Anaheim Pushes Ahead on Angel Name Fight

The Anaheim City Council redoubled its commitment to its lawsuit against the Angels on Tuesday, adding a prominent attorney to its legal team and mapping a strategy that could keep the case alive for months.

As the newly renamed Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim open spring training today, with national media outlets set to drop the Anaheim Angel name, the council voted to file appeals designed to force the team to revert to its old name. Mayor Curt Pringle said he hoped an appeal could be heard within 60 days.

The council voted 4 to 1 to pursue an appeal, with Councilwoman Lorri Galloway dissenting. She declined to comment.

An appeal, if heard, is seldom successful. City attorneys plan to file a traditional appeal, which must be heard, and a petition for writ of mandate, another form of appeal that the court can reject without a hearing.

The council also voted unanimously to proceed to trial -- a date is expected to be set March 8 -- and hired Andrew Guilford, a past president of the California Bar Assn., as co-counsel. He will work with Mike Rubin, the city’s lead attorney, in trying to prove the Angels’ name change violates their stadium lease.

In the meantime, as the new season dawns, ESPN plans to replace “ANA” with “LAA” on its scoreboards, spokesman Nate Smeltz said.

The Times will continue to refer to the team as the Angels in stories, standings and box scores.

Associated Press, which provides standings and box scores to newspapers and websites worldwide, plans to refer to the team as the Los Angeles Angels, sports editor Terry Taylor said.

“The ‘of Anaheim’ will not make it,” Taylor said.

Referring to the city’s decision, Pringle did acknowledge “most pretrial appeals are not successful.”

In refusing to grant the preliminary injunction that would have stopped the name change, Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Polos said damages could be measured in dollars if the Angels are found guilty of breaking the lease.

Pringle said every mention of the Angels without Anaheim damages the city beyond dollars and illustrates how owner Arte Moreno’s change violates the intent of the lease, even “if a new owner wants to interpret it in some goofball way.” Moreno inherited the lease when he bought the Angels from Disney in 2003.

Polos also ruled the city has “failed to show a reasonable probability” of winning in a trial that might not begin for months, would not get the Anaheim Angel name back and could commit city taxpayers to a million-dollar legal bill. But the council heard from three lawyers, including Guilford, who said otherwise.

“Every one of them said this was a winnable case,” Pringle said. “We don’t think this is a lost cause at all.”

The city plans to use revenue from its convention and entertainment operations, including about $2 million from the Angels last year, to finance the lawsuit.

Also Tuesday, the Dodgers issued a news release that noted their exhibition schedule will conclude with three games against the “Anaheim Angels.”

“The Los Angeles Dodgers will continue to refer to the Angels’ home city as Anaheim,” Dodger spokesman Gary Miereanu said.