10 : Ah, Johnny Dickshot. You will live forever.

11 : Awesome!

Also: CMcFood added some new comments on the ubiquitousness of the Oakland Coliseum in old posts for Vida Blue, Jim Sundberg, and Rich Dauer, plus an observation about the munificent mein of Bo McLaughlin.

As for the Ramblin’ Pete/answering machine follies: the return of Manny Ramirez has helped silence the songs of Billy Joel of late; meanwhile the inexorable slide of the Mets has made me have to dig much deeper than I’d ever planned into the hideous back catalogue of Hall and Oates songs. Yesterday, to keep from gagging, I had to recite “She’s Gone” into Pete’s answering machine in the voice and delivery of William Shatner. Please, Mets, start winning. Neither my friend nor I can take much more of this.

http://www.sittingstill.net/August2.htm

The one of Nomar is a particularly good example of the oeuvre:

http://tinyurl.com/356v3h

Aase was born in Orange County here in Southern California; he went to the same high school my mother did, Milliken High School in Long Beach. As a kid, he was a huge Angel fan, and indeed was a charter member of the “Junior Angels” Fan Club.

In 1979, the “Yes We Can” Angels won the A.L. West, and made their first trip to the postseason, facing the Orioles. Baltimore won the first two games, one in extra innings and the other by one run after the Angels stranded two runners in the top of the ninth.

In Game 3, Tanana started for California and pitched adequately; the Angels took an early 2-1 lead. But the Orioles loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with nobody out, and Aase came in from the bullpen to face DeCinces with the Angels’ season slipping away. DeCinces hit a sacrifice fly, plating the tying run, but Aase got out of the inning without any more damage done.

Aase gave up a run in the seventh on a triple to right-center by Bumbry and a single to center by Crowley, putting the Orioles ahead for the first time in the game, 3-2.

After that, Aase settled down. In the 8th and 9th, Don faced the minimum six hitters, striking out three of them. The Angels came up in the bottom of the ninth, and with the help of Carew, Grich, Downing, Larry Harlow, and 43,000 of the loudest and most boisterous fans I’ve ever heard, they scored two runs off of Stan the Man Unusual to earn a delightful and dramatic come-from-behind victory that will always stand as one of my favorite games of all time.

Don Aase, the “Junior Angel”, received credit for the win in the Angels’ first-ever postseason victory. I’ve never met Don, so I haven’t had a chance to ask him … but I’m sure it’s his proudest moment in big-league baseball.

5 : Though I must have heard his name mentioned on the radio at the beginning of his career, my starstruck worship of the ’77 hero made me mispronounce his last name as “Ace.”