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At times, it seems the sporting world is built entirely on clichÚs. On any given episode of SportsCenter, you'll hear a veritable bottomless pit of inane comments: We're taking it one game at a time; it was a team effort; we need to bring our A-game tonight. ClichÚs are omnipresent in every major and minor sport imaginable, and each is less interesting and more meaningless than the last. However, the Los Angeles Angels ...

á Roy Halladay's pitch hand is strong. So strong, in fact, he's got practically every team in the Majors falling all over themselves to make sure it belongs to them.á Top prospects, proven starters, first born childrenùall being offered up like sacrificial lambs to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Halladay's unique services, but one team has emerged as a potential front-runner. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim worked their little wings off ...

Mike Scioscia added one more piece to his incredible 2009 season: He is your American League Manager of the Year. A more appropriate choice there never was. In a rollicking, emotional season filled with tragedy and triumph, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won 97 games and another divisional crown, thanks in large part to their sound-minded skipper. Scioscia's award-winning fate was sealed on Sept. 28, when his Angels clinched their franchise record ...

If you had Andrew Bailey and Chris Coghlan in your office's baseball awards pool, congratulations: You are wiser than Nostradamus and the Mayans combined. On Monday, the American and National Leagues announced their respective winners for Rookie of the Year, and few could have predicted the results. Tight to the last, each race was considered a neck-and-neck battle, but most pundits backed vastly different contenders. Throughout the regular and offseasons, names like Elvis ...

Baseball's hot stove season is finally in full swing, and rumors are flying out of the ballparks of every contender in both leagues. From the Big A, reports are swirling in left field, where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim may make a significant upgrade with the potential acquisition of Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers.á In return, the Tigers are looking for a package that could include Brandon Wood, Maicer Izturis, ...

Hardly a week had gone by since the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were eliminated from the playoffs before they hit their first offseason obstacle. His name is Gary Matthews Jr. In what will likely be an emotional and turbulent offseason for the Angels, who saw no less than three star players and several more reserves filing for free agency already, the team's chief concern has become a bench player who is ...

Well, it's finally over. After 171 grueling regular and postseason games, after all of the ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs, the Los Angels Angels of Anaheim are getting a preemptive jump on the offseason. It's not the Angels' fault, per say. I cringe to even think it, but though the differences were minor, the New York Yankees were simply the better team, throughout both the regular season and the American League ...

Mike Scioscia did his very best to manage his way out of the playoffs for the second year in a row. Scioscia, manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, actually dealt not one, but two near-fatal blows in Game Five of the 2009 ALCS against the New York Yankees. The first came when he removed starter John Lackey with two outs in the seventh inning and the bases loaded. With the Angels ...

á It's hard to look so bad for so long and still come away with a win. But that's exactly how the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim wriggled their way back into this ALCS match-up against the New York Yankees, winning Game Three in walk-off fashion by a score of 5-4. Unfortunately, the dramatic victory only masks a disturbing trend for the Angels in the postseason since winning the World Series in 2002: ...

Without question, the most thankless job in sports is held by officials. Referees, umpires, line judgesùall are as greatly despised as they are under-appreciated. And in many cases, the vitriol aimed at them is entirely unjust. No one ever congratulates an ump for calling a good game or a ref for throwing a flag. Instead, fans rain vicious auditory attacks down upon the weary officials, whether or not they've earned them. In this ...