Five years ago tomorrow, I watched my first, and as yet only, live game of baseball. I had opportunities to watch a game in New York the previous year, but I decided, having followed the Angels since baseball was first broadcast live in the UK in 1996, I wanted my first game to be at Angel Stadium. A two day detour from a working vacation at the poker World Series in Las Vegas provided the opportunity.

It is unlikely that anyone there that night, apart from me, has any recollection of the game, a 7-6 victory over the Tigers. No-one hit a home run, Sele pitched like Sele, most of the runs came via the sac fly, and the most exciting event was Julio Ramirez trying to convert a triple into an inside the park home run, and being thrown out by fifteen feet.

And it's unlikely that many of the fifteen thousand people there gave the Angels (16 - 16 at the start of play) much chance of going all the way in 2002, but the rest, as they say, is history.