Dearly beloved, thank you for being with me here today as we gather to mourn the end of the Angels' 2011 season.

I think I speak for us all when I say we knew that this day was coming.  I do, though, take solace in the fact that the untimely death of this year's championship dream took so long to come to pass.

It seems like only yesterday that many of us were writing the Angels off before the season even began.  We bemoaned the weak lineup.  We questioned the lack of depth in the bullpen.  We chastised Tony Reagins for all of his off-season bumblings.  A division title or a playoff berth seemed like a pipe dream back then.

Yet here we stand today, just two games away from the end of the Major League Baseball regular season.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I never would have guessed that Angels would have remained in contention for so long.  Considering where we all started, this should be cause for celebration, so why does this official elimination hurt so much?

The September 27th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Trumbo out for the season with a broken foot, Hunter can't sleep after the weekend choke job, Eckstein returned to Angel Stadium for first pitch duties and much more...

The Story: Mark Trumbo will miss the rest of the season with a stress fracture in his right foot.

The Monkey Says: Well, you have to give the kid credit for trying to tough it out.  Obviously he won't reach 30 homers now, which is too bad, even if it is an arbitrary milestone.

The Story: Torii Hunter is losing sleep over the nightmarish loss to Oakland.

The Monkey Says: He isn't the only waking up in the middle of the night screaming.  That loss is going to stick with every Angel fan for a long, long time.

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Texas Rangers (93-66) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (86-73)

Pitching Probables: TEX – C.J Wilson (16-7, 2.97 ERA)  LAA – Dan Haren (16-9, 3.16 ERA)

Game Info: 7:05 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

I think it's officially time to stop beating the "Angels still have a chance" dead horse, there's no way the Angels are going to pull off a sweep of Texas, at this point it's in the hands of the big man in the the sky. You think he would favor his Angels over anyone else, but you'd also be wrong. The Angels have to pray that the Rays and the Red Sox lose the rest of their games this season, which is something I can see happening for the Red Sox but definitely not the Rays. The numbers say the Angels still have a minuscule chance, but as we've seen before the Angels always find a way to play past the projected odds that are given to them. I know we're still in it, but are we really still in it?

There might be three games left in the season, but those are looking to be academic at this point, so consider these the final Angels Players Power Rankings of the season before we close it all out with the end of season award.

The September 26th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Angels surpass 3 million in attendance, Mike Trout could start the 2012 season in Triple-A, Trumbo voted team MVP and much more...

The Story: The Angels officially surpassed 3 million in attendance for the ninth straight season.

The Monkey Says: The Angels' ability to stay in the race this long definitely helped them achieve that goal.  What I love the most about this news is that the Angels did go over 3 million, but the Dodgers did NOT.  Ha!

The Story: Mike Trout could start the 2012 season in Triple-A.

The Monkey Says: His struggles the last few weeks seem to have the Angels re-thinking their plans for Trout.  I'd still bet that he opens the year in the majors, but this story does at least start building a case for the Angels justifying him being in the minors to start 2012, which seems to be more about the Angels' outfield logjam than Trout's performance, if you ask me.

A game like this is why I hate that I care about the Angels so much.

What started out as a nice, comfortable cruise to a victory that was building my hopes of a miracle surge into the post-season with every inning, wound up turning into one of the most heart-wrenching Angel loss of the season, which is saying a lot considering the events of the last few weeks.

Athletics 6, Angels 5

It almost feels like the Angels have been trying to finish off a checklist of unexpected ways to choke.  Scott Downs' home shutout streak?  Go ahead and mark that one off.  Walden blowing his first save in over a month?  Big check right there.  Wasting surprising contributions from maligned veterans Bobby Abreu and Joel Pineiro?  Double check.  A critical error in the late innings?  Oh, never mind, that one has already been checked off, a couple of times actually.  Well, one more won't hurt.

I just hate it all so much.  But you know what I hate the most?  That the Angels still aren't out of the race yet.  Granted, they have almost impossible odds against them making the post-season, but they still aren't officially eliminated.  At this point, I'm done trying to drink the Kool-Aid and keep hope alive though.  I just want it to be over.

Seriously, I want the Red Sox to win their game tomorrow so that the Halos will be officially out of the playoff race before their game even starts because I just can't endure another night of the stress that I put upon myself by talking myself into believing they might be able to do the impossible.  Just make it stop.

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Oakland Athletics (71-87) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (86-72)

Pitching Probables: OAK – Rich Harden (4-4, 5.17 ERA)  LAA – Joel Pineiro (7-7, 5.36 ERA)

Game Info: 12:35 PM PT; TV - Fox; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

Hanging around.  Hanging around.  The Angels seem to have shot themselves in the foot ten times in this last month, yet the Red Sox just can't shake them in the Wild Card race.

I think I personally have declared the Angels' season DOA at least four times since that first fateful series with Texas.  Yet here we are with the Halos perfectly poised to either finally put themselves out of their misery or put themselves right on the Red Sox heels in the race should the Angels win today and the Sox drop both games of their doubleheader.

Hanging around.  Can't get rid of them.  Kids have alligator blood.