Angels haven’t won since Angel Stadium sale was killed: The Curse of Harry Sidhu!
Baseball lore is full of curses, and the Angels are the victims of the newest one: The Curse of Harry Sidhu!
Angels lore is full of curses, including the original claim that the team never would win because its stadium was built upon the site of a Native American burial ground. In 2002, the Angels won the World Series, and talk of hexes and jinxes could be extinguished forever.
Until now. Until the FBI got involved.
Mike Trout has not won a postseason game in his career with the Angels, but we chalked that up to perennially poor pitching, not something supernatural.
Bryce Harper hits a tying grand slam in the eighth before Bryson Stott hits a three-run, walk-off homer in the ninth, sending the Angels to a 9-7 loss.
On May 24, the Angels were riding high, with visions of Trout leading the team to the playoffs for the first time in eight years. At 9:08 p.m. at Angel Stadium, with closer Raisel Iglesias striking out the last batter, the Angels won their third consecutive game. The Angels were 10 games over .500, one game out of first place in the American League West, off to their best start since 2004.
At that hour, and four miles away, the Anaheim City Council was meeting to discuss the fate of the Angel Stadium sale. Angels owner Arte Moreno had agreed to buy the stadium property and transform the desolate sea of parking lots into a vibrant ballpark neighborhood, with the city netting $150 million in cash and getting more than 5,000 desperately needed homes.
The deal was three years in the making, with one signature to go, when the FBI made a startling allegation: Sidhu, then the city’s mayor, had slipped confidential city information to the Angels — at a time the city was negotiating against them — in the hope of securing a million-dollar campaign contribution from the team.
At 10:56 p.m., the council voted unanimously to kill the deal. The Angels have not won since then.
The wide-ranging investigation includes the sale of Angel Stadium and allegations of bribery involving Anaheim’s mayor.
They lost their 11th consecutive game Sunday, with Iglesias surrendering a tying grand slam.
Trout, the three-time most valuable player, is hitless in his last 26 at-bats, the longest such drought of his career. He is batting .095 (four for 42) since the council killed the stadium deal, with his batting average falling from .328 to .274.
Don’t look now, but the Angels have dropped 8 1/2 games out of first place. Wild card? If the AL playoffs started today, the Angels would not be one of the six contestants.
The mayor who longed to be known as the guy who secured the Angels in town for many years to come might end up better remembered as the guy who cursed them this year. Thanks, Harry!
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