The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, formerly the Anaheim Angels and the California Angels and the Los Angeles Angels, have always had an identity issue.

Like the White Sox in Chicago and NBA's L.A. Clippers, the Angels are rarely the most popular team in town. But unlike the Clippers, they deserve a lot better. That's especially true this year, as the Angels are surging with the best record in baseball, coming off a home sweep of the Boston Red Sox over the weekend.

Nevertheless, in a new Harris Poll, the Angels are one of the least popular teams in baseball. Only the Toronto Blue Jays are less popular nationally.

And then, Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Glove poured salt in the wound in a column published Sunday.

"So why is [the series sweep] not a matter of concern in Red Sox Nation?

Because the Angels can't beat the Red Sox in October, that's why.

The great Francisco Rodriguez came on to smother the Red Sox in the ninth inning yesterday, picking up his 39th save by getting Manny Ramírez and Mike Lowell to pop up with two. Rodriguez has a championship ring in his pocket and is threatening to shatter the all-time save mark. But we know if this had been the playoffs, Manny would have been standing at home plate, flipping his bat, raising his arms like Arthur Fielder on the Esplanade, and admiring his home run off K-Rod.

That's just what happens when these two meet in the really big games."

It's an interesting take for the end of July, calling out the Angels for repeatedly fading against their nemesis Red Sox in the playoffs (the Angels lost to Boston in 1986, 2004 and again last season). But every baseball season is a new one, and the Angels seem to have the goods to get over the hump this season. As Orange County Register columnist Jeff Miller responded:

"So, Danny boy, you’re 100-percent correct. See you in October. I’ll be sure to point out then which team is the Angels, since you and your dated perspective won’t recognize them."

Jerome Holtzman never played big-league baseball. But few made a bigger mark on the game than the legendary sports writer, who died over the weekend in Chicago at age 81.

"It's a sad day for everybody in baseball," Commissioner Bud Selig told the Chicago Tribune. "Jerome was a Hall of Famer in everything he did, in every sense of the word."

He covered the White Sox and Cubs for the better part of four decades for the Chicago Sun-Times, and then for the Tribune. He was a columnist for the Sporting News for 30 seasons, and at one point appeared in 1,000 consecutive issues. He also wrote the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on baseball.

And relief pitchers forever will owe him a debt of gratitude. In 1959 Holtzman invented the save, which measures the effectiveness of a relief pitcher. It became an official statistic recognized by Major League Baseball a decade later.

"The reality is, he revolutionized baseball," former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Bill Gleason told the Tribune. "He glamorized the relief pitcher, who was just another guy before [the save rule]. Jerome said not long ago that he was sorry he'd come up with the concept, that it wasn't necessary. But there was no need to apologize. If there were more people who thought like Jerome Holtzman, the newspaper business would be in better shape."

It's Baseball Hall of Fame week, a triumphant one in the lives of Rich "Goose" Gossage and Dick Williams, who will be enshrined this weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y.

But there's another baseball hall of fame out there, just not as well recognized. The Miami Herald recently published an amusing story about the Baseball Reliquary. It's a California-based organization run by a school librarian that trumpets itself as a “traveling museum of baseball curiosities and wonderments.”

Among the prizes in the collection:

• Bill Veeck’s wooden leg;
• A box of baseballs, each bearing the forged signature of Mother Teresa;
• A desiccated hot dog half-eaten by Babe Ruth;
• The jockstrap worn by famous baseball midget Eddie Gaedel;
• A box of prophylactics with an image of Ted Williams on the box;
• The thong panties the superstitious Wade Boggs demanded his mistress continue wearing throughout a weeklong road trip, during which he hit .652.

And other curiosities, of course. Former union leader Marvin Miller hasn't received enough votes in Cooperstown and has said he doesn't want the Hall of Fame honor anymore. But he gladly accepted the salute by the Reliquary.

“A lot of things they do, the real Hall of Fame in Cooperstown should copy,” Miller, a 2003 Reliquary inductee, told the Herald. “I don’t consider myself an establishment person.”

On the same day the Philadelphia Phillies bolstered their rotation for the pennant race by trading for Joe Blanton, a surprise contender in the AL is under fire for keeping a valuable arm in the minors.

Francisco Liriano, an All-Star pick in 2006 when he went 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA, is coming back from Tommy John ligament transplant surgery. And after struggling in April, he was sent to the minors to work on his mechanics.

At Triple-A Rochester, he's 7-0 with a 2.73 ERA in his past nine starts. And the lefty is still waiting for the call to come back to the big club. Liriano's agent, Greg Genske, asked the players' union to investigate why Liriano isn't back in the majors, because to the agent it smells like the Twins are trying to trim Liriano's service time in the majors, which would delay him becoming a free agent by a year.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire doesn't like that characterization.

"I just back into town and I hear all this stuff, and [ESPN writer/commentator] Buster Olney is making my team up now and [Genske] wants to tell me who is going to pitch here," Gardenhire told MLB.com. "No one is going to tell us who to put on our team and no one on ESPN is going to tell us who should pitch for my team. They haven't been here all year. If they had been down there and seen the guy pitch, and then started talking, that's one thing. But to read stats, that's another thing. I recommend they go down there and watch him pitch, come back with a good report for me and walk into my office."

Minnesota has a rotation of Livan Hernandez, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins and Nick Blackburn, and all are pitching reasonably well. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.