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Ian Kinsler once vowed never to play for the Angels. Now he's fitting right in

"I'm not going to lie," Ian Kinsler said. "There were times when I was a young player in the league when I said I'll never play with the Angels."

The team's new second baseman had two months to absorb his December trade from Detroit. But Kinsler still felt a little out of place, sort of like a Rally Monkey wrapped in Dodger blue.

He spent the first eight seasons (2006-13) of his big-league career with Texas, his scrappy play and brash personality stoking an already-heated American League West rivalry with the Angels.

There was one particularly memorable night in Texas, on May 16, 2009, when Kinsler led off opposite then-Angels ace John Lackey.