Raul Arias

It was a trip around the bases that Raul Arias, riding inside his son's cap, must have really enjoyed. George Arias, the Angels' rookie third baseman carries a picture of his father, a former Mexican League player who died of cancer when George was 11 years old, in his hat. And in the first inning Thursday night, George and his dad took a trot after his drive to center cleared the fence for a three-run homer.

It was a trip around the bases that Raul Arias, riding inside his son's cap, must have really enjoyed. George Arias, the Angels' rookie third baseman carries a picture of his father, a former Mexican League player who died of cancer when George was 11 years old, in his hat. And in the first inning Thursday night, George and his dad took a trot after his drive to center cleared the fence for a three-run homer.

Chivas USA and Chivas de Guadalajara spent 70 minutes Wednesday night passing a round ball across a more or less green Rose Bowl field and accomplished virtually nothing. Zilch. Nada. Then Guadalajara and its fans came to life and the Mexican club left the stadium with a comfortable 2-0 victory courtesy of goals by Omar Arellano. Before that, though, it was dreadful. If referee Paul Ward had had the freedom and the foresight to end it after 45 minutes, the majority of the announced crowd of 22,879 would not have complained.

Theodore Roosevelt, soldier, author and proto-eco-tourist, saw numerous possibilities here. So when he inherited the presidency in 1901, he threw his weight behind plans for a canal. Ninety-nine years later, Roosevelt's strategic foresight looks pretty good. But I doubt he ever imagined a trip like the one I just took to the canal zone.