​If those buzzing past Warner Avenue at the 55 freeway in Santa Ana are not psyched about the upcoming Angel baseball season, they are:

1) Blind.
b) Stupid.
tres) Doyer fans (or the same as b).

See why after the jump . . .
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UCI.edu

​Ian Massey has a funny piece in UC Irvine's New University student newspaper about the ultimate Oscar "snub": the nomination denied a certain Moneyball supporting actor.

He would be Mike Gillespie, the head coach of the Anteaters baseball team.
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​When it was announced that Arte Moreno purchased your Anaheim Angels to become the first Latino owner of a professional sports franchise, I wrote this piece for your favorite rag excoriating the expectations of local Latinos that Moreno be all Mexican-loving and down with the brown because he's Latino. It's a strange position for me to have, because a big part of me would love to see Moreno blasting away at Barbara Coe and marching along with his team in support of amnesty--but, hey: I get it. He's a sports owner, not Nativo Lopez (and thank God for that).

But it's an issue that occasionally bubbles up, and ESPN took a crack at it this week.
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Warren and Pujols: A Murderer's Row for Christ?

​Going off what Coker posted yesterday about Christians looking toward new Anaheim Angels slugger Albert Pujols to bring a bunch of Papist Mexis in la naranja toward Christ, the question then becomes: what local church will Pujols sign up for as his new home base?

Will he join Templo Calvario, the nation's largest bilingual church? Save another struggling franchise and go to the Crystal Cathedral? Drink the Kool-Aid and go Calvary Chapel? Get too swayed by his newfound riches and attend Mariners?

Pujols is a Baptist by denomination, a longtime congregant of West County Community Church in a St. Louis suburb. That church is part of the Missouri Baptist Convention, which is the state's group for churches associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Old-school Baptists used to have much bigger sway in Orange County during the 1950s and 1960s, before the rise of Calvary Chapel and the Crystal Cathedral, with one grand, huge exception: Saddleback Church and its Purpose-Driven® pastor, Rick Warren.
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​The Angels may have huge holes to fill, a wet-behind-the-ears GM and a nagging lack of bat, but at least they don't have to give up another complimentary home game seat to Ian Alberto Callaspo Santana.

You'll recognize two of those names as also belonging to the Halos' most-recent starting third baseman, Albert Callaspo, who before a recent Orange County Superior Court hearing was the presumed father of 4-year-old Ian.
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​Howie Kendrick refused an 8-year-old fan's autograph request and made him cry, claims the boy's mother.

She explains the Angels second baseman moved in next door for the duration of the season and that her family respected his privacy until last month, when her son, a die-hard Halos fan, approached the 28-year-old's OC home with a Kendrick baseball card in hand. The boy supposedly left in tears.
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​Remember when former Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy got popped for DUI in Newport Beach in January?

The major leaguer who played for the Seattle Mariners this past season has learned his fate.

In exchange for a guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence, he was sentenced to the "California minimum."More >>

​If you were a Hollywood studio chief, wouldn't you greenlight a movie based on the only major leaguer alive to acknowledge he's gay over one about a general manager who used sabermetric principles to bring undervalued ballplayers to his small-market team that went on to collect wins but no pennants?

Go figure: the seemingly less cinematic Moneyball, which has Brad Pitt playing Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, is in theaters now, while pride of Santa Ana High School Billy Bean is busy explaining to folks he's not Billy Beane.
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​Despite Orange County Child Services petitioning a judge to order Alberto Callaspo to pay $11,498 in monthly child support, the Angels third baseman is reportedly denying the 4-year-old boy at the center of the case is his.

The 28-year-old player whose full name is Alberto Jose Callaspo Brito requested a paternity test in a May petition to Orange County Family Court, which has scheduled a Nov. 3 hearing on the matter. The boy's Puerto Rican mother, who now resides in Florida, is scheduled to attend via phone.
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​UPDATED, SEPT. 14, 10:41 A.M.: Members of the union that represents 400 stadium ushers, janitors, ticket takers and ticket sellers voted to ratify a new contract with the Angels, averting a strike as the Major League Baseball season nears the end.

The Angels had sought a wage freeze for those workers, but under the pact they will get a series of raises that begin immediately, playoff bonuses and a promise by management to ensure fair scheduling for workers with seniority, according to the Service Employees International Union.
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