It’s Arte’s Team; He Gets to Name It

As unofficial and unpaid advisor to the city of Anaheim, I respectfully submit:

It’s over.

Angels owner Arte Moreno, former hero and once the most popular man in all 34 of our towns, is now a villain. He’s wearing the goat horns in ways that Mo Vaughn never dreamed of. To maximize advertising revenue, Moreno wants to market his ballclub as the Los Angeles Angels, leaving “Anaheim Angels” to the dustbin of history.

Anaheim officials are offended and point to a contract, properly signed and executed eight years ago with the previous Walt Disney Co. ownership, as being the final word. The team, they say, must remain the Anaheim Angels. If not, the city will sue.

At the risk of being called a hometown honk (am not!), I’m 100% in the Angels corner. The team does play in Anaheim, it’s seen as an Orange County team despite its draw from surrounding counties, and darn it, what’s fair is fair.

But the city’s course is clear, and let me state it in the strongest of terms.

Please don’t embarrass the rest of us by groveling. Be angry if you must. Throw a lamp. Spray graffiti in the Angels dugout. Toss the team’s uniforms on the parking lot outside the stadium.

But, please, don’t beg Arte Moreno to embrace you when he doesn’t want to.

In real-life terms, you’re the husband or wife whose spouse suddenly has made other plans.

We all know what that means, because we’ve all been there. It means you summon your dignity, bite down hard on your lower lip, and go cry in the shower.

No offense, but it always was a bit of a silly notion that Anaheim would burst into the nation’s consciousness, just because of the Angels. Orange County emerged from obscurity, but it took a movie and a couple of TV shows to make it happen.

But Anaheim? Sorry. Not gonna happen. Most people don’t even associate Disneyland with Anaheim, and it’s been here 50 years.

After all, the team has been the Anaheim Angels only since the 1997 season. I know. It’s all about respect, especially when you’re being dumped for Los Angeles. That makes it hurt more. But hanging on to Moreno’s coattails only makes you look like a pathetic, spurned lover.

You win a World Series in 2002 as the Anaheim Angels, he buys the team the next spring, and already he’s got the roving eye. How can you take him back after he has rubbed your nose in the dirt and humiliated you with his public, out-of-town dalliances?

Plus, there is the matter of him being the one who paid $180 million for the team. Doesn’t even a small part of you think he ought have the right to name it? And it’s not as though you still won’t make money off the team’s presence here.

If it’s vengeance you want, consider this: Moreno may get an advertising bonanza from an L.A. connection, but he’ll also get blowback from Orange County fans. Hard to say if that’ll translate to lower attendance or just hurt feelings, but every O.C. resident knows we don’t want the hometown team named after Los Angeles. Moreno never will be as popular around here again as he has been.

But you must let him go. What if he sold the team in the short term if he doesn’t get his way? As good an owner as he has been, would it be worth it to lose him?

No.

Anaheim will survive without its name on the team. After all, it was the Los Angeles Angels and then the California Angels a lot longer than it has been the Anaheim Angels.

Let Moreno name the team as he sees fit. Salvage your pride and let him out of the contract.

But while doing that, make sure to follow the time-honored tradition of other jilted spouses:

Make the bum pay.

Dana Parsons can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.