Excerpted from Murray Chass’ column in the April 13 New York Times.
Major League Baseball is perpetrating a fraud on its fans. No, this is not about the steroids-inflated home run totals in recent years. Fans don’t care about that fraud. They say they do, but they run out and buy more tickets than ever, so they can’t care too much, which is their right.
No, this is about the fraud that one team has initiated and that Major League Baseball has joined as a co-conspirator. In this fraud, Major League Baseball has made Anaheim disappear.
Arte Moreno, the outdoor advertising king, has changed his team’s name from Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Commissioner Bud Selig has allowed him. It makes one wonder why, when Selig owned a team, he didn’t call it the Chicago Brewers of Milwaukee.
Actually, if Moreno had his way, Anaheim wouldn’t even appear as an appendage. The only reason he has retained Anaheim in the formal name of the team is that its stadium lease requires the Angels to include Anaheim in their name.
“We all know what’s going to happen to the name of the franchise,” said John Nicoletti, a city spokesman. “Anaheim has become an afterthought. That’s what we were afraid of.”
Anaheim is not even an afterthought. In practice, it has become nonexistent.
Check the American League West standings in newspapers all over the country. Among the four teams listed is Los Angeles. Check the probable pitchers: Los Angeles at Texas. Look at the coming games. Same thing.
In effect, The Associated Press, which supplies this information to newspapers, has gone along with the Angels’ plan. So, for that matter, has The New York Times, which has also decided to call the team the Los Angeles Angels.
