Whose Idea Was It? They Shall Remain Nameless

I have a few questions when it comes to L.A. baseball, no names on the backs of uniforms and strange marketing campaigns.

If the Dodgers’ new advertising slogan this season is “This is L.A. Baseball,” then why so much emphasis on what happened in Brooklyn 50 years ago, even going so far as to have their players wear Brooklyn jerseys at times this season?

If “This is L.A. Baseball,” why take the names of the players off the backs of the uniforms, in part, as we’ve been told, because it pays homage to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who didn’t wear their names on the backs of their uniforms?

If “This is L.A. Baseball,” who cares if a team from Brooklyn won a World Series 50 years ago?

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THE DODGERS said their new slogan, “This is L.A. Baseball,” has nothing to do with the Angels’ name change. This from the guy who said the Dodgers were never really considering a mascot, and this from the team that said it had no desire to trade Shawn Green.

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YOU HAVE to admire the Dodgers’ marketing chutzpah, rolling out a campaign that has Sandy Koufax dissolving into Fernando Valenzuela into Odalis Perez. The Dodgers showed no interest in re-signing Perez at the end of the season, but it’s pretty obvious now why they changed their minds, or they’d have had to dissolve Koufax into Valenzuela into Kaz Ishii.

I wonder why they didn’t do Gil Hodges to Steve Garvey to Hee-Seop Choi?

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I WAS curious to learn just how irate Angel fans were with the name change to “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,” so I went to the Brea Mall and bought an Angel baseball cap and a genuine Angel top with Guerrero’s name on the back. I’ve always been kind of fond of Lisa Guerrero anyway.

I had someone embroider a white “L” in front of the haloed “A” on the baseball cap, and someone else iron on a blue “Los Angeles” stencil atop “Angels” on the shirt. I was now a Los Angeles Angel fan, and you know how important I think it is to support our local teams.

Then I went to the Angels’ fan-fest at Angel Stadium, arriving almost an hour early in a steady drizzle to find more than a thousand fans waiting in line. I don’t know how they knew I was going to be there, but they just did.

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I SPENT almost four hours at the fan-fest walking among thousands of Angel fans, and beyond the usual disgust for Page 2, I didn’t have one Angel fan seriously take offense with the L.A. Angel attire. Several fans said they didn’t like the name change, but all apparently agreed that I looked just fine, with only one obvious exception.

“You’re going out in public dressed like that?” the wife said, and the fact that she rolled over and had something to say before noon on a Saturday was so exciting that I can’t even remember how I responded.

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THE ANGELS said owner Arte Moreno had to attend to a family matter that prevented him from meeting with the fans. Moreno, though, gave an interview to MLB.com that included these hard-hitting questions: “Are you ready [for spring training]?” and “What is it about this time of year that gets you so excited?”

Eventually MLB.com got to the name change, and Moreno said, “My belief is that long term, for us to be competitive in the baseball world, you have to be able to earn the dollars.

“Last week [NFL Commissioner] Paul Tagliabue addressed the press and talked about how there’s decades that have gone by without the NFL in the L.A. market. For us, all of our media comes from the L.A. metro area -- all papers, all the TV, all the radio -- [and] for us to get an opportunity to market the whole metro area long term, you have to do the right things. It will give us more viability in the long run.”

For the record, there is a newspaper in Orange County, but I believe it’s a shopper.

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SEVERAL FANS were wearing “Just say no to L.A.” T-shirts, but I got to the bottom of that. Paul Ollen said he’d been making the shirts and selling them on EBay for $13. “Our peaceful protest,” he said, which then drew a protest from his wife, Judy.

“I’m tired of it,” said Judy, who apparently has been doing more than her full share when it comes to production.

Ollen, meanwhile, asked if he could have his picture taken with me and -- you guessed it -- he put his wife to work again and had her take the picture. Based on the look on her face, I’m not sure we’ll be seeing many more of those “Just say no to L.A.” T-shirts.

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THE TIMES had a booth at the Angel fan-fest, so I stopped by to say hello to my comrades, Brian Kim and John Ornelas, who were pushing the paper to fans. I told them I work for the paper, and both Kim and Ornelas said, “What do you do?”

“Nothing that anyone would notice,” I said.

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I ALSO went to the UCLA-Arizona game, and said hello to Coach John Wooden. The father/daughter radio show was mentioned, and Coach Wooden said, “You ought to put the Bagger on.” As you know, Coach Wooden has a soft spot in his heart for anyone stuck at the bottom of the Pyramid of Success.

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UCLA LED Arizona by a point at halftime, and then it was time for adjustments. With 1:12 remaining, Arizona led by 21. It makes you wonder if Karl Dorrell and Ben Howland have been spending too much time together.

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THE WIFE, who is a grandma-to-be, said the daughter went to the doctor and now has pictures of the grandchild-to-be. I took a look at the sonogram, and from what I can tell she’s carrying a Martian. It appears it’s going to look like its father.

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FREDDIE MITCHELL, Cade McNown and Ed O’Bannon were at the game, and I had no idea it was First-Round Bust Day at UCLA.

Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.