Kind of looks like fastball in and Bonds is like, cool, I'll send that to Chino Hills.

Slide her down, strike three swinging.

That's what Karrot had, right?

He had the two pitches, both were nasty and he was fantastic.

It's October 2002, Giants at Angels, game six.

This is Remember That Game, the podcast about sporting events that take you on a journey,

and maybe chart the path of the zeitgeist.

I'm your host Thomas Emerick, and my guest is Representative Mike Levin of California's 49th congressional district.

And you grew up in Southern California.

You have the Angels return home from San Francisco Bay in 2002, down three games to two.

Having just lost by 12 runs, you'll need the rally monkey.

But did it seem like Padres and Dodgers fans had your back in unity?

I think they did, Thomas, because, you know, we had a mutual enemy in the Giants, particularly for Dodgers fans.

And the Angels Dodgers Freeway Series rivalry, you know, was pretty one-sided all those years.

I grew up first eight years of my life in Long Beach, then we moved when I was eight, South Orange County.

My grandpa was a big Angels fan, and so I grew up going to the Big A with him, and 86 was really the first memory that I had when we were one strike away from the World Series.

And Dave Henderson crushed our spirits with a home run that ultimately led to our losing the series.

And, of course, the Mets wound up winning that year.

But that was as close as we came

and we didn't even make the playoffs between 87 and 2002. And so it was it was not always easy

being Angels fan in the 90s, but we were thrilled to make it in 2002. And think that we weren't a, you know, a real threat to the Dodgers all those years.

I think the Padres were also happy.

...