The Los Angeles Angels are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The "Angels" name originates from the city that was their original home, Los Angeles, and was inspired by a minor league club of the same name. The Angels were established in 1961, and have played their home games at Angel Stadium since 1966.
Before the Angels (1940–1960) For many years prior to the Angels' establishment, there had been talk of an existing American League team relocating to Los Angeles. In 1940, the St. Louis Browns asked AL owners for permission to move to Los Angeles, but were turned down. They planned another move for the 1942 season, and this time got permission from the league. A schedule was even drawn up including Los Angeles, but the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 made major-league sports of any sort on the West Coast unviable. In 1953, there was again talk of the Browns moving to Los Angeles for the 1954 season, but the team was sold and moved to Baltimore instead as the Orioles. There were on-again, off-again discussions between city officials and the Washington Senators regarding a possible move. There were also rumors that the Philadelphia Athletics' move to Kansas City in 1955 was a temporary stop on the way to Los Angeles.
Ultimately, it was the National League that first came to the city, in the form of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley purchased the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels in early 1957 from Chicago Cubs owner Phil Wrigley. Under the rules of the time, he also acquired the rights to a major league team in Los Angeles, which he used to move the Dodgers there a year later. Under ordinary circumstances, that would have precluded any subsequent American League presence in the Los Angeles area. However, in an effort to prevent the proposed Continental League from becoming a reality, in 1960 the two existing leagues agreed to expand, adding two teams to each league. The understanding that expansion teams would be placed in cities without major league baseball quickly broke down since efforts to create the Continental League were driven by parties interested in restoring National League baseball to New York. When the National League placed a team in New York City (the Mets) as its tenth franchise to begin play in 1962 (thus canceling the Contential League), the American League announced plans to place an expansion team in Los Angeles, to begin play in 1961.
Formation of the Angels franchise (1960–1961) Gene Autry, former movie cowboy, singer, actor and owner of Golden West Broadcasters (including Los Angeles' KMPC radio and KTLA television), attended the Major League Owners' meeting in St. Louis in 1960 in hopes of winning broadcasting rights for the new team's games. Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg was initially on the fast track to be the team's first owner, with Bill Veeck as a partner. However, when O'Malley got word of Veeck's involvement, he invoked his exclusive right to operate a major league team in Southern California. In truth, O'Malley was not about to compete with Veeck, who was known as a master promoter. After it became obvious that O'Malley would never sign off on the deal as long as Veeck was a part-owner, Greenberg was forced to bow out. After another bid by Chicago insurance executive and future A's owner Charlie Finley failed, Autry was persuaded make a bid himself. O'Malley quickly backed this bid, as he publicly considered Autry a friend but at the same time was privately dismissive of the potential sports business acumen of an owner who had made his fortune in show business. With O'Malley's blessing, Autry (who had been a minority stockholder in the Angels' PCL rival, the Hollywood Stars) purchased the franchise.
Autry named the new franchise the Los Angeles Angels. The origins of the name date back to 1892, when it was first used by a Los Angeles franchise in the California League. The Angel moniker has always been natural for Los Angeles teams, since The Angels is a literal English translation of the Spanish Los Angeles. It was also a nod to the long-successful PCL team that played in Los Angeles from 1903 through 1957. O'Malley still owned the rights to the Angels name even after moving the team to Spokane to make way for the Dodgers, so Autry paid O'Malley $300,000 for the rights to the name.
First seasons in Los Angeles (1961–1965) The Angels and their expansion brethren, the new Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers) chose players from other American League teams in an expansion draft. In 1961, the first year of the team's existence, the Angels finished 70–91 for a .435 winning percentage, still the highest winning percentage ever for a first-year MLB expansion team. Moreover, they not only finished nine games ahead of the Senators, but also nine games ahead of the Kansas City Athletics. The 1961 Angels, admittedly a motley crew, featured portly first baseman Steve Bilko, a long-time fan favorite who played multiple years with the PCL Angels. Another favorite was the diminutive () center fielder, El Monte native Albie Pearson. The Angels played that inaugural season at Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles, the longtime home of the PCL Angels and also of the syndicated television series Home Run Derby. They originally wanted to play at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the Dodgers had played on a temporary basis since moving from Brooklyn. However, Commissioner Ford Frick turned this idea down almost out of hand after concluding that the Coliseum's extremely short left field fence (only 250 feet from the plate) made it unsuitable even as a temporary facility.
In 1962, under the terms of their agreement with O'Malley, the Angels moved to Dodger Stadium, which they referred to as Chavez Ravine during their tenure at that venue. That year, the Angels were a contender for the American League pennant for most of the season. They led the American League standings on July 4 before finishing in third place, ten games behind the New York Yankees, who won their 27th American League pennant. On May 5 of that year, Bo Belinsky, who was as famous for his dexterity with the pool cue and his dating of Hollywood starlets (most particularly Mamie Van Doren) as for his pitching prowess, tossed the first no-hit game in the history of Dodger Stadium/Chavez Ravine, blanking the Orioles 5–0. (Though raised in the Jewish faith, Belinsky later became a born-again Christian and counselor, advising against the lifestyle which once was his trademark.)
