The Angels haven’t had the best of starts – the worst since 1972 apparently – but it was sweet to see them beat the Yankees today. Come on boys, more of the same.

After watching the Ducks not make it to the playoffs, I don’t think I can handle another under-performing O.C. team. Yes, I know that the season is long and that in baseball especially you “can’t win ‘em all”. However, I need something to take away the pain of the not-so-hot-Ducks.

Ok, don’t worry; I’m not a fair weather fan. If the Angels are crap this year I shall still watch them religiously, as Mrs H will testify.

I always enjoy a trip to the ball park: the atmosphere, the awful overpriced food and the awesomeness of the best of all the major league venues in the country (as voted by fans, apparently). Usually there are some fans of whichever team is visiting the Angels. Unlike football in the UK, there is no segregation due to the fans’ desire to beat the living crap out of each other. No sir, this is a civilised country!

So, last night we found ourselves surrounded by quite a few vocal Yankees fans. Actually, there were more fans there than I have seen for any previous game. Where had they all come from? Not from New York, surely? If they lived locally, did they all have some kind of old family allegiance or history? Some, possibly.

As I mused on this with Rick and as he explained more, it soon became clear: The New York Yankees are the Manchester United FC of baseball. Yep, they have a large number of ‘fans’ who have chosen to follow the club because of its success and popularity rather than for any regional or familial connection.

Is this a bad thing? It happens everywhere; Manchester United in the UK being a prime example. Many people follow them because of their success, not because of where they live. While true fans may turn their noses up at this, it is at least more feasible to actively support Man U and attend games if one so desires, given the relatively small distances involved in travelling around England.

However, this doesn’t apply to someone in SoCal supporting the Yankees – their home stadium is 3,000 miles away! Fans on the west coast are only going to realistically see them when they are visiting the region. It’s also harder to watch them on TV too because networks show local games (Angels and Dodgers here).

So, what benefit of supporting a club like the Yankees when you live thousands of miles away from their home city; you can’t watch them regularly and you are looked down upon by ‘true’ fans?

Perhaps, like Manchester United and football, the Yankees are for people who don’t really like baseball.

I like that you can buy tickets relatively cheaply and that there’s a game to watch on TV almost every day during the summer. It really makes it accessible and very quickly you can get drawn in to watching ‘the boys’ and find yourself getting to know them.

Although I know very little about the subtleties of the game, in the past few weeks I have certainly started to appreciate the battle and tactics it takes to complete a game. I like how a game can change quickly. In fact when I started writing this post, Angels were 6-3 up. Now it’s 6-6 after the pitcher started to go a bit flaky. Time to change up, me thinks.

It’s good when Angels win… but at least if they lose there’s another game tomorrow.