FanNation

From a theological perspective, there are probably those who would argue that the celestial form of angels are, and should be, invisible.

I believe most of the nation's baseball writers think they're in seminary. The Angels -- the baseball variety -- are strikingly visible, although you wouldn't know it to look at USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, or -- well, you pick the national website. What are the top stories? Yanks run home win streak to 10! Yanks beat Twins! Yanks join top 10 in Fox Sports Power Rankings!  Red Sox top Mariners!

Yeah, I know the Spankees have history, and a history of money, behind them. I understand this obsessed assumption that everybody wants to know about the Yankees. I know the Red Sox have a history of folding and the Spanks could be 15 games back and no one would count them out.

I know all that. But this year they're only a couple of games back and haven't been able to close the gap in spite of all their high-priced talent. And the Angels have been getting ripped all year for carrying "overpriced, over-the-hill, former sluggers" in their lineup. Yet they're in first, of everything, and by a pretty decent margin.

 So I'd really like to see more coverage of the Angels. If the team is as crap as "the experts" say, then the Angels' success this year is newsworthy. If the Angels are actually offensive studs, then that's newsworthy. If their pitching is carrying them, then THAT'S newsworthy, especially given the condidtion of major league pitching. And don't wait until they start to lose to write the "Oh, how the mighty have fallen" clichés, because you can't write about the fallen mighty if you never mentioned that they were mighty to begin with.

Of course, Angels fans bear a certain amount of responsibility for this. After the Yanks-Twins game, there were close to 400 fan comments on this site. Angels-Indians? 4 -- count 'em, 4 -- comments. So I can understand that sportswriters might think Angel fans don't exist. That we're as invisible as our team apparently is.

Or it could just be that we have lives and don't have time to sit at a computer all day.Personally, I'd rather play ball than write about it. And praise the Lord I've got two teen-age sons who love to oblige me in that.

Maybe the Angels don't deserve the coverage. Or maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy: Nobody writes about 'em, so nobody knows they should care. All I know is, when I went to J-school in the 70s, we still learned to write the news, not make the news. And when you have the best winning percentage, the most wins, the fewest losses, the best road record, the biggest lead, the best last-10 record, and on and on, all with seemingly nobody in top 10 of anything offensively and one of the worst travel schedules in sports, that merits some ink. Or pixels.