Ram Fans Would Vote for Better Football

Survey says seven out of 10 Orange County voters couldn’t care less if the Rams stay or go.

Record book says seven out of 10 games played by the Rams in the 1990s ended in defeat.

Coincidence?

I think not.

The results of that Times Orange County poll certainly grab one’s attention.

Two-thirds of the county voters say it is not important to them personally if the Rams remain in Anaheim.

Three-fourths oppose the county government offering financial enticements to keep the Rams in Anaheim.

More than half believe there is no special prestige or civic pride in having the Rams stay in Anaheim.

Instant conclusion to be drawn?

Orange County to Rams: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Of course, the numbers cut deeper than just that. John Shaw will undoubtedly use these percentages to further prod Georgia Frontiere to pick up the phone and dial Bekins. He will tell Georgia, “See, what did I tell you? The interest simply isn’t there. Orange County cannot and will not adequately support a professional football franchise.”

And he will be dead wrong.

The way I look at this poll, Orange County has no problem at all with professional football. To the contrary, this poll tells me that Orange County loves the game. Appreciates it. Relishes it. Has become something of a connoisseur of it.

Which is why Orange County wouldn’t mind at all if the Rams were sent back to the kitchen with the waiter.

Enough of this swill, the fans are saying.

Bring us something better.

At this point, even an expansion franchise would suffice. Anything different, anything new. After 15 years of half-hearted commitment to the product on the field, of assembling The Best Team Pennysaver Coupons Can Buy, the Rams have poisoned the well. That’s the thing about playing your home games in the consumer capital of the western United States.

Here, they know the difference between fine and shoddy merchandise.

Several of the poll respondents complained that the Rams give very little back to the community and have never fully embraced Orange County as their home, pointing to the simple fact that the Rams of Anaheim Stadium are still known officially as the “Los Angeles Rams.”

This annoys Orange Countians more than Frontiere and Shaw, both devout Angelenos, could ever imagine. Orange County cut the umbilical cord from L.A. years ago. It wants its name on the marquee, not somebody else’s, which is why Michael Eisner’s naming of his hockey team was such a stroke. They are not of the Mighty Ducks of California or the Mighty Ducks of Golden State. They are the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

When Eisner held a press conference to reveal the franchise name, he quickly pointed out that his Ducks would be Orange County’s first major league franchise to use the designation “Anaheim.”

The resulting ovation rattled the rafters in the arena roof over his head.

Orange Countians also contend that they derive no great personal satisfaction or sense of pride in having the Rams stay in Anaheim. This is a surprise? Losing the footrace to the goal line, getting wiped off the field, botching personnel decisions, losing to Cincinnati and Cleveland--this is not the image the average Orange County executive wishes to project to the rest of the nation.

If most of the Anaheim Stadium private-suite dwellers conducted their businesses they way the Rams have conducted theirs, they’d be out of their private suites and hunched down in the parking lot, scrounging for unused ticket stubs.

Orange Countians want a team that represents them and the way they live. The Rams fall far short of this ideal, and so do the Angels. When Orange County looked at Buck Rodgers, it saw one of its own. Same with Jim Abbott. Same with Nolan Ryan. These are doers, and do-gooders, but most of all, they are keepers. After 3 1/2 decades, the Angels still are unable to figure it out.

Joe Fan living in Huntington Beach knows that four years of declining production from Jim Everett is two too many.

Jill Fan living in Mission Viejo can tell you that when you swear you’re going to draft Trent Dilfer if he’s there, and your turn is up and Trent Dilfer is there, you go with your first thought, not your third.

Dunderheads are not suffered here for long. Nor malingerers. Winning isn’t everything, but effort and competence are. Go 0 for 3 in those departments, or create the impression that you have, and, sure, attention spans are going to wane and newspaper polls are going to turn up 68% take-em-or-leave-em.

Seven out of 10 Orange County voters say it’s no skin off their noses if the Rams board up the shop and leave town for Baltimore or Hartford.

What I want to know is: Has anybody bothered to poll Baltimore or Hartford?