SportsNation Loves Angel Nation!

If the Angels are America's Team, does that make Barbara Coe the new Sarah Palin?

​What is going on with America? Forget about the economy, the Know Nothings, the garbage-dwelling Linda Ackerman campaign and refry this: in an ESPN SportsNation poll that I can't find online but was just broadcast on ESPN News, your Anaheim Angels beat out the other three remaining teams in the MLB playoffs as the squad fans most want to see in the World Series. It was a pretty healthy victory, too, with the Angels getting around 35 percent of the vote, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, which were separated by a percentage point at around the 27-28 level (poor Philadelphia Phillies ranked last).

Haters can't accuse local fans of ballot-stuffing, either: more California fans who voted in the SportsNation poll chose the Dodgers over the Angels. The Angels? A team with no national-caliber star ala Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez? Are baseball fans finally catching up to the Halos' mantra of fundamentals, or has Orange County bled enough residents this decade to make the team so popular nationwide? I'm a Chicago Cubs fan, so don't truly care either way, but I do love to see Angels fans and their detractors go at it. So: go at it!