Pressing Issue at City Hall: Baseball Team Name Game
With crime rampant, potholes a plenty and Sherman Oaks about to erupt in civil war over a bridge, Council President Alex Padilla has been pursuing a very dire and pressing municipal issue.
The Angels baseball team might just change their name from the Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels. This must be stopped the good Council President says. In a related move, Bitter Bernie has jumped into the fray with a proposal that teams could only use the name Los Angeles if they are actually located in the City (not sure what the County would say about that but hey those people don't vote for Mayor).
To be sure, it wouldn't be the first time they've made an identity change. Back in the early 60s, singing cowboy turned broadcaster Gene Autry went to Baseball's winter meetings to pick up broadcast rights to games for his television stations. He left owning the American League expansion team, the Los Angeles Angels. For a time, they shared Dodger Stadium before hightailing to it a new stadium in Orange County - Anaheim Stadium - affectionately referred to as "The Big A" (and later Edison International Field and now Angels Stadium of Anaheim). At that time, the team took the name "California Angels" until 1996 when then owned by Disney, they became the Anaheim Angels. In 2002, they won their first World Series and that's the end of the story, right?
Well not quite. Arte Moreno bought the Angels and after lowering the price of beer at the stadium, he set out to change the team's name back to the supposedly more cosompolitan Los Angeles Angels. Already, Moreno removed the name Anaheim from the team's website, uniforms, etc. Well the City of Anaheim threw a hissyfit and aren't about to lose their name on the team it took them 30 years and throwing a lot of cash at Disney to get.
Of course like any ridiculous diversion in politics, the Angels and the City of Anaheim are no longer the only players in this. Padilla is going ahead with a resolution to oppose the Angels' renaming move. As well, the LA Dodgers, looking to hold onto their exclusive have signaled they could file a friend of the court brief in the City of Anaheim's promised lawsuit according to Dodgers Public Affairs VP, Howard Sunkin who is no stranger around LA City Hall. As well, whenever you have an issue as silly as this around City Hall, its always good to look at one of these.
The Angels baseball team might just change their name from the Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels. This must be stopped the good Council President says. In a related move, Bitter Bernie has jumped into the fray with a proposal that teams could only use the name Los Angeles if they are actually located in the City (not sure what the County would say about that but hey those people don't vote for Mayor).
To be sure, it wouldn't be the first time they've made an identity change. Back in the early 60s, singing cowboy turned broadcaster Gene Autry went to Baseball's winter meetings to pick up broadcast rights to games for his television stations. He left owning the American League expansion team, the Los Angeles Angels. For a time, they shared Dodger Stadium before hightailing to it a new stadium in Orange County - Anaheim Stadium - affectionately referred to as "The Big A" (and later Edison International Field and now Angels Stadium of Anaheim). At that time, the team took the name "California Angels" until 1996 when then owned by Disney, they became the Anaheim Angels. In 2002, they won their first World Series and that's the end of the story, right?
Well not quite. Arte Moreno bought the Angels and after lowering the price of beer at the stadium, he set out to change the team's name back to the supposedly more cosompolitan Los Angeles Angels. Already, Moreno removed the name Anaheim from the team's website, uniforms, etc. Well the City of Anaheim threw a hissyfit and aren't about to lose their name on the team it took them 30 years and throwing a lot of cash at Disney to get.
Of course like any ridiculous diversion in politics, the Angels and the City of Anaheim are no longer the only players in this. Padilla is going ahead with a resolution to oppose the Angels' renaming move. As well, the LA Dodgers, looking to hold onto their exclusive have signaled they could file a friend of the court brief in the City of Anaheim's promised lawsuit according to Dodgers Public Affairs VP, Howard Sunkin who is no stranger around LA City Hall. As well, whenever you have an issue as silly as this around City Hall, its always good to look at one of these.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 11/26/2004 07:06:00 PM
1 Comments:
Don't want to lose those free tickets!
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