Go beyond the scoreboard
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When I tell you what the mayor of Anaheim told me before the Angels’ home opener Friday, you might dismiss it as predictably partisan.
“Angels fans,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said, “are the most loyal fans in baseball.”
But think about it. How much faith do you really need to be a Dodgers fan?
There is no suspense in your summer. The Dodgers are so well-run that their regular season is about priming a pitching staff for the playoffs, not for worrying about whether they will be in the playoffs.
No major league team has gone longer without a playoff appearance than the Angels. Since their last playoff game, in 2014, the Dodgers have played 89 postseason games.
The passion of Angels fans should not be confused for blind loyalty, as the empty seats next week will demonstrate.
A grand slam by Logan O’Hoppe gives the Angels a second chance after Griffin Canning’s struggles, but the bullpen can’t hold back Boston in an 8-6 loss.
Even on Friday, the pageantry of the sold-out home opener was dimmed by boos for video clips of two-time American League most valuable player Shohei Ohtani, who chose to leave the Angels, and owner Arte Moreno, who chose not to leave.
And, once the game started, the boos cascaded down upon $245-million third baseman Anthony Rendon. When the Angels reported to camp in February, Rendon said baseball has “never been a top priority for me.” On the season-opening road trip, he went hitless.
The cheers were long and loud for Mike Trout, the three-time most valuable player who twice passed up free agency to sign contract extensions with the Angels. Over the last few years, it has become a sport unto itself to predict when Trout might finally get so fed up with losing that he demands a trade, and yet there he was Friday, batting third for the Angels, 13 years after making his debut.
“You’ve got to respect Trout,” said former teammate Jered Weaver, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch. “He signed here. He knew what he was getting into. He wants to stay here.
“It would mean even more to win here after people are saying, ‘You should leave. We want to see you somewhere else.’ Well, that’s not what he wants. He wants to stay here. I think people should respect that. It’s going to make it even better when they do start winning, and win something, to be an ‘I told you so’ type of thing.”
Angels star Mike Trout, second from right, celebrates with Logan O’Hoppe, after O’Hoppe hit a grand slam in the sixth inning of the Angels’ 8-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Friday.
(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
The people in Anaheim respect that. The most loyal fans in baseball adore the guy who signed a 14-year extension beneath a banner that read “LOYALTY,” with a halo atop the A.
In Trout, the most loyal fans in baseball see their own Tony Gwynn or Cal Ripken: a one-team, first-ballot Hall of Famer who resisted the siren song of perennial contenders.
The Angels threw a pep rally before the home opener, and some 3,000 fans gathered, wearing Trout jerseys of all sorts: home white, road gray, red, black, City Connect, throwback, All-Star and even hockey.
One man wore a red T-shirt with Trout’s name in stars and stripes. Another man wore a white T-shirt covered with nothing but an enormous picture of Trout’s face.
There was a homemade “LOYALTY 27” sign, held aloft by Michel Lopez of Whittier. Lopez saluted Trout for standing tall in Anaheim.
“We know it’s not that easy,” Lopez said. “He decided to stay, not take the easy way out.”
The Dodgers might win 100 games like clockwork, but Sarah Wilson of Anaheim said she believed Dodgers fans could embrace summer as well as fall.
“Look at the product they get to watch,” Wilson said. “They should be stoked that it’s World Series or bust.”
And the Angels?
“At this point, there’s no expectations,” she said. “If they do well, great. If they don’t, they’re young.”
(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
The youth movement was in full swing on the live radio broadcast from the pep rally, where catcher Logan O’Hoppe invited his father to grab a microphone and join the show. Mr. O’Hoppe said his son makes a mean gnocchi, then rallied the fans by using a word you probably should not say on live radio.
The youth movement was not in full swing in the team store, where the replica jerseys on sale featured Trout, Ohtani and Rendon. Outside, however, I met a father and son wearing non-Trout jerseys: the father’s with the name of first baseman Nolan Schanuel, the son’s with the name of shortstop Zach Neto.
Travis Tsujiuchi, 8, wore an Ohtani jersey last year and asked for Neto this year. Greg Tsujiuchi, the father, said his Dodgers-loving family and friends rib him all the time.
“When Ohtani left, they really rubbed it in,” Greg said.
The Angels know it’ll be tough to overcome Shohei Ohtani’s absence, but Mike Trout is staying optimistic about the team’s playoff chances.
The Angels do not appear to have the depth to contend this season. Their batting average is .212. Their earned-run average is 5.31. This year should be about identifying which young players might be part of the foundation for the Angels’ next contending team.
That contender, whenever it arrives, should be supported fully and wildly, as annual contenders here were during the golden decade of the 2000s. This is a great fan base, weary of the wait for the Angels’ next great team.
In the meantime, the Anaheim mayor tweaked the Dodgers in one of their very few soft spots, all in good fun.
“Both the Dodgers and Angels have great legacies in America’s favorite pastime,” Aitken said, “but I’ll take the drive in and out of Anaheim Stadium any day.
“And so would Dodger fans.”
