By Ron Griffitts
Contributing Columnist
In the 2002 World Series, the Anaheim Angels 99-63 who had never been in a Fall Classic in their 42 years of existence, were managed by Mike Scioscia, a former Dodger catcher with Bill Stoneman as general manager.
The Giants were managed by later manager of the Reds and a former longtime major league player, Dusty Baker, with Brian Sabean as general manager and led on offense by Barry Bonds 46 HR, 110 RBI, 117 RS, .370 BA, Jeff Kent 37 HR, 108 RBI, .313 BA, former Red Reggie Sanders who appeared in the previous year’s World Series for the D-backs, 23 HR, 85 RBI, and current Reds’ manager third baseman David Bell 20 HR, 73 RBI, 82 RS.
Their pitching staff consisted of Russ Ortiz 14-10, Kirk Reuter 14-8, Ryan Jensen 13-8, Jason Schmidt 13-8 with Robb Nen in the bullpen 6-2, 2.20 ERA, 43 SV, Tim Worrell 8-2, 2.25 ERA and Felix Rodriguez 8-6.
The Angels were led by Tony Glaus 30 HR, 111 RBI, 99 RS, Garrett Anderson 29 HR, 123 RBI, .306 BA, 93 RS, Tim Salmon 22 HR, 88 RBI, David Eckstein 21 SB, 107 RS, .293 BA and Darin Erstad 23 SB, 99 RS.
Their pitching staff was led by Ramon Ortiz 15-9, Jarrod Washburn 18-6, Kevin Appier 14-12, and John Lackey 9-4 with Troy Percival 4-1, 1.92 ERA, 40 SV and Ben Weber 7-2, 2.54 ERA, 7 SV in the bullpen.
Game one was held in Edison Field in Anaheim with Jarrod Washburn and Jason Schmidt as the starters. Most of the games’ runs were scored on home runs with the Giants getting three, one each from Barry Bonds, Reggie Sanders and the game winner from J. T. Snow with one on in the sixth inning. The Angels got two from Tony Glaus as the Giants win 4-3.
Still in Anaheim game two was a high scoring affair with the Angels jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning which included a steal of home by Brad Fullmer. The Giants answered in the second inning with a three run home run by Reggie Sanders and a solo round tripper by David Bell to make the score 5-4.
The teams traded home runs by Jeff Kent and Tim Salmon and in the fifth the Giants got four more runs which a included an RBI single by David Bell and the teams are tied 9-9 until Tim Salmon added a two run homer in the eighth making it 11-9.
Barry Bonds homered in the top of the ninth with the bases empty and the Angels win 11-10 to even the series at one game each.
For game three, the teams went up the coast to Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco where the Angels continued scoring runs and despite home runs by
Barry bonds and Rich Aurilia won 10-4 led by three hits by Scott Spezio to lead in the series two games to one.
Game four was tied 3-3 until David Bell singled in the winning run in the eighth inning for a 4-3 Giants’ win to even the series at 2-2.
In game five still in San Francisco, the Giants erupted for three runs in both the first and second innings off of Jarrod Washburn on their way to a 16-4 win, helped by two home runs by Jeff Kent and one by Rich Aurilia to take a three games to two series lead.
In game six back in Anaheim, the Giants took a 5-0 lead with the help of home runs by Shawon Dunston and Barry Bonds into the bottom of the seventh inning. The Angels rallied with a three run home run by Scott Spiezio in the seventh and Darin Erstad got a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the eighth to make the score 5-4.
The Angels got two more runs in that inning both unearned on a double by Tony Glaus and the final score was 6-5 Angels to tie the series and force a seventh game.
That game showed how important the bullpen is in a World Series as had the Giants’ relievers held the Angels they would have been World Series champions.
In game seven, the Angels jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three innings with the help of a three run double by Garret Anderson and Angels’ relievers pitched scoreless baseball the rest of the way and Anaheim wins their first World Series title.
Tony Glaus got the series MVP and the Giants returned in 2010 while the Angels have not been in a World Series since 2002.
Dusty Baker, who spent 19 years as a player and was the Reds’ manager for six years, is in his 24th year as a manager now with the Houston Astros for a total of 43 years in major league baseball.
The Astros are having a good season so Dusty may get back to the playoffs once again.
Statistics for this article were from Baseball-reference.com. and Wikipedia.
Ron Griffitts a contributing columnist for The Daily Advocate.
