Angels Change Name to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

[Walter Cronkite]

Major League Baseball's Angels are renaming themselves yet again, adding Los Angeles in a move likely to provoke a fight with the Anaheim City Council.

The team said Monday it will be known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels said the move will "strengthen the Angels' long-term economic health by enhancing the marketability through this metropolitan area and beyond."

Anaheim officials claim the change breaks the terms of the team's 33-year lease with the city.

Anaheim is a city of about 330,000 located about 25 miles south of Los Angeles.

The franchise, owned by singer/actor Gene Autry, known for his appearances as a cowboy in film and television, began as the Los Angeles Angels in 1961, then became the California Angels when it moved to Anaheim in 1966. In 1997, when the team was controlled by The Walt Disney Co., the franchise was renamed the Anaheim Angels.

Arte Moreno bought the team in 2003, one year after it won the World Series, and wanted the name change. The Angels drew 3,375,677 last season, the third-highest total in Major League Baseball behind the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Source: AP

[Kellie-Girl]

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is not a good idea. Angeles is in Orange County, NOT Los Angeles. Anaheim Angels is just right name because it is in Anaheim. Either can rename Orange Angels or stay with Anaheim Angels. Even those it is nearby Los Angeles is not correct for Angels team unless the team move in Los Angeles Co. then it would be fine for calling Los Angeles Angels. Duh!!

[AndySMC]

Can you say STUPID?

Stupid. The name is redundant. Come on do we really have to say the Angels Angels? No one from Los Angeles is going to jump ship from the Dodgers to the Angels because of this. Angels' fans hate the Dodgers and anything with the name Los Angeles. Arte if you love LA so much, maybe you should have bought the Dodgers. You might as well just move the team now.

[Modern Arts]

I believe the fans made it well known how they felt in regards to allowing Los Angeles to be associated w/ the Angels. Instead Arte decided more money was more important! This was a cold hearted move on his part. Arte to this point has done nothing wrong but help the club....but this is too far. If he wanted to market a team in LA then THE DODGERS are in need of an owner that's willing to spend money.

[Bob Berkowitz]

Anaheim sure isn't L.A. Hip angelenos don't want to be associated with dull, milquetoast Anaheim, and O.C. doesn't want to be associated with the grime and mess of L.A., and it's a heck of a stretch to call the team an L.A. team when they play down there. And all this rot of "L.A...of Anaheim" is about as ham-fisted, awkward a name as is imaginable. "California" worked well; everyone knew they were a so-cal team, just like everyone knows the Golden State Warriors are norcal. "California" allowed them to be more inclusive of all of OC and parts of the desert, while everyone knew they played in Anaheim. Eisner and his cast of slimy Disney minions should never have changed it to Anaheim in the first place.