We've got a few baseball fans at DG, so I thought I'd post some pictures of the Angels game we went to yesterday. It was Angels vs Kansas City.
This is Angel Stadium. The team used to be owned by Disney, so the front of the stadium is whimsical.
Most people do not like it that the Anaheim Angels renamed themselves the Los Angeles Angels.
Larger than life baseball heroes.
The Royals warming up before the game.
This is Jose Lima. We know of him because he played for the Dodgers last year. He did not pitch this game but he was out and about.
This message was edited May 30, 2005 10:42 AM
Everyone wears red for an Angels game.
My favorite is Bengie Molina. I think that catchers have the hardest job.
My other favorite is Chone Figgins. He's one of those speedy, little guys.
The game in progress.
It was fireworks night, and the Angels won, 14-1.
Great pictures Kelli. I was just looking for our last thread to share my Indians pictures from yesterday. I'll just share here since you started a new baseball thread. I just uploaded these to my own page to share. I did not resize so warning if you click on the thumbnail it may take a few second to view. The Indians just swept the Oaklan As today. It was a great game last night and I had a blast. Free bobble head of Travis Hafner too.
http://www.thehman.com/Indians/
Nice pictures, Howie. You had good seats, and it looks like you have a good camera, too.
The seats were good I went for the 25.00 seats and once I got there realized there is not a bad seat in the house. So next game will be the 6 or 10 dollar seats. The zoom made the pictures seam like better seats also. It was a great time and my first MLB game.
Great pictures Kelli and Howie. Enjoyed them. I wondered why the Angels changed their name also. Didn't they used to be the California Angels? I haven't made a game this year but hope to before long. Howie I read a post that Kim made that said you were going and I was watching tv and they announced the score and the Indians were leading and I thought man I bet that Howie is having a good time. Sure makes it a lot more fun when your team wins.
Yes it does. I really enjoyed it. I seen a sports show that was talking about the Angels. I don't recall if they were the California Angels or not but the reason the wanted to change to LA was money. They thought it would give them a bigger fan base. Plus think of all the new gear they will sell to the die hard fans that have to have hats and jerseys with the new name.
On anther note I'm wondering how long it will be before the Indians get rid off Cheif Wahoo. I hope never.
Howie that reminds me of the Braves and their Chief NOKAHOMA that used to come on the field before every game riding a pinto and throw a spear into the ground around the mound area and actually had a teepee in left field and if the Braves hit a home run the teepee would have a large explosion and smoke would come out of the top. Day's of yester year. Can't rememeber when they stopped that but it was really enjoyable because the braves couldn't win two games in a row in those days and it was something that was enjoyable to take the kids to see. I have pictures here somewhere if I can remember where. Maybe I will find and post.
You got it Howie. The Anaheim Angels changed to the Los Angeles Angels to try to increase their fan base, and thus, the money coming in. They want to be as universally popular as the Yankees. (I don't know why they went from the California Angels to Anaheim Angels. That was before I was interested in baseball.) The official name is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which is kind of a laughingstock among broadcasters. Interestingly, they don't sell anything that says Los Angeles Angels. It just says Angels. Even their road uniforms say Angels, instead of a city name. Myself, I still call them the Anaheim Angels. Los Angeles is the Dodgers. The Dodgers were there first. The Dodgers are actually in L.A.
Here's a picture I forgot. This is Steve Finley. The girls love him. ;-) If only he would start hitting like he's "supposed" to.
This message was edited May 30, 2005 11:26 AM
Kelli wasn't the Angel's the team that Gene Autry once owned?
I think they can carry the PC stuff a little to far. I never thought that Chief Wahoo was being disrespectful. In fact one of the reasons I like the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians is because I always liked Indian history and the Indian culture. I know Wahoo is on his way out. They already are making the transition to the script I on there uniforms.
