Too Much Monkey Business for Me To Be Involved In

The Angels are having a tremendous postseason and are now poised to represent their league in the World Series. However, I am pulling as hard as I possibly can for the moribund Twins for one reason and one reason only, the Rally Monkey.

I have to admit that I chuckled the first few times I heard about the seraphic simian. The absurdity of having a monkey on a scoreboard inciting fans to go rip roarin' mad was appealing to me. But as FOX has Olympic-profiled the postseason to death (I feel sorry for Darryl Kile's son--I just don't need his one day as bat boy to be referred to after every out), the monkey has been a bit overexposed. The once-cute Rally Monkey rally has now been played more times than Joe Thiessman's leg being wishboned. We are given graphics at least once a game explaining the rules of rally monkey use. Fans wearing monkey paraphernalia are featured incessantly. Finally, during the Angels' go-ahead drive today, a child dressed in a monkey suit appears in the stands behind home plate and becomes the cynosure of the easily amused FOX commnetators, Steve Lyons and Thom Brennaman. I've seen home movies that feature fewer shots of that person's own child than FOX decided was necessary to subject the baseball watching public to.

I am glad for the Angels fans. They finally have a team to be excited about and are clearly enjoying themselves. But I will be hoping as hard a s I can that the Twins come back to whip the tar out of them if only not to have a Barbara Walter's up-close and personal interview of the Rally Monkey featured in the World Series.