If you are an Angels fan, you have my sympathy.
It has been no secret what fans of that team think of its owner. I’ve received plenty of email complaints about Arte Moreno in recent years, and I’m sure I will receive more as a result of this column. I welcome your input.
But in all of those columns I’ve written about teams that don’t seem to be really trying to win, the Pittsburghs and Colorados and Oakland-Sacramento-soon-to-be-Las Vegas A’s, it never fully kicked in that one of those just-happy-to-be-in-the-league franchises might be in our own backyard.
Oh, it’s been totally apparent that the Angels have failed for more than a decade, not only missing the postseason every year since 2015 but frittering away the careers of two Hall of Fame caliber players, Shohei Ohtani (who now wins MVP trophies and World Series rings for guess who) and Mike Trout (anchored in Anaheim by a 12-year extension he signed in 2019).
My suspicion over that time was that Moreno really did want to win but hampered himself with poor decisions and a leaner-than-necessary front office.
But competitive nonchalance as a business model? That didn’t occur to me until Moreno opened his mouth at the start of spring training. This is what he said to our Jeff Fletcher and other media members in his first (and probably only) media availability of the spring a little more than a week ago:
“The number one thing fans want is affordability. They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top five.”
That, he said, came from fan surveys. Something tells me his target audience doesn’t consist of the people I hear from.
But wait, there’s more.
“The moms want to be able to afford to bring the kids,” Moreno said. “Moms make about 80% of the decisions. They want to be able to bring their kids and be affordable and they want safety and they want to have a good experience, so they get all the entertainment stuff or whatever. The purists, you know, it’s just straight winning.”
And then he added, almost as an afterthought: ““For me, I’ve always wanted to win. It’s just what’s the cost of winning right now?”
According to Cot’s Contracts, the Angels’ projected opening day payroll is $174,865,260. The team up the road, the one that will be raising a championship pennant and handing out World Series rings for a second year in a row in a little less than a month, will have an opening day payroll of $315,353,813, and also will be contributing nearly $160 million in competitive balance taxes to the have-nots.
And I am guessing that a franchise located in the second largest market of the country, one that co-opted the geographical designation “Los Angeles” in 2005 for purposes of appealing to national advertisers – a decision that still irritates a significant number of people in its Orange County fan base – not only doesn’t and shouldn’t qualify for revenue sharing payments but should be ashamed of having the longest non-playoff streak in the game, 11 seasons and counting.
Yes, we know, there are extenuating circumstances that the Angels, along with a number of other clubs, currently face because of the demise of TV outlet FanDuel Sports. As of now, Angels games will be available on a direct-to-consumer streaming service through the MLB app, for $99 for the season or $19.99 a month. Moreno promised in that interview that the games would be on TV, but as yet there have been no announcements.
Meanwhile, there are no spring training telecasts of Angels baseball available in the team’s home market … except for games against the Dodgers, on the Dodgers’ Spectrum SportsNet LA channel. Some irony there, right?
The dichotomy between this market’s two franchises is striking.
Over the last decade, the Dodgers have played in 118 postseason games, have made the playoffs every year, and have played in five World Series and won three. And for what it’s worth, in three of the five years they didn’t reach the World Series, the team they lost to ultimately won it (Cubs in 2016, Nationals in 2019, Braves in 2021). Their average victories in full seasons (not counting 2020): 100.1.
The Angels’ last appearance, and Trout’s only postseason exposure, was a three-and-out against Kansas City in 2014. The era of six postseason berths in eight seasons in the 2000s, and one of the most improbable World Series runs I can remember (2002, under Disney ownership)? Ancient memories.
In the last decade, the Anaheim club has finished fifth twice (the last two seasons), fourth six times, third once and second once (in 2017 with an 80-82 record, 21 games behind Houston). The Angels have averaged 73.7 victories per full season in that span, and while there has been a revolving door of managers after Mike Scioscia left in 2018, there hasn’t seemed to be much accountability higher up in the organization.
It’s also worth noting that those 10 seasons coincide with the moment they dropped the “of Anaheim” from their official name and simply called themselves the Los Angeles Angels. Maybe Arte should go back to “Anaheim Angels,” because not only is this not working, it’s not fooling anybody.
Right now, the Angels have an inferior product in an aging stadium, and visions of a new or refurbished ballpark and surrounding development stalled after talks between the club and the city crashed on the rocks a couple of seasons ago.
Meanwhile, Angel fans may be voting with their wallets. The club topped three million in attendance for 17 straight seasons, a streak that began the year after that World Series championship and ended with the COVID truncated season of 2020, played in empty stadiums. They haven’t come close since. Their attendance figure last season was 2,615,506, though it’s uncertain how many of those tickets went unused.
And I wonder how many others who have rooted for this team for years are considering what one social media participant posted on Threads a couple of days ago. His name is Roy Simenthal, he is from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he is a DJ and a podcaster and he wrote this under the username “djroyski”:
“As a longstanding fan of the Angels, I am wondering if it is acceptable to also enjoy watching the Dodgers this season, particularly given my admiration for (Kiké) Hernandez. Having previously concealed my support for the Dodgers until last year, I am now comfortable expressing my fondness for the team. My enthusiasm for baseball is genuine.”
The responses – many of them from Dodger fans – were welcoming.
As for other Angel fans, you think some are fed up enough to be plotting their own escape?
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