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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Wins World Series Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim wins Game 7, 2002 World Series, 4-3.
The ball flew off Angels Kenny Lofton's bat, sailed majestically through the Los Angeles Angels air, and ambled right to Angels Darin Erstad. It was the 3rd out of the 9th inning of the 7th baseball game of the World Series. It was a exciting moment for Los Angeles Angels center fielder and clubhouse leader had envisioned since he was a child on the fields of North Dakota. It was, frankly, a little really scary. "When he hit it, I knew that it was my baseball," Erstad said. "But I had to catch it and it seemed like the hardest baseball catch of my life. I said to myself, 'Two hands, just like your dad taught you.'" Angels Erstad squeezed the baseball like a diamond and the party began.
For the first time in baseball history, the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem are baseball world champions. Los Angeles Angels completed its magical run to the top of the sport with a 4-1 win over the San Francisco Giants in Game Seven on Sunday evening before 44,598 Angels Tickets at Edison Field in Anahiem were sold out. 3rd baseman Troy Glaus, who battted .385 with 3 home runs and 8 RBIs, was named baseball's world series MVP. The Los Angeles Angels won baseball World Series, 4 games to 3, and will bring the World Series trophy to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for the first time in the forty-one year history of angels franchise.
In a baseball season that began and ended in the ballyard by the Big A, the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem proved to be a huge story. The team rebounded from a franchise-worst six-fourteen start to win a team-record ninty nine baseball games. They earned the American League Wild Card and disposed of the 4-time defending AL champion New York Yankees in baseball AL Division Series. They lost the 1st baseball game of the AL Championship Series to the Minnesota Twins, then steamrolled the Twins in 4 straight to win the baseball pennant. And after going down three-two in the baseball World Series to the Giants, the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem came back home and took the crown, winning Game Six in the greatest comeback in an elimination game in Fall Classic baseball history, then outplaying the Giants in Game 7.
"A lot of people worked really hard for this," general manager Bill Stoneman said. "This is like nothing I've ever been involved with. The Angels pulled together, the Angels veterans came through, the Angels rookies didn't act like rookies, and it was brought together by a great manager." That manager, Mike Scioscia, soaked in the 3rd baseball world championship of his career. He won titles as a Los Angeles Dodgers catcher in 1981 and 1988 and said this go-around was all about the players. "This baseball championship was about 25 guys on the field giving everything they had," Scioscia said. "Winning the baseball World Series is about the players on the field. I've never been around a group of guys who have worked so hard for a goal."
The goal looked a little bit shaky in the 2nd inning of Sunday's winner-take-all game, when the Giants got on the board first, taking advantage of back-to-back one-out singles off Los Angeles Angels rookie starter John Lackey and a sacrifice fly RBI by Reggie Sanders. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim answered right away, however. Scott Spiezio drew a 2-out walk from Giants right-hander Livan Hernandez, which was followed by a Bengie Molina RBI double to the base of the wall in left center. "That was huge, to answer right back like that," Lackey said. "That stopped their momentum and got us going. We didn't look back after that."
Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim added more pressure to the Giants with a three-run uprising in the 3rd inning that chased Hernandez and ended the scoring. David Eckstein and Darin Erstad hit singles to left and Tim Salmon was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Garret Anderson followed with a three-run double into the right-field corner to give the Angels the Four-One lead they wouldn't relinquish. Lackey, who turned 24 on Wednesday, became the first rookie to win Game 7 in the World Series in 93 years. Francisco Rodriguez, the 20-year-old phenom reliever who had looked mortal in his two previous outings, sandwiched three strikeouts around a walk to Barry Bonds in the eighth inning, setting up closer Troy Percival in the ninth.
Percival provided alot of drama by giving up a leadoff single to J.T. Snow and walking David Bell with one out, but he struck out pinch-hitter Tsuyoshi Shinjo and then induced Lofton's unforgettable fly ball. "It took every single guy out there to win this," said Angels Percival, who joined the Angels in 1995. "I'm proud of every guy in here. We put every baseball game behind us all year because we knew what we had ahead of us." But who really knew that they'd become baseball world champions?
The Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem went 75-87 and finished 41 games out of 1st place in 2001. At the beginning of Spring Training, most experts were picking them dead last in the AL Baseball West. Only 3 other teams -- the 1903 and 1912 Boston Red Sox and the 1905 New York Giants -- had ever won the Baseball World Series with no players on their roster with World Series experience. Still, hitting coach Angels Mickey Hatcher said he believed and everyone believed all along that this was a special club. Angels Hatcher, donning blue swim goggles from his '88 Los Angeles Dodger days to ward off the sting of victory champagne, said health was the key.
"Last year we had so many injuries that we never got to field our whole angels team, it seemed," Hatcher said. "We kept trying to battle through the season, but it was tough." This year, they battled & battled and finally came out on top. "Everyone can take joy in the fact that they've played a part in our success," said Angels Salmon, the longest-standing member of the angels team with 10 years under the halo. "Especially the fans. They deserve it more than anyone." where the Los Angeles Angels Tickets that were sold was the 2nd most in baseball. You can buy Los Angeles Angels Tickets for all baseball angels tickets home games or angels tickets away games Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem were formally the Anahiem Angels
