After Angels’ First Try, It Was ‘Heaven Forbid’

The Angels were all set to unveil their new uniforms a couple of months ago, but cooler heads prevailed. Somebody managed to persuade Disney’s creative design people that there was nothing cool about a professional ballplayer decked out in wildly striped sleeves and periwinkle, a sort of baby blue with a dash of lavender.

Tuesday at the Pond, Tim Mead, Angel assistant general manager, and Chuck Champlin, Disney consumer products director of communications, pulled the cord on a curtain hiding a couple of mannequins wearing fairly traditional looking double-knit button-down pinstripes.

The new home uniforms are white with navy pinstripes, navy sleeves and navy socks. The road uniforms are gray with the same navy pinstripes, sleeves and socks. The periwinkle has been reduced to the button atop the cap and a highlight in the logo and around the numbers. The club’s traditional red is retained in the word “Angels” on the front and the player’s number on the jersey’s back.

Only the alternate jersey, solid navy with periwinkle sleeves, looks as if it should have “Big Al’s Pizza” across the back. The alternate cap is navy with a periwinkle bill.

Disney and Angel officials will not say that merchandise sales had anything to do with their changes. The only new piece of merchandise that is not already on the shelves is the official jersey--at $130--that will be available at the Pond beginning March 1 and in retail stores soon thereafter.

“The new uniform is all about creating a new identity for the club,” Champlin said. “What we hoped to do with this uniform was make two statements on behalf of the Angels. First, is that the uniform is firmly based in the traditions of Angel baseball.”