Angels Get Sunday Night Baseball Love

The Angels and division foe Rangers will be prominently featured on baseball’s prime time stage to begin the 2012 season. Don’t worry east-coasters, the Yankees and Red Sox will be there too. But the Angels and Rangers are building a nice rivalry that was fuelded by a winter of cold war. While the Angels signed Albert Pujols and stole C.J. Wilson from Texas, the Rangers countered with Japanese fireballer Yu Darvish and might still be a player for Prince Fielder.

ESPN would be wise to highlight these teams and they did just that when they released the early Sunday Night Baseball schedule…

"DateTeams (all telecasts at 8 p.m. ET)April 8Chicago White Sox at TexasApril 15L.A. Angels at N.Y. YankeesApril 22Yankees at BostonApril 29Tampa Bay at TexasMay 6Philadelphia at WashingtonMay 13Angels at TexasMay 20St. Louis at L.A. DodgersMay 27Washington at AtlantaJune 3-July 1TBDJuly 8Yankees at BostonJuly 15St. Louis at CincinnatiJuly 22-Sept 23TBD"

ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball is sponsored by Taco Bell. It’s not a surprise considering AL MVP and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander admitted to a pre-game ritual of eating half of the Taco Bell menu. Minus tomatoes. While Taco Bell wouldn’t be my fisrt choice, it does make me less nauseous than listening to Joe Morgan call a game.

My choice of sponsorship? Marge’s Pretzel Wagon. Of course, MLB is still pretty upset with them after they almost killed Whitey Ford…