Los Angeles Angels
A ton of stuff has been blogged about the newly-named Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (Next: the North Chicago Packers of Green Bay.) However, I haven't seen a lot about the history of the Los Angeles Angels, who existed well before 2005 - and at Wrigley Field, no less:
Once upon a time, there was another Wrigley Field besides the one at Sheffield and Addison.
Wrigley Field in Los Angeles was named for William K. Wrigley, Jr., the chewing-gum magnate who owned both the Chicago Cubs of the National League, and the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. He purchased the Angels in 1921, for the (then) astronomical sum of $150,000, and then built a stadium for the team a few years later....
Major outdoor wrestling and boxing programs were held at Wrigley Field during the first 30 or 35 years of its existence -- including six world title boxing matches.
But the main draw was always the baseball games of the legendary Pacific Coast League. In the first half of the 20th Century, the Pacific Coast League ruled the west. In all but name, it was a third major league, with its own traditions and records. There were no American or National League teams in the west, and players who often turned down major-league offers because they were paid more in the PCL. Great western players like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams played for their hometown teams. Finally, in 1952, the PCL was given AAAA status, raising it above farm league status and protecting their players from the major league draft.
Two PCL teams used Wrigley Field. The mighty Los Angeles Angels, owned by Wrigley, were the main tennants. The Angels were probably the most succesful franchise in the history of the league, and they were the team that the field was built for; But the Hollywood Stars played there from 1926 to 1935, whenever the Angels were on the road. Then, when Wrigley tried to double their rent to $10,000 a month, the team moved south and became the San Diego Padres. But in 1938, the San Francisco Mission Reds moved into town and took over the name of the Stars. They also played in Wrigley Field for a year, until their own ballfield -- Gilmore Park -- was built closer to Hollywood. This created the most heated rivalry in PCL history....
At the birth of the PCL in 1903, the Angels played at Washington Park, located in downtown Los Angeles on 8th and Hill streets. It could hold up to 15,000 kranks, as fans at the turn of the century were called.
The team played at Washington Park for seventeen years, winning five pennants, until they were bought by Wrigley....
[I]n 1957, Phil Wrigley sold both the team and Wrigley Field to Walter O'Malley, the Brooklyn Dodgers' owner, for $3,000,000 and the rights to the Dodgers' Texas League franchise in Fort Worth. O'Malley reassured PCL directors that the Angels would continue as part of the Coast League, but everyone knew he was considering moving the big league Dodgers out of rickety Ebbets Field to Los Angeles, and his purchasing the Angels and the stadium gave him territorial rights to the area.
The Angels knew their days were numbered. Steve Bilko enjoyed one more season of glory, hitting .300 with 56 dingers and 140 RBI, but a surrounding cast led by Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, and Larry Sherry wasn't enough to lift them above seventh place. The last PCL game at Wrigley Field was played on September 15, 1957....
[After the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles] there wouldn't be a lot of fans left over for a minor league team, the Angels' franchise was moved to Spokane. (The team stayed there until 1972, then were relocated to Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Dukes then moved in 2000, and are now the Portland Beavers.)...
[Wrigley Field] remained without a team, however, until Major League Baseball awarded the area an expansion team -- ironically, also called the Angels -- to play in the American League. The Angels played only one season at Wrigley Field, in 1961....Steve Bilko, at long last an everyday major leaguer, hit twenty homers for the team....
The Angels then moved into Dodger Stadium with the Los Angeles Dodgers, until 1965. The Angels moved into their own home, Anaheim Stadium, in 1966.
More information here and here. It turns out the Singing Cowboy became a baseball team owner by accident:
In 1960, the American League announced plans to place an expansion team in Los Angeles, to begin play in 1961. Gene Autry, former actor and owner of a number of radio and TV stations on the west coast, attended the Major League Owners’ meeting in St. Louis in 1960 in hopes of winning broadcasting rights for the new team’s games. After two different bids to acquire the new A.L. team failed, it was suggested to Autry that he acquire the team itself. Autry agreed, and purchased the franchise, which he named the Los Angeles Angels after the long-successful PCL team.
And here's the more recent history:
In 1964 the Los Angeles Angels broke ground for Angel Stadium (then called Anaheim Stadium), a $24-million ballpark built on 140 acres. The team changed its name to the California Angels in 1965, and the stadium opened its gates for the 1966 season, drawing a first-game crowd of 31,660. A 1979 renovation changed the stadium into a completely enclosed, multipurpose facility, suitable for both professional football and baseball....
Remember the "Los Angeles" Rams?
On April 3, 1996, the city of Anaheim and the Angels (then owned by the Walt Disney Corporation) agreed on a deal that will keep the Angels in Anaheim until at least the year 2018. The Angels committed $88 million and the city $30 million to a three-year renovation of Angel Stadium to a more compact, baseball-only facility. The team changed its name to the Anaheim Angels for the 1997 season. The city provides 12,500 parking spaces on site for baseball and the Angels operate the stadium and retain all monies until agreed income thresholds are met. The agreement calls for the Angels to lease Angel Stadium for 33 years (3 for renovation and 30 for operation), but the team has the option to leave after 20 years of operation. Anaheim's plans for a sports and entertainment complex will be scaled back to 40 acres but the Angels agreed to allow the city to build a football stadium next to the ballpark.
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