The last time major league baseball was seen in Southern California, it was climbing out a back window and racing into winter, its arms full of stolen hopes, its cruelty snuffing a historic roar into stony silence.
It fled Dodger Stadium in the final hours of the final game of the World Series, trampling baseball's best record on its way out, requiring only two innings to extend a 29-year Dodgers championship drought.
It fled Angel Stadium about a month earlier, dragging its residents from playoff contention in the final week of the regular season, extending the Angels streak without a playoff victory to eight long years.