A’s/Angels rivalry: Where’s the passion? By Jerry Feitelberg June 7, 2010     People that follow baseball know that there are great rivalries between teams. The New York-San Francisco Giants and the Brooklyn –Los Angeles Dodgers rivalry brings out the passion from the fans. One Giant fan in San Francisco says that he “hates the Dodgers more than communism!!” The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox go at each other tooth and nail. The fans love it when those 2 teams play. The big rivalry in the Midwest is the one between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. Tonight the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are playing the Oakland Athletics. The clubs are evenly matched and the Angels are in second place just 1/2 game ahead of the A’s. However, the passion seems to be missing from this rivalry. There is the natural rivalry of Northern California vs. Southern California. In addition, these 2 clubs have been battling for the division championship for the past 10 years. The A’s won the division 4 times and the Angels have won the crown 5 times. The only year that neither team won was in 2001 when Seattle took won the title. With all this tradition, one would think that fans would be packing the park to see the teams play. That is not the case as the paid attendance for tonight’s game was 10,071. Maybe it’s the economy or maybe it’s the fact that the A’s want to go to San Jose but fans should be packing the park to see these 2 teams play each other. Game note: Noted pundit Rich Lieberman pointed out that umpire Jim Joyce, known for his blown call in the almost perfect game pitched by Armando Gallaraga , was part of the umpire crew that worked Dallas Braden’s perfect game.

Copyright 2001-2010 - Sports Radio Service