World Series

Another Angel has been given his halo far too soon.

Rory Markas passed away at his home in Palmdale. He was 54.

Markas spent the last eight years as the primary radio and television play-by-play man for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He also called games for USC's men's basketball team and served as a reporter for FOX 11 KTTV in Los Angeles.

From 1994-97, Markas lead the radio broadcast team for the Los Angeles Clippers. Certainly, he was a true broadcasting veteran and lent his voice to several different sporting realms.

He was an early 30's (in age) slugger, traded several times during the early part of his career until a team in the NL Central finally gave him the opportunity to play full time. At this point, he began to produce big offensive numbers.

Joseph Abstein was a Boston fan until his team moved to Milwaukee in 1953. Joe still roots for the Braves.

He fondly recalls the 1957 World Series in which the Braves beat the Yankees, but once in while, he still has nightmares about the 1958 World Series.

The Yankees Were "Just Another Team" Until the 1957 World Series

I was a Boston Braves fan who was extremely upset when the team moved to Milwaukee in 1953, but I remained a Braves' fan.

The Red Sox were our primary rival because we played in the same city.

Boston sports started off the decade in a bit of a rut. None of the Big Four teams had won a championship since 1987, and only the Patriots reaching a championship game in that time. Ten years and six championships and later, it's safe to say being a Boston sports fan this decade has been pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay good.

But with such success also came heartbreak.

Giants' fan Larry Levensen always argued that Leo Durocher could run rings around Casey Stengel when it came to managing. Durocher never blew a World Series the way Stengel did in 1960.

Casey Stengel's Error

Nothing was better than seeing the Yankees beat the Pirates in just about every category in the 1960 World Series, except for the only category that counts, which is games won.

The Colorado Rockies are never going to go after big-name free agents. They will never be in a bidding war with the Yankees and Red Sox for the highest priced players.

Those days are over.

After the failed signings of Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, whom the Rockies spent nearly $175 million on in 2001, the franchise shifted gears and decided to build from within.

During the 1950s, the Yankees had a major league farm team named the Kansas City Athletics.

Larry Levensen is a Giants' fan who resented the Yankees because he knew that it was almost impossible to beat both the Yankees and their Kansas City farm team.

"I Will Probably Die Waiting for a World Championship ."

I was only four years old when the Giants won the 1954 World Series.

In the weeks since the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series championship, the haters have been out in full force with the usual and increasingly tiresome cries of "They bought another championship!" 

These cries almost overwhelmingly come from those under the age of thirty, whose memories don't stretch back before 1996.  The conceit and arrogance of youth, however, don't overcome the truth.

A survey of over 1.3 million people across the country has just been released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranking the 50 states and Washington D.C. on how happy the residents of each locale are.  It used data collected over four years.  Out of the 51 states and D.C., New York came in last at 51st, Connecticut second to last at 50th, and New Jersey came in at 47th.