Image from Orange County Library.

It’s a balmy mid-80s day in Anaheim, where the Red Sox are trickling into Angel Stadium of Anaheim (apparently, everything about the Angels must be explained with geographic detail) in anticipation of a pre-Division Series workout this afternoon. The grounds crew is overseeing the painting of the ALDS logo on the field, and the Space Mountain-style waterfall is cascading behind centerfield against a backdrop of Southern California freeway. California traffic is, like, so picturesque.

We’re just about to head into the clubhouses, so I hope to be back in touch regularly with updates throughout the day, particularly about the status of Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew.

When last the Sox saw the Angels on July 30, the team from California had just acquired Mark Teixeira. The Angels first baseman has been pretty good since that moment: he led the A.L. (minimum 150 plate appearances) in OPS with a 1.081 mark, and was second (to Melvin Mora?!) with a .358 average. (A certain former Red Sox outfielder who now plays in Los Angeles led the majors from July 30 to the end of the season with a 1.217 OPS.) Suffice it to say that the Angels lineup looks a bit different this year than it did in the 2007 Division Series.

As the day progresses, I also hope to figure out whether the ballpark is still referred to in the parlance of our times as “The Big A,” or whether that moniker was dumped when the stadium sold out and renamed itself Edison Field from 1997-2003. That, and the baseball stuff.