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This year, the Los Angeles Angels have their hopes set on at least two things. First, they hope Mike Trout will have an MVP season, and the other, to keep their Los Angeles moniker from the Mayor of their former host city.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken announced on Friday her intentions to request that the team reverts back to the name of the Anaheim Angels as part of a new stadium deal, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
“That will be a fair part of the discussions,” she said. “I have always advocated that the Angels should have the city's name at the forefront, especially considering that property is our largest asset. That is something that is a high, high priority for me.”
The team has been playing under the name of the Los Angeles Angels since 2005. Despite the name, they still play at Angels Stadium in Anaheim. The franchise was first asked to switch titles in 2019 during negotiations for a new stadium deal, but they declined.
Mayor Aitken has been in office since 2022 and has attached herself to the organization in specific ways. That same Mayor Aitken invited the LGBTQ+ rights group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to a game after the Dodgers declined.
Now, she intends to pick up where 2019 left off, hoping that the team will return to using Anaheim as its home. While history is likely to repeat itself as far as the Angels keeping their current title, their quest to find a permanent name is unique, to say the least.
The Angels' team name journey
The franchise joined MLB as an expansion team in the expansion year of 1961. From 1965-1996, they moved to Anaheim and became known as the California Angels.
They were known as the Anaheim Angels from 1997 to 2004, and in 2002, they won their first World Series in seven games against the San Francisco Giants. Then, the team became known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before dropping the “of Anaheim” part in 2014.
While the city names have changed, the team has always played at Angels Stadium.
