Did you REALLY think that Mike Scioscia was getting fired this year?

I’m a Fire Scioscia hipster. I’ve been on the Fire Scioscia train since about 2012, man, back in the early days of the growing movement to send off our skipper and replace him with someone, anyone. Even in the midst of an MLB-leading amount of wins in 2014, and the accompanying playoff appearance, I was all “Dude, they should fire Mike Scioscia”.

Then some more time passed, and I slowly began to realize that it just wasn’t going to happen. I still HOPED it would, but it began to become clearer and clearer that Halos fans were going to be stuck with the guy for at least another couple seasons (he has two more to go under his current contract), especially after last season’s public butting of heads between Scioscia and former Angels GM Jerry Dipoto. They had the perfect timing and climate for regime change, but kept plugging away at the Scioscialist movement.

As someone who writes about the Angels publicly, I get asked about Scioscia a lot. “You should write an article about firing Mike Scioscia” is something I hear from my step-dad, a casual Angels fan, just about every time I see him, at which point I release an very pained, exacerbated sigh. There’s just nothing left for me to mine; the well has run dry, not out of lack of wanting, but out of an acceptance of harsh reality. Arte Moreno is the TRUE problem of the franchise, and as long as he’s here, he’s not going to fire Mike Scioscia. End of story.

Well, then 2016 came along, and it lit the Halosphere up with thoughts, rumblings, ramblings and screeds on the Halos’ Scioscia woes. It was like the argument was born anew, with a fresh face of anti-Scioscia activists coming out of the woodwork to admonish the veteran manager. The wave of discontent had itself some more momentum, some more fuel...being last place in the AL West and twenty games out of first place tends to have that affect.

I’m not buying it, though. I was already worn out and let down by the Scioscia firing conclusion that I just didn’t have anything left in my tank by the time this atrocious season came along. The reasons Mike Scioscia isn’t going anywhere are pretty simple:

A) He hasn’t been fired yet...why’s he getting fired now

B) Front office excuses: The former GM as well as owner Arte Moreno have hamstrung the team with bad deals and contracts to the point where Scioscia doesn’t exactly have the best team to field day in, day out

C) Injury excuses: 2016 has had injury after injury, many of them extremely serious.

Arte Moreno, quiet with the media since last winter, finally broke silence last week and more or less alluded to this last point on his way to confirming the ultimate bummer: we are stuck with Sosh.

It’s pretty hard to win when you have no pitching,” the Angels owner said Friday, referring to the spate of injuries that shattered the club’s pitching staff.

While there are some cries from frustrated fans that the Angels need an organizational shakeup – starting with the end of Mike Scioscia’s 17-year run as the manager – Moreno shrugged it off.

“I don’t care who you put on the coaching staff,” he said, “if you don’t have any pitching, it’s pretty hard to win.”

“I don’t care who you put on the coaching staff,” he said, “if you don’t have any pitching, it’s pretty hard to win.”

“I’m not going to say anything (definitive) because I haven’t sat down with Billy (Eppler) or Mike, but I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be (back),” Moreno said. “Mike has been the winningest manager (in Angels history) and he won a world championship. ... He has a contract. My expectation is he will be here, but I haven’t sat down with him.”

That last big there, about how he hasn’t “sat down with him” yet is for all you folks out there keeping that fire alive; that hope that we may see the end of the Scioscia era before the remainder of his contract is up.

I’m not biting, though. Not yet. If there was any time to do it, it’s now, but the Angels seem to have no interest in making a change there, no matter how historically bad the team is getting. So, be honest. Did you REALLY think Mike Scioscia was going to get fired?