BOSTON -- The Angels had walked off the field for the final time this season. All but one of them.
Chone Figgins did not move. He stood alone at third base, hands on hips, staring across the diamond. The Boston Red Sox were full of life, hopping atop each other. Figgins was a portrait in still life.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "Once again, we're on their field, and they're celebrating.
"I'm just wondering: How does this keep happening?"
This was the Angels' year. This was their time.
Yet Boston knocked the Angels out of the playoffs, again. They failed to get back to the World Series, again.
That World-Series-or-bust trade for Mark Teixeira? Bust.
They are the Atlanta Braves for a new generation, an unhappy label not easily removed. This was their chance to stake their claim as an elite franchise, maybe their best chance, maybe the last chance before Teixeira and Francisco Rodriguez cash in this winter.
"You can't say we'll be in a position like this again," Torii Hunter said.
There was disappointment and frustration in every corner of the Angels' clubhouse, defiance and anger in some.
"We lost to a team that was not as good as we are," John Lackey said.
Arte Moreno, the owner, refused to be consoled by the Angels' first 100-victory season.
"You win those games because you want to have an opportunity to win a championship," Moreno said. "Let's put it this way: I hate to . . . lose."
As the Angels upgraded from mediocrity to excellence in the early years of this decade, Manager Mike Scioscia repeatedly defined the goal in two words: perennial contender.
They modeled themselves after the Braves, a team that sustained success by replenishing its roster from the minor leagues rather than splurging on free agents every year.
But fans are all about results. When getting into the playoffs becomes routine, bowing out of them better not.
The Braves boast, and rightfully so, about 14 consecutive division championships.
Their fans focus on one World Series victory. That's one for 14, a batting average of .071.
The Angels won the World Series in 2002, with no expectations. They have won four division titles in the six seasons since then.
Their October record, under the weight of expectations: 5-15, including 1-9 against the Red Sox. The Angels have raised the stakes so high that success is measured by the World Series.
