Angels in the outfield... and the nosebleeds.

It took half a season, but we finally made it out to the Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

To give you a little background on my Angels fan-ship: I officially became an Angels fan when I worked for their triple-A team, the Salt Lake Bees, back in 2007. It was such a great summer, getting paid to work in a fun minor league atmosphere and watch baseball games. Highlights included meeting players on the Angels' 40-man roster, hosting events for kids with the athletes, and having a mascot drop to a knee and propose to me on the field between innings. Ah, those were some good times.

Needless to say, it's hard to cheer on a team and its players (especially the ones who kept getting pulled up to the majors) every day for an entire season and not become a fan of the franchise. I've been rooting for the Angels ever since! Happily for me, Matt had no prior commitments to any other MLB team, so he hopped on my bandwagon. Last year, we caught a spring training game in Arizona and were super excited at the prospect of watching the Angels play on their home turf once we moved to California.

I was even more excited when the big day finally arrived! Matt and I proudly donned our Angels attire and prepared for a great day at the ballpark. The fact that said ballpark totally rocks was a major added bonus. I mean, an "infield" at the entrance--how fun is that? The little kids were loving it and, admittedly, so were we. (The concept and design, that is. Don't worry--we weren't actually running around the bases. Although, we might have been slightly tempted to have a friendly little race.)

We finally headed inside and made our way up to our seats. And when I say up, I mean UP! We were spoiled with 8th-row first baseline seats at Dodger Stadium, but we were on our own for this one. Since we're newlyweds, that equaled nosebleed $25 seats that I found for 50% off. But hey, it's still the same ballgame! And we kind of like the alternative birds-eye views of the stadium.

One thing we did not like, however, were the Angel dogs. In that area and that area alone, the Dodgers have them beat--by a long shot. I'd rather have my Angels and yucky hot dogs than the Dodgers and their delicious ones any day, though!

The game itself was an exciting one that came down to the very last pitch. I'm not going to tell you how it ended, but lets just say I was wishing I had some of those magical arm-flapping powers a la Angels in the Outfield. On a happier note--a good ol' former Bee, Howie Kendrick, hit one out of the park for the Angels. Way to represent, Howie!

As a bit of a consolation prize, the Angels and their fans were greeted with a lovely sunset as they left the stadium.

Alas, with the Angels currently 8 games behind Texas, it's probably time to start channeling Roger Bomman and his famous request:

"So, maybe you can help them win a little. Amen."