By Adam Dodge, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer -
It took nearly five months, but the Angels managed to pass the Oakland Athletics in the standings and will head into this weekend's four game showdown against their division rival with no worse than a share of first place in the American League West. At this moment the Angels hold a one-game lead with both teams in action tonight.
Thursday's start to the series marks the beginning of the home stretch, one that figures to be the most exciting for the Angels in five years. While it is certainly possible the teams can split the four games and head into September neck and neck, a dominant performance by either team would create some much coveted separation.
In this edition of Foe Fodder, we will take a closer look at some of the key foes standing in the Angels' way on their march to their first division title since 2009.
OF - Coco Crisp
When he's not dropping bloopers out of the reach of Howie Kendrick, Coco is a well respected member of the Crips' community. His gang name is Beetle.
OF - Josh Reddick
After a long day on the diamond, Josh spends his free time hanging drywall in Modesto.
IF - Eric Sogard
Eric pulls double duty for the A's as a slick fielding middle-infielder and team CPA. He also dabbles in IT and makes the best gosh darn pina coladas north of Solvang.
SP - Sonny Gray
Sonny likes legos, fig newtons and his best friend Timmy. His favorite subject is social studies because his teacher Mr. Warren is really cool.
C - Derrick Norris
Has wrecked teammate and roommate Josh Donaldon's IROC Z28 three times. Worst roommate ever! Works the swing shift as head bouncer at Red Hots Burlesque across the bay in San Francisco.
Rob Neyer
From Wikipedia - In September 2004, Neyer used a pseudonym ("Ike Farrell") on Amazon.com to write a negative customer review of One Day at Fenway, a then-new baseball book by Steve Kettmann.[22] Neyer subsequently took offense to positive reviews that he believed Kettmann's friends and relatives had posted.[23]
"How did this project go so terribly wrong?" Farrell/Neyer wrote. "Presumably the author wound up with plenty of source material, and so I can only assume that he [Kettmann] lacked either the talent or the time (or both) to shape the material into a decent piece of non-fiction."[24]
A Newsday newspaper reporter quickly identified Neyer publicly as the actual reviewer.[23] On September 6, Neyer issued an article explaining his actions, "I had such a visceral reaction to Kettmann's book that I felt compelled to do something" and so, under a "pen name" he decided to write a customer review on Amazon.com.[23] "I didn’t even imagine that it could do anybody any good if I wrote as myself", Neyer rationalized.[23]
Kettmann responded: "The thing that I find strange about all of this is that [Oakland A's general manager] Billy Beane, someone who I thought Rob Neyer respects, read my book cover to cover and told me he loved it."[citation needed]