For the Angels, Maybe Next Year

The Angels returned home from Boston last Thursday, but it was nothing like the homecoming they planned when they left. There were no bottles of champagne and no screaming crowds. Just a small group of loyal fans to greet them.

It’s going to be a long winter for the team and its fans, replaying over and over again last Sunday’s game when they were only one strike away from the first World Series in the team’s 26-year history. That third strike got away. So did the game. And the pennant. It just wasn’t to be. Not this year.

But when the hurt goes away, what we plan to remember is that the Angels did give Anaheim the Western Division Championship, an exciting playoff at the Big A, a fun season of baseball--and the prospect of another championship, and maybe World Series, in 1987. That will get us through the winter.