Can Willits swing under water?

The story has made the round so many times that Angels fans can recite it by heart. While he is building a home on his property in Oklahoma, Reggie Willits also constructed a metal building that he planned on using as a batting cage. Since the metal building was up and running last year, the Willits family (Reggie, his wife and his young son Jaxon) decided to make living quarters in the batting cage and that’s where they have resided.

Willits said Friday, that widespread flooding in the area where he lives had reached his property. He said that about three inches of water entered the batting cage/temporary residence, in the middle of the night recently while his wife was sleeping. There was only slight water damage to the new house, which is about a month from being ready.

It looks as if Willits’ house will be ready once the season ends, but he is thinking more along the lines that he will believe it when he sees it.

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Santana still looking for excuses

Ervin Santana returned to the Angels with a flourish last Friday at Boston. He held the Red Sox to just one run and set the Angels up for a victory. They first blew the lead Santana helped them build, but a late rally still gave the Angels the win. Then Santana started acting up, looking every bit of the 24-year-old that he is. Actually, that would be an insult to 24-year-olds.

Santana wouldn’t look at the media as he had his answers to questions translated by first-base coach Alfredo Griffin last Friday. Santana apparently had said his answers to questions in English had been misinterpreted earlier this season so he wanted translator. Fine with me. Makes perfect sense.

Now comes a story in today’s Los Angeles Times where Santana says the media is bad, bad, bad. Please. There is not one Angels beat writer with evil intentions. Not a one. This crybaby just made sure nobody in New York, Boston or Chicago — all tough media markets — ever thinks about signing him one day.

Santana just made himself look like the spoiled young ballplayer who saw some adversity for the first time in his career and did not have any idea how to handle it. He still is handling things poorly, which makes you think that once some adversity comes his way again, he will implode like he did so famously in the first half. A pitcher goes 1-9 on the road to start the season and his biggest gripe is that the media doesn’t know how to do their job? I see only one person in this scenario who isn’t doing his job properly and he isn’t carrying a notebook and a laptop.

It really gets you to think about something. I wonder how much Windex it takes to clean that glass house Santana resides in.

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Anderson in elite company

Garret Anderson’s 10 RBI night Tuesday against the Yankees was a rare feat indeed. He becomes just the sixth player in the last 38 years to get 10 or more in a game. The list is as follows:

12 -Mark Whiten, STL (Sept. 7, 1993) – tied Major League record set by Jim Bottomley with St. Louis (Sept. 16, 1924)
10- Garret Anderson, LAA (August 21, 2007)
10 -Alex Rodriguez, NYY (April 26, 2005)
10 -Nomar Garciaparra, BOS (May 10, 1999)
10- Fredd Lynn, BOS (June 18, 1975)
10- Reggie Jackson, OAK (June 14, 1969)

* American League record is 11 RBI set by Tony Lazzeri (NYY), May 24, 1936
courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau

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Speed cleaning

Between games of today’s doubleheader the cleaning crew seems to have picked up the large pieces of trash in advance of the gates being opened again. All it took was a little over an hour. This being a day-night doubleheader, all the fans were asked to leave Fenway Park after the Red Sox beat the Angels in Game 1. The crowd of 36,686 made it out in a timely fashion and now the last bits of trash are bing picked up in the center field stands.

The field also has been prepared already with the dirt dragged and the foul lines and batter’s box freshly painted. It seemed to be a preparation effort of the highest order. While it sounds like the cleaning crew did a heroic job, remember, Fenway Park is much smaller than Angel Stadium and only the large pieces of trash were cleaned. The night crowd is going to have to deal with peanut shells, sunflower seeds and popcorn on the ground, along with any spilled beer and soft drinks. Hey, you can’t have everything.

So are the Red Sox any better at keeping the stadium rats away? One Angels player, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Red Sox’s rats are still bigger than the Angels’.

The Angels are winding down between games with some players watching the Martin Lawrence comedy “Black Knight.” Maybe somebody is brushing up on how to ride to the rescue after the 8-4 defeat earlier in the day.

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