The City Without Angels

There's a great article by the LA Times about the story of how the Angels became a baseball team in Southern California, told in the context of the looming spectre of a Freeway Series between the Angels and Dodgers.

Essentially, Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley detested the Angels’ presence in the same market, but as they were an American League franchise, he couldn't do much to block them. As a result, he made their 3 years of tenancy at brand-new Dodger Stadium quite the living hell. A churlish landlord to be sure, he gave them further reason to relocate behind The Orange Curtain and to finally assume their own identity as the California Angels.

While I don't doubt that Arte Moreno has done a lot to help bring the Angles out from underneath the shadow of the Dodgers with solid players and management (many of whom, it should be noted, are former Dodgers themselves), he did the City of Anaheim and the County of Orange no favors in re-naming the franchise "Los Angeles" when they reside in neither the city nor county of which name they bear.

While there may be a Freeway Series this year, there will never be a Los Angeles World Series. Only Chicago and New York lay claim to those opportunities.