Thinking Outside the Box
I used to think the people in Orange County were the only ones who cared much about Arte’s folly and the subsequent trial. The people I knew up north were Dodgers fans – even when they decided to wander down to Anaheim to watch the Angels play. When I spotted the car above, however, I was forced to rethink my assumptions. Maybe there is something to the name change. Given the jury’s decision, maybe we could use a little more “out of the box thinking” so here it is:
I propose a trade. We give Los Angeles the Angels and they give us the Clippers. This way everyone get something. Arte, coveting the Los Angeles market can legitimately claim it and simplify the name of the team. The Clippers will no longer be the “other” L.A. basketball team. (Ignore the fact for the moment that the LA basketball team is a mere one game above 500 and are 2-7 since leaving on their most recent road trip.) As a sweetener, we’ll throw in our professional Lacrosse team, theLos Angeles Storm of Anaheim – may they’ll find a little more fan support up north.
Is this a great idea or what!? And while we’re talking trades, are you folk up north happy with your sheriff?
I’m starting to think a little deeper about the name change and the division it has created. On one hand the Anaheim Angels were a product of Orange County, they were part of a culture and population that few outside of the OC understand.
When we look at the addition of “Los Angeles” to the name it looks like a team trying to be everything to everyone, but it is also trying to attract a crowd that does not belong to the OC lifestyle. Arte wants to attract the blue collar low-income families from Riverside and San Berndino, not to mention the ones from Los Angeles to root on his team. The problem in this is that by doing so it has created the very divison that he hoped to avoid with the citizens of Orange County. Everyone should have the ability to experience the fun of a sunday afternoon ballgame during the summer, but to name the team in such a way that we have to give them the abrivation LAAA and a name that is way too long just makes us a laughing stock.
I have always been a fan of the Halos, but with the name Los Angeles attached to it it makes it harder for me to put my full support in to the team. I wish Arte recognized the fact that when the Anaheim Angels won the World Series in 2002, the crowd increased, when the team got new uniforms and a new “meaner” design, the crowd increased, it did so without the adoption of a second city to it’s name.