From the Archives: Los Angeles Angels spring training
February 1962: Los Angeles Angels sluggers at spring training at Palm Springs include, from left, outfielders Ken Hunt, Lee Thomas and Leon Wagner and catcher Earl Averill and first baseman Steve Bilko.
The 1961 expansion team Los Angeles Angels started spring training in Palm Springs and stayed until 1991. For several years they split their spring training time between Palm Springs and Holtville, Calif. In 1982 and 1983, the team split their time between Palm Springs and Casa Grande, Ariz. In 1992 the Angels relocated to Tempe Diablo Stadium in Arizona.
The Angels team name has changed — Los Angeles Angels, California Angels and Anaheim Angels — but spring training is always the same: lots of stretching and baseball basics.
This post was originally published on March 8, 2014.
March 10, 1969: With 56 players in camp, the Angels dugout at Palm Springs gets jammed.
(Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)
Feb. 9, 1970: The Angels exercise with Jay Johnstone, foreground, leading them in a workout at Blair Field in Long Beach. This was the first of six workouts at the Long Beach field before the full squad reported to Holtville on Feb. 23, 1970.
(Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)
March 1972: Sheep graze in a field next to the Angels’ spring training camp in Holtville, Calif.
(Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)
Feb. 27, 1973: Angels pitchers Sid Monge, left, and Clyde Wright use a high stepping exercise during spring training in Holtville, Calif.
(Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)
March 4, 1981: Million-dollar Angels from left: Don Baylor, Fred Lynn and Rod Carew have a few laughs during the team’s training camp in Palm Springs.
(Joe Kennedy / Los Angeles Times)
Don Baylor, above, was making $1.6 million for 6 years ($266,666 per season), Fred Lynn was taking in $5.2 million for 4 years ($1.3 million per season) and Rod Carew was earning $4 million for 5 years ($800,000 per season). This photo was published in the March 28, 1981, Los Angeles Times.
March 1983: Angels Tim Foli, left, Fred Lynn and Bobby Brich chat between batting practices during spring camp in Casa Grande, Ariz.
(Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)
March 1983: Angels slugger Reggie Jackson shakes hands with a young admirer before leaving the practice field.
(Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)
March 22, 1984: Bat boys for the Angels’ game against the Oakland Athletics were Dominquez Jackson Jr., brother of Reggie Jackson, and Aaron Boone, son of catcher Bob Boone.
(Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times)
March 1984: Gene Autry takes his place in the owner’s box alongside his wife, Jackie, executive vice president of the team, at Angels Stadium in Palm Springs, but he prefers to sit near the action – in a chair just behind the dugout.
(Thomas Kelsey / Los Angeles Times)
March 25, 1987: Angel Stadium in Palm Springs from the upper press box.
(Gail Fisher / Los Angeles Times)
Feb. 28, 2001: Umpire Ted Barrett talks to the Anaheim Angels about the high strike zone at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. The Angels catcher is Kevin Lidle.
