Maybe More People Will Buy Into Angels

As we know now, George Steinbrenner spent $135 million on a bunch of players who can’t maintain intensity in the first round of the playoffs after posting the best regular-season record, and I would imagine right now George is trying to figure out a way to monopolize the “Thunder Stick” market.

You arm 50,000 to 60,000 New York wackos with clubs and have them bang them together, and that might get the attention of those Yankee millionaires. Oh well, the Yankees haven’t heard this too often, but they’ll have to wait until next year.

That’s right, the baseball season continues in Anaheim, while it’s over in New York, and holy contraction, is this a great sport or what?

All these years, and we thought Disney was trying to kill off the Angels with a measly $60-million payroll, only to discover it was preparing the guys to become the “never-say-die” overachievers it would take to perform a national service, and keep the Yankees out of the World Series.

In the clubhouse, Disney honcho Michael Eisner, dressed in Angel cap and T-shirt, stood drenched in champagne, which I presume he poured over his own head. Eisner gushed that it was a great day for the Autry family and Team Disney and said winning will attract more calls from bidders interested in buying the team.

I told him he never returns telephone calls, so how would he know, and for some reason the interview went downhill after that.

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ANYONE WHO watched this series is probably going to tell you the Angels won “because there is no quit in these guys.”

Just think if the Choking Dogs had tried that approach--we’d still have the chance to watch a Freeway World Series.

If the key to the Angels’ success is “there is no quit in these guys,” then they acquired it this year, because they lost 19 of their final 21 last season. I just wish someone had suggested not quitting sometime in the last 41 years, so it didn’t take so long for this franchise to win a postseason series.

I guess the conclusion we can draw from all this is that there is some quit in the Yankees because they lost. I know Bernie Williams gave up on a fly ball that second baseman Alfonso Soriano misplayed, and Manager Joe Torre was slow to remove pitchers in trouble throughout this series. I suspect they realized there was no quit in the Angels, so why bother?

Most of us who are familiar with the Lakers have a tough time grasping this concept of “there’s no quit in these guys,” because the Lakers usually don’t give it their all until March, and still win the ring.

I guess you could go back to ancient history and a time when the Dodgers refused to quit, in 1988, which coincidentally is the last time they won a playoff game. In fact, I was going to suggest having Mike Scioscia talk to the guys about a time when the Dodgers never quit, and maybe even throw on a uniform to see what he’d look like as Dodger manager, but I’m afraid he wouldn’t fit into Jim Tracy’s uniform.

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NOW THAT we know there is no quit in the Angels, it pretty well guarantees a World Series celebration for the Halos. (That reminds me, they’ve painted “The Halos are back” on top of the Edison Field dugouts, and how can you come back when you’ve never been there?)

The parade will probably start or finish at Disneyland, and start or finish at California Adventure with half the kids in the crowd holding Rally Monkeys, and the other half beating the little furry critter over the head with their Thunder Sticks. And knowing kids, and the way they behave, I suspect there will be no quit in the ones swinging the Thunder Sticks.

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THE SCREAMER, who was doing the broadcasting on the Angels’ radio network, yelled after Friday night’s 9-6 win that this was the first playoff game in Anaheim in 16 years, and for the fans, it was “well worth the wait.” I’m sure that’s what every Angel fan has been thinking the last 16 years--I’ll wait forever to watch a playoff game in Anaheim, if it means seeing one exciting victory.

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I VISITED the Clippers in Palm Desert and watched as Quentin Richardson became the latest key player to get hurt, and then chatted with Coach Alvin Gentry, who pronounced the team a playoff contender. As soon as I get the dates, I’ll let you know when Gentry is appearing at the Comedy Club.

Utah, the eighth and final qualifier for a playoff spot in the West last season, finished with 44 wins.

“I would say we could win 45 games--up from 39 last year, which would be a 10% improvement,” Gentry said, and if you don’t tell the players that a 10% improvement would mean only 43 wins this year and missing the playoffs, I won’t.

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SO ERIC Karros goes under the knife to repair a sore shoulder and the next day he gets another one stuck in his back with GM Dan Evans saying, “We’re contemplating things to get better, and one thing we need is more power at first base. Thirteen homers are not enough.... If that means we have to find someone to share time with [Karros], we have to do that.” Ouch.

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THE ARREST of Raider kicker Sebastian Janikowski for driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol count twice the legal limit is another reminder why we don’t need an NFL team. The streets are safer with fewer pro athletes in town.

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THE 2008 U.S. Open was awarded to Torrey Pines on Saturday rather than Riviera. Everyone knows how tough the rough is at Riviera, while an errant shot at Torrey might find the nude beach.

I wonder why they picked Torrey over Riviera.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.