Confidence in Father Time

Sometimes we blame the East Coast bias for discussing the mediocre Boston Red Sox more than they deserve for an also-ran team that has had a few lucky seasons. Sometimes, though, we do it ourselves. We get wrapped up in the aura and mystique of the AL East's Junior Yankees when we play them and we lose sight of who we really care about: our own players. When the Angels lose to the Red Sox we only blame the bad mojo, the umpires, the dorky dimensions of the Fenway Horsetrail Facility they play in and less so goes the blame to our own darn guys failure to live up to all the glory that belongs to a man when he dons a halo in order to step on the field.

When we do beat Mini-Evil Empire®, the euphoria of vanquishing Dave Henderson often blinds us to the men who did it on our behalf. So that we may celebrate, our guys had to stand around in the dingiest clubhouse, sit in the dinkiest dugout and deal with the dorkiest sore-winner fanbase in all of sports. for once, I gotta emphasize, it is not about US or about the bad guys. Let's look at the leader of the pack who made today's awesome shutout the boost in this team's confidence in itself. I speak of course of Father Time himself, Joel Pineiro.

Pineiro's been the pride of Puerto Rico since before his debut in August of 2000. Back then he was enemy Seattle Mariner but the years of power pitching took him down a long and often lonesome path. HE is confident enough in his pitcherly rebranding to credit Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan for guiding him into sinkerballhood. The rare stroke of inspiration for Tony Reagins brought JP to the Angels on a two year deal for $8 million per. He had over 3 WAR last season and after some shoulder stiffness delayed his '11 debut he has come out of the gate firing the bat-flattening bouncer that gives us all confidence in this team's chances. A great outing Saturday was followed by over 6 innings of shutout ball this afternoon in Fenway hitter's paradise and his first W of the season. He will be 33 at the end of September, so for us old guys he stands as a reminder that just learning one trick late in the game can revive our chances.