A close race is good for the Angels

What a difference a year makes.

On July 6 of 2008 the Angels were already approaching untouchable in the American League West.

They led Oakland by six games and Texas by 7 1/2 . Seattle was so far back it was easy to forget it had a pro team.

This year, instead of an easy-breezy summer of baseball, we're in for something better, something much more interesting.

With half the season nearly gone, the AL West is in for an honest, bona fide fight; the Angels lead the division but are ahead of second-place Texas by only one game after Monday night's 9-4 victory.

Let's face it, by this time last year, a win, a loss -- a few wins, a few losses -- hardly mattered.

But Monday's game? It mattered a lot.

The way things are unwinding, a bad game, a hard inning, a misplaced pitch could well end up killing dreams.

One game could spell the difference between playing for the World Series and watching it from the cold comfort of home.

This year -- hard and uncomfortable -- isn't it better? Doesn't a prolonged fight have a way of holding your interest?

The Angels have long been a buttoned-down group that wins a great deal but wins with little in the way of charisma. To catch the eye, to gain the attention of those among us living more than 20 miles from Disneyland, they need competition: someone to loathe, someone to fear and worry about.

This year, competition isn't coming from just the Rangers, visiting sun-bathed Anaheim this week after sweeping Tampa Bay. With little notice, the Mariners are only 3 1/2 games behind the division's lead.

Last season, about now, the regular season was quickly losing all discernible danger.

Oakland faded. Texas collapsed. And the Angels, we know, hit-and-sprinted their way to 100 wins.

By early August they were the first-place team by half a mile. September saw that lead bulge. When the playoffs came they led by 21 games.

How great. How pulse-deadening.

Z-z-z-z-z-z-z!

When it was time to wake, time to rumble, at Fenway in the fall during the playoffs, the team could not rise to the challenge.

2009, what a welcome change.

"This division, it's a whole different tone," said Michael Young, the Rangers third baseman, who was just named to this year's All-Star team. "We've got a team of guys who are playing the right way, and this year, we've got pitching and defense."