OC Register: Vaughn could serve as parade float

[Carissa]

Vaughn could serve as parade float
By RANDY YOUNGMAN
The Orange County Register
ANAHEIM
http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/oc...onth=10&day=28

Dear Mo,

Hope you enjoyed the World Series from the comfort of your couch, with built-in snack tray, back on the East Coast, where you say baseball intensity reigns supreme.

We personally want to thank you for asking to be traded, because that opened a position for Scott Spiezio to play full time in 2002. All he did was flash Gold Glove-caliber defense at first, drive in more runs than you did in New York during the regular season and bat an otherworldly .733 (11 for 15) with runners in scoring position during postseason play. He tied an all-time postseason record with 19 RBIs, too.

We also want to thank you, because the acquisition of pitcher Kevin Appier - we don't know how Bill Stoneman tricked the Mets into giving him up - solidified our starting rotation, and he won 14 games during the regular season.

Most of all, we would like to invite you to Tuesday's championship parade down Katella Avenue. Troy Percival especially wants you to come to see the new banners on the wall at Edison Field.

We want you to know we have no hard feelings about your tirade in the New York Post last spring, when you used 35 expletives to express your feelings about Percival, who had questioned your leadership during your three injury-marred seasons in Anaheim.

Remember? You said, "Who the (expletive) is Troy Percival? ... He hasn't done (expletive) to lead them anywhere. I got hardware. I got playoff appearances. I got an MVP. I've been to the playoffs twice. What the hell has he done? ... Ain't none of them done a damn thing in this game, bottom line. They ain't got no flags hanging at (expletive) Edison Field, so the hell with them."

In case you weren't watching this month, Percy was on the mound when we clinched a wild-card berth in Texas; he was on the mound when we clinched the AL Division Series against the Yankees at Edison; he was on the mound when we clinched the AL Championship Series against the Twins at Edison; and he was on the mound at Edison to save our curse-cracking 4-1 victory in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series Sunday night, Oct. 27, 2002, at precisely 8:19 p.m. You probably heard the roar all the way out on the East Coast.

"Wouldn't have had it any other way," Percival said Sunday night, clutching the world championship trophy under his left arm and smoking a victory cigar, still dripping from the champagne Shawn Wooten had poured over his head. "I wanted to be out there if we won or lost. Last three outs are always the toughest to get."

Sometimes, the best trades really are the ones you make.

So we would like you to be here when we raise the World Series championship banner at the conclusion of Tuesday's parade.

If for some reason you can't make it, we will take a photo of Percy hanging the banner and send it to you.

"I'll pay for his plane ticket to bring him back here," Angels pitcher Jarrod Washburn said Sunday night during a private moment in the Angels' wet-and-wild clubhouse celebration.

For the parade?

"No, for opening day (next season), so he can watch us unveil the banner," Washburn said, smiling as devilishly as a champion Angel can.

If it'll make you feel any better, Mo, not everybody here wants to rub it in your face.

"Mo was a good guy; I'm not going to say anything bad about him," Spiezio said when I told him about Washburn's wish to fly out Mo for the championship festivities. "I think that whole thing in the (New York) paper got blown way out of proportion. I know trading him opened up a spot for me, and I'm grateful for that, but I'm not going to knock Mo."

In fact, we all wish you were here to enjoy this with us. Turns out, you did help get us to the top of the mountain. Thanks again.

Love you, man.

Your ex-teammates, the 2002 World Series champions

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