AGRI Biz

Finally, after a frigid and interminable six-month offseason, baseball season is once again upon us. In less than two weeks, the crack of bats and the roar of crowds will quickly branch out from their Spring Training roots in Florida and Arizona to cities great and small across the country. Fans all over will take up jerseys, hats, and novelty foam fingers. They'll spend obscene amounts of their hard-earned money on overpriced sausages, ...

Michael Ryan is out to prove one simple thing this spring: That age, like the designation on his back, is just a number. Typically in Spring Training, the higher the number on your uniform, the lower your chances are of making the big league squad. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. Ryan plans on changing that. Decked out in his bright red No. 83 jersey, the 32-year-old minor league outfielder for the ...

Like a sports car that's sat around the garage all winter, Howie Kendrick is having a hard time getting going this spring. Of the seven Spring Training games the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have played, their second baseman has only participated in the first three. Kendrick went just 1-for-8 at the plate in those games, though his one hit resulted in an RBI double. However, given his professional history, there is every ...

Forget the stale taste of yet another Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. If you're looking for relentless competition between heated rivals, do what your forefathers did: head out West. After a flurry of moves this offseason, the AL West has finally become major league baseball's Wild West. For the better part of a decade, the game's smallest division was really just a one-horse town, with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim laying down the law ...

Another Angel has been given his halo far too soon. Rory Markas passed away at his home in Palmdale. He was 54. Markas spent the last eight years as the primary radio and television play-by-play man for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He also called games for USC's men's basketball team and served as a reporter for FOX 11 KTTV in Los Angeles. From 1994-97, Markas lead the radio broadcast team for ...

It is only late December, and already the offseason for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim feels like it's winding down. Most of the big fish that dominated the post-Word Series headlines have already been caught and what remains is little more than bait for future trade hooks. Two monsters still lurk the depths, but each appears to be circling one lone lure, searching for another to compare it with. Matt Holliday and ...

Roy Halladay is in Philly. John Lackey is in Boston. Now is the winter of the Angels' discontent. Just days after baseball's Winter Meetings ended, after which GM Tony Reagins claimed his team had laid ôgroundwork,ö the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim watched their hard work melt away like snow in the coming spring. For those unfamiliar with the situation, or if you've just been living under a baseball-free rock, let's recap the ...

á John Lackey pitched the first game of a double-header between his Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park back in 2007.á The Angels' ace had looked good, dominant even, all season long. But this just wasn't his day. After surrendering five runs in the first inning, Lackey walked off the back of the mound and muttered to himself, glaring up at the outfield bleachers and shaking ...

When Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings got underway on Dec. 7, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were said to be serious contenders in the bidding war for outfielder Jason Bay. By week's end, Bay remained unsigned and Angels manager Mike Scioscia told reporters his team had ômore pressing needsö to address. Scioscia may have meant a new starting pitcher, but he might as well have been talking about his bullpen. On Friday, ...

The thrill is gone. At least in Anaheim. Chone Figgins, the spark plug for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, has left sunny Southern California behind in favor of the soggy skies of Seattle. Well, that, and a four-year contract reportedly worth $36 million. Shocking as it may be to someùand it certainly is to meùFiggins has traded in his halo for the drab blue/green garb of the Seattle Mariners, a divisional rival ...