Anaheim Gives Up

The City of Anaheim finally gave up on their long standing fight for the Angels to remain the Anaheim Angels. Arte Moreno, the most recent owner of the Angels changed the team's name to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to attract more media attention and a more lucrative position in that area. The city fought the name change and lost twice in court. The city counsel finally gave up the ghost and voted unanimously to give it up.

To someone sitting a continent away in the frozen tundra of northern Maine, the whole thing seemed rather silly to begin with. The Angels were an expansion team in 1961 and in just 48 years, they have been the Los Angeles Angels, the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels and now their latest and most confusing name of all. For an interesting look at the team's short history, a good source is here.

While calling themselves the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim makes about as much sense as the football Giants and Jets calling themselves the New York Giants and New York Jets respectively (they both play in New Jersey), the team now has won the right to call themselves what they want.

Personally, the name, "California Angels" seemed to make the most sense and rolled off the tongue much easier than all of the rest of the names. It felt much like the "New England" Patriots which is a name that has worked very well for that franchise. The most comical take on the whole news story came from a commenter on the news wire story ESPN.com ran on the city's decision. The commenter said: "Doesn't matter what their name is, they'll still win the West and then get swept in the ALDS."