Whenever I am struggling with writer's block or just insanely bored, I like to take a look back through the traffic sources for the blog, Sometimes the keyword referrals provide me with an idea but most of the time they just provide a good chuckle, like the time someone cam across the site by Googling "is Jeff Mathis a homosexual." That was my personal favorite. Anyway, I was engaging in this silly exercise tonight and realized that the list of keyword referrals provided a pretty good recap of this last Halo season. See for yourself (capitalization and punctuation added, because it annoyed me to not have it):
"Mike Trout" This was the number one referral to the site. It is almost like he is important or something.
"When does Mike Trout become a free agent?" Again with this Trout guy. Only one season and already Angel fans are worried about losing Trout to free agency. What does that say about our fanbase?
"Fat catcher jig" Bobby Wilson will be missed. Clearly he captured the hearts and minds of the fans in his time with the team.
"Why does Mickey Hatcher still have a job?" I think that one pretty much explains itself.
"You're doing it wrong" As does that one.
"Texas sucks" I'm proud of you all.
"Torii Hunter contract" There were a few variations on the Torii Hunter contract/free agent/extension thing. I'm pretty sure most of the search terms were typed using tears, not fingers.
"Fire Mike Scioscia" Ah yes, the big one. I'm pleased to say that this term did not rank highly on the referral list either because I refused to support that movement or because that movement did not have the support that some might have liked us to believe. Or both. Hopefully that phrase will rank even lower next year… but I have the feeling it won't.
"Fire Mike Butcher" I'll be honest, I expect this to be one of the top keyword searches next year.
"Mike Trout catch" Yes, but which one?
"LA Angels overrated" How rude, sir. I take great offe- Nevermind, you're totally right.
"What happened to Vernon Wells" We would all like to know. There were some other more derogatory Wells-related terms, but this one really got me because it isn't just someone piling on, it is people legitimately baffled that he just forgot how to play baseball.
"PMA CJ WIlson" This one only got four hits. Methinks CJ's PMA hasn't quite infected the fans as much as we had hoped. Pitching poorly probably had a lot to do with that.
"Trout the rational choice for MVP" That is shockingly specific and shockingly, well, rational.
"Free Mark Trumbo" Remember when this was a thing? Gosh, that seems like it was ages ago when the Halos couldn't figure out that he should play everyday. Maybe it is just me, but that whole month of April seems like an entirely different season altogether.
"How good is Mike Trout?" All the goods. He is all the goods.
"Howie Kendrick photography" You may not know this, but Kendrick picked up photography as a hobby this season (as well as grounding into double plays). Why someone would be searching for this is beyond me.
"Lyle Spencer fired" No comment.
"What is the matter with LA Angels pitching?" First off, who are these people that search in full questions? Second, who would have ever guessed before the season that several people would have to ask this question?
"Bobby Abreu to get 400 plate appearances" That worked out well for everyone, right?
"Angels closed door meeting" By now I trust that you are sensing a theme with the tone of these questions. You'd think the Angels won 69 games this season, not 89.
"Arte Moreno idio" Just to prove that nobody is above reproach after this disappointing season, though I should say I found nothing negative related to Dipoto. That is probably just the first year GM honeymoon affect though.
"Does Hisanori Takahashi speak English?" Yep, it is starting to get weird.
"Kevin Goldstein gauche" Gauche searching?
"Mark Trumbo team douchebag" We are almost there.
"Mike Trout steroids" Almost.
"Peter Bourjos being under used" Wait, what? How did this fall all the way down into the "crazy people search terms" zone? And how was this not searched more?
"The monkey who wanted to write satire" That's more like it. And that is probably where we should end this. Until next year.
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