Angel
Stadium of Anaheim
The
Angels franchise started in 1961, originally owned by singing cowboy
actor, Gene Autry. TheAngels were initially a vagabond team playing
at Wrigley Field of Los Angeles (minor league park owned by the
Cubs), and then Dodger stadium until their stadium was completed in
Anaheim in 1966. When they moved to Anaheim they changed their name
from the Los Angeles Angels to the California Angels.
Soon
after the stadium opened fans started calling it The Big A due to the
230 foot giant A scoreboard. The scoreboard was eventually moved to
the parking lot due to earthquake safety issues. Unfortunately, they
have advertising screen flashing on it now, kind of ruining the
historic effects.
In 1979 the park was remodeled to accommodate the
LA Rams football team, but has since been returned to something like
its original seat configuration. The Disney corporation purchased
the team in 1996 and shortly thereafter the team name changed again
to the Anaheim Angels. After Disney took over the mountain waterfall
was added to center field's.
In
2001, The Angels finished 41 games behind our Seattle Mariners in the
AL West. Between 1986 and 2001 when they imploded against the Red
Sox in their only previous AL championship series they went through
6 managers, 4 general managers, 3 logo changes, a ballpark remodel
and a name change. Then in 2002 everything changed. The Angels 2002
AL championship represented the team's 1st league title in
its 42 year history. They finished with their best record of 99-63
but were still 4 games behind the Oakland Athletics and entered as
the AL Wild Card Berth. After defeating the Yankees and the Twins,
they came back from a 3 games to 2 deficit in the World Series and
came back from being behind 5-0 in game 6 and then went on to win the
October Classic. Since that time, the Angels have always been
serious contenders in the AL West.
 |
| AL Pennants and World Series Championship |
Disney was still the owner at
that time and had the nerve to charge admission to the Victory Parade
which was held in Disneyland! They sold the team to Arte Moreno
for$185 million, the first Mexican American to own a professional
baseball team. Jack and I even wrote to him about our 30 in 30
project, but his minions may not have passed it on. Too bad!
This
park has had a few historic moments. In 1967, it was the host of the
first All-Star game played during prime time television. The NL won
2-1 in 15 innings. Tony Perez homered off Catfish Hunter who was
working his 5th inning in relief to win the game.
Nolan
Ryan struck out 16 MN Twins on 9-23-1973 to break Sandy Koufax's
singe-season strike-out record. He struck out 383 batters to beat
Koufax by a single K. After he had pitched the 11 inning game it was
revealed he had pitched with a torn thigh muscle!
Reggie
Jackson hit his 500th homer here in 1984, Vladimir
Guererro his 400th in 2009.
Fortunately
for us, but unfortunately for the Angels, we were lucky to witness
the appearance of the Rally Monkey. The Rally Monkey made his first
appearance in Anaheim during the 2000 season.
There are rules
governing his appearance.
1.
He cannot make an appearance until the 7th inning.
2.
The Angels must be behind.
3.
The Angels must have a runner on base.
4.
Once he appears, fans are welcome to whip out their Rally Monkey and
wave them around trying to get him to do his magic.
The
night we were there, no magic tricks by the monkey! Angels lose. So
far in our trip 2 wins for the home team, 3 losses.
No comments:
Post a Comment