Sox Head Back Out West

The Red Sox will start the second half in California just as they began the first half (after the Japan trip) only this time they will be in Anaheim. I remember hating West Coast road trips when I lived back East because of the late start but after the All-Star Game, all of you East Coasters should be used to staying up late. I will not be making the trip South because I will be playing in a softball tourney this weekend and with gas prices what they are it would cost me about $1000 to drive there and back. Having been to Anaheim before I can tell you that it will be well represented with Sox fans only it will be harder to tell with both team's fans wearing red. The Angels have a good team this year (I got to see them play Oakland in June) and they are not decimated with injuries like they have been in recent playoff match-ups with the Sox. The Angel fans are harmless for the most part and even though the Sox have gone through Anaheim en route to their last two World Championships there is not much animosity between the teams/players/fans. It is strange when you think of the "Beat LA" chants just last month but for some reason it does not carry over to the Angels, I guess because nobody really associated them with LA. There are however a few things to dread about a trip to Anaheim:

1. Thundersticks. What is wrong with clapping? Why do you need to use some silly inflatable gimmick to try to make it seem like there are more Angel fans than Sox fans in the stadium?

2. The rockpile in center. WTF? The bad attempt at product placement by Disney when they owned the franchise is still out there waiting for somebody to figure out what to replace it with.

3. The Rally Monkey. Really, are they still using it? Monkeys are just plain annoying, like the one on Friends that they had to write out of the show because it wasn't funny. Below however is one monkey video I find funny.