September 30, 2016
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September 30, 2016 Page 1 of 16 Clips (September 30, 2016) September 30, 2016 Page 2 of 16 Today’s Clips Contents FROM THE LA TIMES (Page 3) Angels' Mike Scioscia thinks Mike Trout is an obvious choice for AL MVP FROM THE OC REGISTER (Page 4) Dick Enberg saying farewell to baseball, embraces next creative challenge Angels minor leaguers: Who's on rise and who's not? The giveaway kid: Little Angel fan spreads joy with each baseball he sends FROM ANGELS.COM (Page 13) Trout leaves game after hit by pitch Angels rock A's to complete sweep Richards passing test by throwing to hitters Meyer sets sights on better health, mechanics Angels welcome Astros for season's final series September 30, 2016 Page 3 of 16 FROM THE LA TIMES Angels' Mike Scioscia thinks Mike Trout is an obvious choice for AL MVP Pedro Moura Mike Scioscia has always said the most valuable players each year should come from a contending team, a notable viewpoint this year because his team is not one. “I still feel that way,” the Angels’ longtime manager said this week. “I haven’t changed at all.” But, he said, this season is a rare instance, the nearly 2,400 games to date having coalesced into a set of extenuating circumstances in which Angels center fielder Mike Trout is, in Scioscia’s estimation, the obvious American League MVP. “What Mike does and what Mike has accomplished this year has more impact than the fact that we’re a sub-.500 team,” Scioscia said. “His numbers are incredible. You can’t deny that they’re a notch above anybody else that’s there.” So, the numbers: Trout is fourth in the American League in batting average, first in on-base percentage, third in slugging, fourth in stolen bases, second in OPS, and first in every advanced metric that attempts to ascertain overall value, including wins above replacement. Scioscia would not say which, to him, determine the decision. “There’s a lot that goes into what you consider an MVP,” he said. “I think everyone has different weight they put on different aspects of it. You look at certain individual numbers, and numbers keep growing. You didn’t have OPS 10 years ago. You didn’t have WAR 20 years ago. And also, I think, the performance of the team, all of that is part of the wedge. “But I think Mike’s become the MVP. I think it’s become fairly obvious that as the season keeps going on, he keeps getting stronger and stronger.” Trout, who has never said much about any MVP race, took a fastball off his shoulder Wednesday; X-rays taken Thursday were negative and he said he wants to play, but his status for the weekend finale is in question. Still, the Angels are 15 games under .500, while every other team with a player in the discussion remains in the playoff mix. “One of the components in the wide range of what makes up an MVP is the statistical analysis,” Scioscia said. “Another is obviously how he impacts his team in a positive way. There are other considerations. With every voter, I’m sure some might carry more weight than others.” After the Angels were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in his first year on the job, 2000, Scioscia said he believed Darin Erstad was the best choice for MVP. Although Erstad finished third in the league in wins above replacement, he finished eighth in the MVP balloting and did not garner a first-place selection. The top three finishers’ teams all made the playoffs. Then, when Trout was in contention three years ago, Scioscia said a player on a losing team would have to have “just unbelievable numbers” to deserve the award. “You look at Mike’s numbers and they are so incredible,” Scioscia said this week. “They’ve been incredible for a long time, but they’re so incredible that this year there’s no doubt in my mind he should be the MVP. The way I’m going about analyzing this hasn’t changed one bit. If there was somebody with Mike’s numbers, exactly Mike’s numbers, and a first-place club, I think that would be a determining factor to vote for him.” September 30, 2016 Page 4 of 16 FROM OC REGISTER Dick Enberg saying farewell to baseball, embraces next creative challenge By TOM HOFARTH / STAFF WRITER SAN DIEGO – Dick Enberg cradled his cup of coffee and settled into a chair at the Petco Park media dining room Wednesday afternoon and let out a sigh. “I don’t know how Scully did it,” said Enberg with a weak laugh, referring to the season-long