In 1964, the Angels again finished fifth in the American League, and pitcher Dean Chance won the Major League Cy Young Award that year. The need for a new stadium became more evident. It was believed that the Angels would never develop a large fan base while playing as tenants of the Dodgers. Also, O'Malley imposed fairly onerous lease conditions on the Angels; for example, he charged them for 50% of all stadium supplies, even though the Angels at the time drew at best half of the Dodgers' attendance.
The move to Anaheim (1966–1971) Stymied in his attempt to get a new stadium in Los Angeles, Autry looked elsewhere. His first choice for a stadium was the site offered by the city of Long Beach. However, the city insisted that the team be renamed the Long Beach Angels, a condition Autry refused to accept. He was able to strike a deal with the suburban city of Anaheim in Orange County, and construction began on Anaheim Stadium (nicknamed The Big A by Southern Californians), where the Angels moved in 1966. On September 2, 1965, team ownership announced the Los Angeles Angels would thenceforth be known as the California Angels, in anticipation of the team's move to Anaheim the following year. They were the second Major League baseball team to be named after an entire state, following the Minnesota Twins. At the time, though they were one of three major league teams in the state of California, the Angels were the only American League team in the state. (After the move of the Kansas City Athletics to Oakland in 1968 and the establishment of the San Diego Padres in 1969, the Angels retained their California moniker through 1996 despite any objections that other California teams may have had.) They were also the first Major League Baseball team established in California (the Dodgers and Giants were from New York, the A's came from Philadelphia via Kansas City, and the Padres would become the second team established in the state upon their addition in 1969).
In their last year at Chavez Ravine, the Angels drew only 566,727 paying customers. In their 1966 inaugural year in Anaheim, the Angels drew over 1.4 million, leading the American League in attendance. In 1967, their second year in Anaheim, the Angels contended for the American League pennant as part of a five-team pennant race (along with Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota and eventual winner Boston) before fading in late August. Eventually the Angels became the "spoilers" by defeating Detroit at Tiger Stadium in the last game of the regular season to give Boston its first AL pennant in 21 years. In 1970 the Angels finished third in the AL Western Division and Alex Johnson became the first (and so far only) Angel to win an American League batting title. Other notable Angels of this period included pitchers Clyde Wright and Ken McBride, shortstop Jim Fregosi, outfielders Albie Pearson and Leon Wagner, and catcher Buck Rodgers. Fregosi and Rodgers later managed the Angels.
Nolan Ryan era, first postseason appearance (1972–1979) During the 1970s, although Angel fans endured some mediocre years on the field they also were able to enjoy the heroics of fireballer Nolan Ryan, who tossed four of his seven no-hitters as an Angel. He also set several strikeout records throughout his career, most notably a 383-strikeout mark in 1973, still a major league record. Ryan was acquired in a trade that sent Jim Fregosi to the Mets. Ryan had been a middle relief pitcher on the "Miracle Mets" team that captured the 1969 World Series. Ryan's feats caused him to be named the Ryan Express, after the 1965 film Von Ryan's Express, which starred Frank Sinatra. His prowess, combined with that of fellow moundsman Frank Tanana, produced the refrain, "Tanana, Ryan and Two Days of Cryin'", a derivative of the refrain, "Spahn and Sain, then pray for rain", coined when Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain anchored the pitching staff of the then-Boston (now Atlanta) Braves in the 1940s.
The 1970s came to a close with the decision by then-general manager Buzzie Bavasi to allow Ryan to become a free agent. At the time, Bavasi remarked that Ryan, whose 1979 record was 16–14 (Ryan was 26–27 in the three seasons he played under Bavasi), could be replaced with two pitchers who go 8–7. Bavasi later claimed this was a mistake.
First AL West title (1979)
The Angels won their first American League West Division championship in 1979 under manager Jim Fregosi, a former Angel shortstop who was sent to the New York Mets in 1972 as part of the trade that brought Nolan Ryan to the Angels. Don Baylor became the first designated hitter to win the American League Most Valuable Player award. Other contributors to the team, which featured a powerful offense, were Bert Campaneris, Rod Carew, Dan Ford and Bobby Grich. However, the Angels lost what then was a best 3-out-of-5 American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles, managed by Earl Weaver, 3 games to 1. The Angels won Game 3 at home, scoring twice in the bottom of the 9th inning to shade Baltimore 4–3.
This was the only year between 1971 and 1981 that the American League West was not won by either the Oakland Athletics or the Kansas City Royals.
Superstar core and postseason shortcomings (1980–1989)