Guerrero, one of baseball’s newest Hall of Famers and the first player to go in as an Angel, gave a thank-you speech in two languages and still finished in only 80 seconds.
The drama that followed lasted significantly longer, the Angels overcoming an early three-run deficit to beat Oakland 4-3 on a pair of homers and the scoreless effort of five relievers.
The Angels won three of the four games in that opening series, further justifying the spring training forecasts and launching themselves on a start that would peak at 13-3.
Since then, a bunch of Angels got hurt and several others didn’t hit like they were expected to.