And Tinker Bell Can’t Pitch, Either

The long saga of California Angel history continues its shapeless form. The Angels have tried everything to win--high-priced free agents, baseball gurus, wholesale trades of promising minor leaguers, matriarchal management, logo mutations and now Disney control. Regardless of the future’s intended changes, I see no way for the club to rise from baseball’s doldrums.

The Angels have always been a team in flux. What the Angels need, but are severely lacking, is a strategy that brings stability and longevity to the franchise. Look around the major leagues--the teams that succeed are the ones with a proud history and a sense of tradition. Disney’s new makeover of the Angels, scheduled for the 1997 season, simply prolongs the Angels’ malaise. Instead of genuine baseball, fans are “treated” to a carnival atmosphere absent of baseball’s magic and appeal.

Sorry, Mr. Tavares, but this is one challenge that won’t be cured with a wave of Tinker Bell’s wand.

JOHN G. HERNANDEZ

Claremont

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I have a slogan in my cubicle at work that sums up the baseball mentality in Anaheim:

“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganization, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion inefficiency and demoralization.”

Petronius Arbiter, Greek Navy, 210 B.C.

Perhaps Tony Tavares has relatives in Athens?

ETHAN M. SAMPLES

Riverside

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Thank you, Bill Plaschke [Aug. 11] for explaining things to the folks at Disney about the presentation of the game of baseball. For the true fan, the Anaheim Stadium experience is almost unbearable. More than that, though, I wonder what visiting players think of those insipid, nonstop, kiddie-show shenanigans. Who’s going to want to join an organization that doesn’t appear to take the game seriously?

MARC GERBER

Malibu

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The Angels’ motto--”We Play Hardball”--should be changed to: “We Hardly Play Ball.”

LEW RILEY

Yorba Linda