Will the New Angels Fly?

“Ladies and Gentlemen, your Aaaaanaheim Angels!” With a new emblem sporting a rainbow of colors that includes a shade of blue known as periwinkle. Welcome to the new look of baseball in Orange County.

The name change from the California Angels may take some getting used to. So will the Angels’ new logo. But baseball purists should remember the uniforms worn by many teams two decades ago that now cause shudders when seen in films of games past. The Oakland Athletics, the San Diego Padres, the Cincinnati Reds, to mention just a few, looked then like wads of polyester searching for disco night. Somehow, it didn’t interfere with the hitting and the pitching.

Walt Disney Co. has bought controlling interest of the Angels and is starting to exhibit the hands-on management for which it is famed. The stadium is being torn apart in a much needed overhaul. It was a good ballpark 30 years ago, but when the football Rams moved down the freeway from Los Angeles the stadium was walled in and lost its former charm.

It will take well over a year to refurbish the stadium. But during a recent tour of the work in progress Disney officials said that the stadium will seat about 30,000 people when the cry of “Play ball” echoes next April. That is down from the current capacity of more than 64,000. With many of those seats empty in recent seasons, those who did attend often had a lonely feeling.

The new logo sports baseball bats and an angel’s wing in eight colors, including periwinkle and several other shades of blue.

One tradition worth establishing would be winning teams. No one expects a dynasty, but teams consistently near or at the top would be a treat for fans. Extra crowds would also help the city of Anaheim, which is putting up $30 million of the $100 million needed for remodeling.

With the Rams gone to St. Louis and Disney having bought the major interest in the Angels from Gene and Jackie Autry, and with Disney owning the Mighty Ducks professional hockey team as well as the theme park that started it all, the city and the corporation are bound more tightly than ever. A good stadium and a winning team could go far toward improving the partnership.