I am going to settle this on behalf of all the Angels fans on this board, so basically just me, ACAMP, and NDinLA. Most Angels fans hate that we are now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I mean the darn thing went to court twice with thousands of people protesting. Our owner, Arte Moreno, realized he could get more ad revenue (hence more money for the team) if he tapped into the LA market. That is the entire reason why we share the same name. And if you want to solely represent LA, be my guest. If memory serves me correctly, we can claim to represent the entire state since we were originally the California Angels.
And maybe the only HOFs we currently have are Rod Carew and Nolan Ryan. But we also had one of the most beloved players to have ever graced a baseball diamond, Jim Abbott.. And over the past 15 years or so, I definitely think we will have more future HOFs than your boys. Vladimir Guerrero, Francisco Rodriguez, Bartolo Colon, and possibly John Lackey will all be in the HOF one day.
And here is what really kills Dodger fans, we do more with less. Our payroll has always been substantially less than yours, and I can't recall a recent free agent acquisition that was a complete bust. The Dodgers on the other hand seem to be the team that ruins careers. Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt, Shawn Green, Kevin Brown, all players who received incredible contracts and literally did nothing for the organization. It is only in the last few years that we have paid for big FAs such as Guerrero, Torii Hunter, or Bobby Abreu(actually we got him pretty cheaply). It is through our farm system and the incredible coaching of Scioscia and the rest of the staff that we have developed such quality players as Chone Figgins, Howie Kendrick, Bengie Molina, Jose Molina, Garrett Anderson, Casey Kotchman, Adam Kennedy, Jarrod Washburn, Troy Percival, David Eckstein, Darin Erstad, and Troy Glaus. We also seem to be far more loyal and have kept these players through the prime of their careers. The Dodgers traded away Mike Piazza, Paul Lo Duca, Adrien Beltre, and Cesar Izturis when they were still incredibly productive. And all of those players wanted to stay Dodgers.
So you can continue to mention history, most of which is in Brooklyn, and more titles and the LA market all you want. The reality is that as of today, the Angels organization is more successful because they build teams on character and work ethic. And when you think about it, that's the same attributes ND bases its teams on, and this is an ND messageboard so ...
