FanPost

A Curse of the Angels?



I am a huge (with a capital H) huge fan of the Angels just like everyone else on this site. But recently I have discovered that possibly there could be a curse of the Angels. It's not like the Curse of the Bambino or the Curse of the Billy Goat or a Curse of the Black Sox or anything like that. This curse actually goes beyond the sport of baseball.

You may have seen a story of a possible Angels' curse elsewhere on the web but in case you didn't, I'll run it by you.

There are numerous stories that Angel Stadium (formerly known as Anaheim Stadium and Edison International Field) was built on Indian burial ground. This is possibly how the curse started.

The bad luck started in 1965 when rising rookie pitcher Dick Wantz died of a brain tumor. Two years later, another promising young reliever was paralyzed in a car crash, Minnie Rojas, which killed his wife and two kids and ended his career.

The curse reared its ugly head again five years later when another car crash claimed the life of infielder Chico Ruiz. In 1974, pitcher Bruce Heinbechner died in another car crash during Spring Training. In 1977, shortstop Mike Miley was killed in yet another car crash (this is getting ridiculous). Then just a year later one of the Angels' star players Lyman Bostock was shot and killed, mistaken for someone else while riding in (of all things) a car.

The curse didn't really come back (unless you count numerous losing seasons and heartbreaking playoff losses) until 1986 when the Halos, one strike away from advancing to the World Series, suffered another heartbreaking loss on a Dave Henderson homer to give the Sox the lead and eventually the Series. Donnie Moore, the pitcher who gave up the HR was tormented by it, so much so that in 1989, he shot his wife before killing himself. Then in 1992, the team bus crashed injuring 13 and nearly killing manager Buck Rodgers but thankfully everyone survived.

And then after all that, it seemed that the curse had been shaken, especially after the Angels first World Series Championship in 2002. Some say the Rally Monkey defeated it.

And all was well in Angel Town. That is....... .until last April when our top prospect and seemingly ace of our pitching staff for the future, Nick Adenhart, was killed by a drunk driver just hours after he pitched in his first game of the season. It seems as though the curse may have returned. Do you believe?

I'd like to thank http://adventurenotes.blogspot.com/2009/04/angels-curse.html, http://www.slate.com/id/2072685/, and http://www.ocregister.com/articles/angels-accident-moore-2359264-year-heinbechner for helping me out with my research on this subject.

This FanPost is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.

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