It has been a while since the last time the Los Angeles Angels could be considered a serious World Series contender.
It's also been over a decade since they last made the MLB playoffs, and in the eyes of former Halos manager Joe Maddon, the team's loss of its fearless aura has played a role in the decline.
Speaking about “fearlessness,” the 72-year-old Maddon shared that such a mentality was brought to the Angels by Scioscia.
“Finally, [Scioscia] shows up and honestly brings a Dodger culture there. And I'll tell you what Dodger culture is. Fearlessness. It's real baseball. It's not worried about making mistakes. It's fundamentalism. And that's what Sosh brought with him himself,” Maddon said during a recent appearance on Halo Territory.”
So, when did that fearlessness start to fade away? Maddon said it was when the Angels parted ways with former manager Mike Scioscia.
“Going out there and playing, trying to do the right thing in the moment. And if it didn't work out, if it was a good baseball play, so what? Turn the page. Sosh is really good at that. So once he left, that's what you're missing.”
Scioscia managed the Angels from 2000 to 2015, and during that stretch, the club reached the playoffs seven times, including in the 2022 season when the then-Anaheim Angels won the World Series. To this day, Scioscia is still the last manager to take the Halos to the postseason in 2014.
Maddon managed the Angels for two-plus seasons, but never had a winning record with them. Los Angeles fired him in the middle of the 2022 season.
