Magowan and others during his visit before Game 6. Once he noticed he was drawing as many laughs as he would at a paying gig, Williams announced, "Two-drink minimum. Two-drink minimum."
Hey, for this World Series, that would have been a bargain.
Sidebar: Angels get their rings
This story, by MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal, first appeared in the Nov. 4, 2002, issue of The Sporting News.
After the Angels won Game 6 of the World Series against the Giants, fans in southern California went into a horn-honking frenzy — and not just on the Anaheim streets surrounding Edison International Field. The next morning, team vice president Kevin Uhlich heard the celebration was similar in Pasadena, 35 miles to the north, smack in the middle of Dodgers country.
Until this season, the Angels never elicited the passion that southern California reserves for the Dodgers, the franchise that arrived from Brooklyn in 1958, three years before an American League expansion team invaded the Dodgers' turf. The Dodgers have won five World Series in Los Angeles and have drawn 3 million fans a major league-record 17 times. But after their first World Series triumph, the Angels are the hot team in the market.
The Angels drew a franchise-record 2.8 million fans in 1982 and 2.3 million this season, seventh in the A.L. But teams that reach the World Series normally experience a spike in attendance the following season, and the Angels' red merchandise is becoming as chic as Dodgers blue. For sheer noise and enthusiasm, the playoffs crowds at Edison were among the liveliest in the region's history.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia, a member of the Dodgers' 1981 and 1988 world championship clubs, says the electricity during the Game 6 comeback surpassed the atmosphere at Dodger Stadium after Kirk Gibson's fabled homer off Oakland's Dennis Eckersley in the '88 World Series opener. Angels vice president Tim Mead recalls being unable to hear himself think when the team was three outs from clinching the '86 ALCS, but he says the sustained intensity this postseason was far greater.
"I've been coming to this ballpark ever since it opened," says White Sox executive and former agent Dennis Gilbert, who lives in southern California. *There's no comparison — none."
The team's sudden popularity "is something we've strived to achieve for so many years,” says Angels bench coach Joe Maddon, who is in his 28th year with the organization. "We had come so close, but getting to this point changes how other people think about us, as well as how we think about ourselves."
The Angels didn't win a series in their previous postseason appearances in 1979, '82 and '86. Uhlich says, "If you admitted you were an Angel fan in the past decade, you really were a diehard."
But after a series of early marketing missteps, the Disney ownership allowed management to embrace former Angels greats and restore the halo to the team's new red-and-white uniforms. The irony is that just as the Angels are cresting, Disney has said it wants to sell the club
"There are so many longtime Dodgers fans in L.A., but the market is definitely large enough for two teams to prosper," says Kevin Malone, a former Angels scout and Dodgers general manager. "It was just a matter of the Angels having the success to captivate southern California. And they've done just that."