The owner of the Redskins could not get a paten on the name because it was said to be a derogatory term. That was later over turned. I guess we should not have the white sox either. I don't know I think it just gets to much made out of it. I don't have a problem with the Cowboys having a cowboy running around or the Vikings with there warrior. I mean come on there are real issues to tackle in this world. I think sports mascots are the least of those. I'm not saying that preduces is not a huge issue to be dealt with. I just don't think this is part of that.
The Angels were once owned by Gene Autry.
I am surprised that the Cincinnati Reds' name survived the cold war era. I wonder if some people ever thought it was sort of blasphemous to name a team the Angels.
I would imagine someone did think that about the Angels. I know there are some real concerns with race issues but I just think we tend to get carried away with things sometimes.
Anyway one thing we can do it enjoy the game and if they change the name or the mascot oh well it's still baseball.
It's too bad that people have gotten offended by mascots when no offense is meant. It's good that people are trying to be more sensitive to others, but there needs to be some rationalism, too. Chief Wahoo is not a literal representation of what any or all Native Americans look like, any more than I look like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish guy. On the other hand, if there was a team on an Indian reservation was called the White Guys and their mascot was a goofy-looking white guy, would that seem like making fun of white people? It could.
Yes I know what you mean. However Iike I said the dallas cowboys have a goofey looking white guy named rowdy and no one cares.
I do see it to a point and I am glad we are being more aware of racial problems. The Indians have quit using Cheif Wahoo as a mascot we now have a bird or some animal named Slider. Poor animals think of all the bad raps they get in the mascot world.
Man Kelli your Angels need to get a win over the White Sox. I was hoping they would bring them down a notch or two in the standings so the Indians could catch up. The Indians won again tonight and are now at 500.
The Angels can be frustrating. The Dodgers are even more frustrating.
We went to a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix over the weekend. In the morning we took a tour of the stadium. The first pictures with few or no people in them were taken then.
This is the general area of the main entrance to Bank One Ballpark. It is an architecturally interesting building.
The roof is open during the day so that the grass can get some sun. Later they close the roof and turn on the air conditioning. If it is a night game, they will open the roof again after the sun goes down. If I didn't have such a lame photo editor program, I could draw an arrow on this picture to show where our seats were. See where the Jiffy Lube advertisement is? We were in the section to the right of that section, in the first tier, 23 rows from the front. That's the closest to home plate we have ever been able to get seats.
This is the view from a luxury box. The people on the field are corporate sponsors participating in some kind of baseball fantasy thing.
This is the view from the dugout seats - not the dugout itself, but the seating next to it.
The entrance rotunda has paintings around it illustrating the history of sports. This is one panel.
Further up in the rotunda are pictures of Arizona scenery.
The railroad runs right past the stadium.
This was taken about an hour before the game. The roof is closed. It's a big crowd-pleaser when they open the roof. The opposing team happens to be the Royals again. ("The Arizona Republic" is a newspaper.)
It was playing card night. (BTW, the "queen" is the team mascot, who is a bobcat.)
Now the roof is open. They keep the air conditioning running while the roof is open. Sometimes you feel a gust of hot air and sometimes you feel a gust of cooler air. It was surprisingly windy with the roof open, though it wasn't windy outside.
This is Luis Gonzalez. He seems to be a big fan favorite. He might be the only one left from the 2001 World Series team.
Some more action, or rather, a pause in the action. Apparently the pitcher is discombobulated and is getting a visit from the catcher. The Royals pitcher was some new guy straight up from AA. Number 25 is Troy Glaus. He used to play for the Angels.
In case there are any Royals fans looking a this, here is Tony Graffanino. I don't know anything about him but he was close enough to get a picture.
After dark. You probably can't read it, but on the out-of-town scoreboard, it says, TB 2, PIT 18. That tickled me. To the left of the big Pepsi and Great Clips advertisements, there is a narrow band of seats in the upper level. Those are the $1 seats. They go on sale 2 hours before each game. As you can see, this game was not all that well attended. The stadium was about 3/5 full. The Diamondbacks lost, 8-5.
