TEAM HISTORY
The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, part of Orange County and the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The club has played its home games at Angel Stadium since 1966. The current MLB franchise was established as one of the league's first two expansion teams in 1961 by Gene Autry, the team's first owner. Autry was a famous singing cowboy actor in a series of films in the 1930s to 1950s, and later founded the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum.
The "Angels" name was taken by Autry in tribute to the original Los Angeles Angels, a Minor League franchise in the Pacific Coast League (PCL), which played in South Central Los Angeles from 1903 to 1957. He bought the rights to the Angels name from Walter O'Malley, the then-Los Angeles Dodgers owner, who acquired the PCL franchise from Philip K. Wrigley, also the owner of the parent Chicago Cubs at the time, as part of the Dodgers' move to Southern California.
The "Los Angeles Angels" name originates from the first Los Angeles-based sports team, the Los Angeles Angels, who took the name "Angels" from the English translation of "Los Angeles", which means "The Angels" in Spanish. The team name started in 1892; in 1903, the team name continued in L.A. through the PCL, which is now a minor league affiliate of MiLB. The Angels franchise of today was established in MLB in 1961 after former owner Gene Autry bought the rights to continue the franchise name from Walter O'Malley, the former Los Angeles Dodgers owner who had acquired the franchise from Phil Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs at the time. As stated in the book Under the Halo: The Official History of Angels Baseball, "Autry agreed to buy the franchise name for $350,000, and continue the history of the previously popular Pacific Coast League team as his own expansion team in the MLB." After the Angels joined the Major Leagues, some players from the Angels' PCL team joined the Major League Angels in 1961.
As an expansion franchise, the club continued in Los Angeles as the "Los Angeles Angels", and played their home games at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (not to be confused with Chicago's stadium of the same name), which had formerly been the home of the PCL Los Angeles Angels. The Angels were one of two expansion teams established as a result of the 1961 Major League Baseball expansion, along with the second incarnation of the Washington Senators (now Texas Rangers). The team then moved in 1962 to the newly built Dodger Stadium, which the Angels referred to as Chavez Ravine, where they were tenants of the Los Angeles Dodgers through 1965.
The team's founder, entertainer Gene Autry, owned the franchise for its first 36 years. During Autry's ownership, the team made the playoffs three times but never won the pennant. The team has gone through several name changes in their history, first changing their name to the California Angels on September 2, 1965, with a month still left in the season, in recognition of their upcoming move to the newly constructed Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim at the start of the 1966 season. When The Walt Disney Company took control of the team in 1997, it extensively renovated Anaheim Stadium, which was then renamed Edison International Field of Anaheim. The City of Anaheim contributed $30 million to the $118 million renovations with a renegotiated lease providing that the names of both the stadium and team contain the word "Anaheim". The team was renamed the Anaheim Angels and became a subsidiary of Disney Sports, Inc. (later renamed Anaheim Sports, Inc.). Under Disney's ownership and the leadership of manager Mike Scioscia, the Angels won their first pennant and World Series championship in 2002.