retirement tour that engulfed Dodgers’ Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully. “All I wanted to do today was just get a haircut.” Enberg might have all his bases covered, and has touched them all, but leaving isn’t so easy when everyone wants to make sure they’ve said their proper goodbyes. Thursday, the San Diego Padres had a surprise luncheon in his honor, leading into an on-field ceremony before their final home game of the season and an emotional farewell on his Fox Sports San Diego telecast. Scully had a video tribute and many members of Enberg’s family attended from many points in the world. “Now I gotta think of something brilliant to say,” Enberg said with that twinkle in his eye. “No one can be as elegant as Scully.” Tuesday, Enberg agreed to skip the Padres-Dodgers series opener and drive to Anaheim to make an appearance on the Fox Sports West Angels-Oakland telecast, doing some reminiscing on the air about his time with the Angels on radio and TV from 1969 to 1978, then back in 1985 for the 25th anniversary season. And there’s still a three-game trip to Arizona for the regular season to end. Even though he announced last September that 2016 would be his final year broadcasting Major League Baseball – just months after he was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award for his broadcasting career by the National Baseball Hall of Fame – Enberg, 81, finds a time-crunch rush to the finish for those around him trying to carry out unfinished business. A lot like Scully. ‘THIS ISN’T A RETIREMENT’ “I’m feeling a little sentimental, I can’t help that, but I’m hardly sad at all about what’s happening,” Enberg said. “That’s why I announced it a year ago so it wouldn’t be one of these dramatic endings. “I’m sure I’ll miss all the usual things. The roar of the crowd is our punctuation mark for any good or bad moment. You miss your colleagues. The preparation, which goes back to my teaching days, looking for little personal nuggets or an historical piece of business that might brighten the broadcast. “But I’ve tried to avoid calling all this a retirement. I abhor that term. I’m not leaving or quitting. I’m just looking for another way to be creative.” That will come in many forms. He’s in the process of writing another book based on the Top 10 moments of a broadcasting career, which covers his many years at NBC, CBS and ESPN doing the Olympics, Grand Slam tennis events, Super Bowls, Rose Bowls and Final Fours. Baseball was just a small entry point to his broadcasting career, a package deal for Gene Autry’s KTLA- Channel 5 and KMPC-AM (710) L.A. media empire in the mid-1960s that included the NFL’s Rams and UCLA basketball in John Wooden’s glory years, as well as local boxing. September 30, 2016 Page 5 of 16 Creativity will also come from the fact he and his wife, Barbara, are building a vacation home in Idaho. He also has a new run of the play he wrote, “McGuire,” about to launch in the winter with a new actor playing the role of former Marquette basketball coach and NBC broadcast partner Al McGuire. Fox has also added him to episodes of its new drama series “Pitch,” about the first female big-leaguer – his voice work appears in Thursday’s second episode. And, of course, Enberg wants to teach again. Which university might be fortunate enough to have him? “A very influential friend of mine asked me to list my top 10 choices of where I’d like to teach, and that’s such a fun exercise. I said, ‘How about Harvard?’” Enberg said with a laugh. “Or Duke, or Virginia? Even UCLA. “Romantically, I would want to be a sophomore all over again, live on or near campus, get those leather patches on my sport coat and walk around the campus with that beehive of energy and all those students’ minds keeping me young again.” Fifty years ago, Enberg never thought he’d leave Indiana University, where he got his masters (’58) and doctorate (’62) degrees in health sciences. He expected to get hired as a full-time professor and part- time broadcaster and remain there the rest of his days. Once he realized that wasn’t going to happen, he took up a recruiter’s pitch to check out a job opening at San Fernando Valley State in Northridge (now CSUN), just blocks from where he used to live as a youngster, and teach Health Education 102 as well as become the Matadors assistant baseball coach. That led to the broadcasting itch again, and sportscasting was his calling card.