Angels

For all the glitz and glam found within the rosters of Southern California’s successful sports teams, there is only one bit of bling that truly interests them.They play for rings. They build for rings. They’re irrelevant without rings.They know these championships are not about style, they’re about substance, and they win them with more than the gleam of stars, but also the grit of role players, of depth, of team.The ball from the Dodgers’ last title game ended up in the hands of backup catcher Austin Barnes. Arguably…

SAN DIEGO —  The Angels have hit a crossroads.Mike Trout had surgery to address his hamate fracture on Wednesday and is not expected back for at least a month. “Just talked to Mike. He just got out of surgery, actually, and he feels great. Surgery went well. We spoke to the doctor a minute ago, but sounds like everything went great,’’ Angels manager Phil Nevin said. Anthony Rendon, who was using a crutch to walk, was not placed on the injured list Wednesday, though the Angels will continue to evaluate him. The one note…

The Angel Stadium crowd had plenty of reasons to roar on a sunny Sunday afternoon.Their award-winning sluggers, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, hit mammoth home runs. One of their up-and-coming players, Mickey Moniak, also crushed a home run. Their young starter, Reid Detmers, was brilliant. Their closer, Carlos Estévez, picked up his 21st save in as many chances this season.By all accounts, Sunday was a good day for the Angels, who beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2 and ended a four-game losing streak, sending a reminder…

Half a century ago, the greatest of all the Angels broadcasters punctuated his call of every victory with four of the most famous words in franchise history: “The halo shines tonight!”Dick Enberg’s exclamation point was not a hokey catch phrase. It was a fact.The “Big A” is not just a nickname for Angel Stadium. There is an actual big A in the parking lot. It is 230 feet tall, topped by a halo that lights up, visible to fans as well as to motorists on three nearby freeways.When the Angels win, the halo lights up. When…

The Angels 24-run margin of victory over the Rockies represents the third-highest win total since 1900. On Aug. 22, 2007, the Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles in the second game of a doubleheader by a score of 30-3, a 27-run difference. On June 8, 1950, the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns by a score of 29-4, a 25-run differential. The Angels 24-run margin of victory over the Rockies represents the third-highest win total since 1900. On Aug. 22, 2007, the Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles in the second…

When Christine and the Queens first appeared in the anglophone world in 2015, the name was an alias for Héloïse Letissier: a French artist with an extraordinary line in immaculately cool, obliquely catchy, 80s-flavoured synthpop that mused on queer identity. By 2018, Letissier had become Chris – the eponymous, androgynous protagonist of her funky second album. Then, last year, the musician announced he was now using male pronouns as well as another moniker: Redcar, also the title character of his third album, Redcar les…

The world may be perpetually teetering on the brink of doom, but at least we have Aziraphale and Crowley coming back to help us cope. Season two of Prime Video’s Good Omens, co-created by Neil Gaiman and starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant, drops in July—and the first trailer is here now.Good Omens Season 2 - Official Trailer | Prime VideoBilled as “a mystery that takes us from before the Beginning, to biblical times, grave robbing in Victorian Edinburgh, the Blitz of 1940s England, all the way through to modern…

After the dust settled on Shohei Ohtani’s start against the Miami Marlins on Saturday at Angel Stadium, his final line depicted another commanding, six-inning outing. Yet, the two-way star assessed it as unexceptional.“Not good, not bad, just average overall,” Ohtani said after the Angels’ 8-5 loss in 10 innings to the Marlins. “I was able to get through six, so that was good, but I felt like I could have prevented some of those runs.”The Angels did not lose because of Ohtani. That happened in the 10th inning, when four…

Enjoy this while you can, the days when the very air at Angel Stadium feels full of magical possibilities because Shohei Ohtani is pulling double duty on the pitching mound and at the plate.Days like Sunday, when he struck out nine and yielded merely two hits to the American League Central division-leading Minnesota Twins in a six-inning performance that was outstanding by every measure beside his own. And that doesn’t take into account his single to center in the first inning and the intentional walk he drew in the…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeHilary Swank finds a renewed sense of purpose in the first official trailer for her forthcoming film Ordinary Angels.Based on a true story, the poignant movie sees Swank lead as Sharon, a struggling hairdresser who becomes invested in helping a recently widowed father, Ed (Alan Ritchson), raise his two young daughters. Shortly after his wife’s death, Ed’s youngest becomes critically…