matthewweaver.com | mlb ballparks | los angeles angels of anaheim

Ballpark:
Angel Stadium of Anaheim was first opened in April 1966 and has under gone several changes to reach its current state. When the old Los Angeles Rams football team player there in the 1980s and 1990s, the stadium was enclosed and expanded to about 65,000 seats. After the Rams moved to Saint Louis in 1995, the owners at that time, Disney, remodeled the stadium to remove the outfield upper deck and reduce the seating capacity to about 45,000 people...more like the original size.

In addition to the physical changes, the ballpark has been renamed twice. The original, and most commonly used name, was Anaheim Stadium until Edison International bought the naming rights in 1997. Two years after Artie Moreno bought the team from Disney in 2003, Edison International Field of Anaheim was renamed to Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The origin of that unusual name is explained below.

Beside the removal of the football seats, the 1996-1998 remodeling added a lot of tacky Disney-esque touches, such as the Size 712 baseball caps (see photo below) at the main entrance, the rock garden in center field and a neon green turf carpet surrounding the area. Nicer touches added at that time were the tiered bullpens ala Oriole Park at Camden Yards, fans patios in left and right field and a modern video scoreboard.

The 2005 name change and renovation brought new paint, a video scoreboard in left field and (thank goodness) the replacement of the tacky green turf in the rock garden area with a subtle dark green tarp. Newer restaurants, like California Pizza Kitchen and Carl's Jr. were added to the standard ballpark fare.

Speaking of food, the hot dogs at Angel Stadium are pretty good, though they did not taste as good as Dodger Stadium (even though the hot dogs in both ballparks are made by the same company!). The relatively reasonable food prices - $5.25 for a hot dog and $4.00 for a bottle of water - make up for the lack of anything but yellow mustard for the dogs. :)

Since the early 2000s, the Angels have been competitive and the fans pack the house and seem fairly knowledgeable about the game. The team creates excellent multimedia presentations for the pregame, cleverly using "Calling All Angels" by the band Train for the team introduction, and still has the popular Rally Monkey that appears on the video board when the team needs a few runs. The spider monkey jumping up and down became all the rage during the team's World Series victory in 2002.

Angel Stadium has good site lines and keeps the fans close to the field despite the age of the park and its multi-purpose history. It has three distict levels, with the middle deck serving as the club level. The club runs from foul pole to foul pole and allows fans to be inside or outside. The seats are a little more narrow than most of the newer parks and the park's concourses are cramped. However, Angel Stadium provides a good baseball experience despite being more than 40 years old. I give it a strong "B" grade.

How to get there:
From LAX Airport in Los Angeles, get on I-405 south, sit in traffic, follow Route 22 east toward Garden Grove and sit in more traffic. Just before getting to I-5, exit on The City Drive (later State College Blvd) and follow it North to Orangewood Avenue or Gene Autry Way.

From John Wayne Orange County Airport in Santa Ana, follow I-5 north to the Orange Freeway (Route 57) and exit on Orangewood Avenue. Turn left onto Orangewood and then left into the parking lot.

City:
Anaheim is an excruciating, traffic-filled drive from LAX, so fly into Orange County if you can...especially if you're going to the amusement parks. The city of Anaheim and Orange County are very suburban in nature and you see more malls than places of interest. It is less of a pace than Los Angeles, but unless you're there to see the Mouse or the beach, Anaheim is not really a vacation destination.

Stuff to do while there:
Disneyland has been the staple of Anaheim for a long time, but there is also an excellent companion amusement park (more for adults) called California Adventure. In between is a "main street" shopping and entertainment complex with all the standard bars, shops and restaurants. You can also check out a Mighty Ducks NHL Hockey game at the Honda Center if you go in the Spring. Regardless, I highly recommend hitting the beach at Huntington or Newport beaches while you're there. Anything to keep you off the traffic-clogged freeways!

Story:
In August 2007, my girlfriend Courtney and I saw her team, the Boston Red Sox, the day after we saw the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine. We saw an excellent game between the Boston pitcher Curt Schilling and the lanky Angels pitcher Jared Weaver where the Angels won 4-2. Red Sox star hitter David Ortiz didn't do much that night. One of the stragest events of the night was after Angels 3B Maicer Izturis hit the go ahead home run in the 7th inning. The fireworks shot off in celebration nearly delayed the game due to the smoke wafting back into the ballpark. Oops!

In August 1999, I made Edison International Field of Anaheim, as it was known then, the first stop on my 4-ballpark-in-5-days trip to the West Coast from Cleveland. I ended up having to explain the rules of the game to a British lady sitting near me while nursing a pretty bad cold. That is why I never got a picture of myself at the park that night...I just felt too lousy to deal with it. After the game, I had to drive 1 hour and 45 minutes to Barstow where I continued to the Grand Canyon the next day.

Fun facts:
The Angels have had more name changes than Prince! In 1961, they were the Los Angeles Angels. In 1966, they moved to Anaheim and became the California Angels. In 1997, after Disney purchased the team, the team was renamed the Anaheim Angels to reflect the independence of Orange County (and Anaheim) from the greater Los Angeles area. In 2005, however, new owner Artie Moreno decided that the team should again embrace their So-Cal big brother and he renamed the team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. That ridiculous name was the result of a legal loophole where the City of Anaheim required the word "Anaheim" in the team's name. Moreno's lawyers successfully interpreted that the regulation could allow them to call the team Los Angeles and put "of Anaheim" afterward. This satisfied the law and still allowed ownership to attach the more-recognizable name of Los Angeles to the team.

Speaking of name changes, the reason the ballpark is named Angel Stadium of Anaheim (like there are Angel Stadiums in other cities...geez!) is due to the same legal loophole that created the crazy name for the team. As long as "of Anaheim" is in the name, they can pretty much call the stadium whatever they want.

The park hosted four games of the 2002 World Series, when the Angels beat the San Francisco Giants in seven games.

The Angels originally played in what is now Dodger Stadium.

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The famous "Big A" sign
along the Orange Freeway
August 6, 2007

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The first base side of the park
from the massive parking lot
August 6, 2007

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Former owners Disney made
the entrance a bit tacky
August 6, 2007

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A 4-photo mosaic from the
home plate upper deck
August 6, 2007

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Matt poses prior to the game
August 6, 2007

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A 2-photo mosaic from the
right field upper deck
August 6, 2007

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A 3-photo mosaic from
behind home plate
August 6, 2007

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Jared Weaver fires the game's
first pitch to Dustin Pedroia
August 6, 2007

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The Disney-era center field rock
garden and fountain with the
newer left field scoreboard
August 6, 2007

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The tacky, Disney-influenced
entrance in 2007
August 6, 2007

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The tacky, Disney-created
entrance 8 years before.
August 11, 1999

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Close-up of one of the big hats
August 6, 2007