Winning Is the New Name of This Game

If the Angels are going to antagonize the heart of their fan base and fight City Hall while attempting a hostile takeover of Los Angeles, there’s only one way to make it all work: win.

It’s all or nothing now. No more feel-good, no more “nice try.”

If Arte Moreno is going to play with the big boys and act like a big-market team, then he loses the lone privilege that comes with being small-market -- the absence of pressure.

It isn’t only the name change to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It’s the roster shift away from the familiar faces we saw jumping around the infield on that joyous October night in 2002.

Troy Percival, who recorded the final out in that World Series Game 7 and saved 316 regular-season games with the Angels, is gone to Detroit. Before there was “Game Over” at Dodger Stadium, Percival was throwing “Smoke on the Water” in Anaheim.

Third baseman Troy Glaus, the most valuable player of that World Series, is off to Arizona.

The little shortstop that could, David Eckstein, is a St. Louis Cardinal.

Somehow the Angels managed to avoid the outpouring of grief that emanated from Dodger fans after the team lost Adrian Beltre to free agency and sent Shawn Green to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But at least the Dodgers gave their fans some reassurance by avoiding arbitration with Eric Gagne and signing him to a new contract for two more years. No need to put those “Game Over” T-shirts on EBay.

The Angels could justify their unsentimental decisions because they had ready-made replacements, which in most cases you could see coming. Francisco Rodriguez will take the closer’s role, which seemed his destiny ever since his dazzling 2002 postseason. He’s 12 years younger than the 35-year-old Percival, who made the transition easier with the classy way he handled it.

Prospect Dallas McPherson will replace Glaus, who hadn’t been around much anyway. Glaus played in only 159 games his final two years with the team.

And even with everyone rooting for Eckstein, his totals of five home runs and 66 runs batted in the last two seasons were barely equivalent to what he did in 2002 alone. So hello Orlando Cabrera.

There are logical business arguments in every case. And that’s what the Angels are about now. Pure results and cold cash.

Thus the name change. You’ve heard the reasons why -- the branding, the sponsorship revenues, all of those terms that don’t pop in your head when you think of baseball.

I don’t get the outrage. They were only the Anaheim Angels for eight seasons. Only 360 of their season-ticket accounts -- a total of 1,104 seats, or 5% -- belong to people with Anaheim addresses. So it really isn’t an affront to the population.

But folks in the O.C. are upset, so that’s all that matters. They won’t be giving the Angels the benefit of any doubt.

The Angels can absorb angry cancellations if their mass-marketing scheme works. Their 480-billboard advertising campaign began in earnest last week, with signs from Bellflower to Santa Monica, from the suburbs to the ‘hood.

“City of Angels” it reads, with the familiar halo gracing the A.

“What I’m trying to do is make it a 12-month awareness level,” said John Carpino, the Angels’ vice president for sales and marketing. “Winning creates an environment where the awareness is high. But what happens a little bit, from November through March -- with the exception of this year -- there’s not a lot of talk about baseball. For us, from a sponsorship level, that’s our peak sales time. I’m trying to create awareness of the Angels throughout the year.

“We’re all the City of Angels. It’s kind of a little play on words, making the brand bigger.”

Carpino doesn’t expect people from Oxnard to buy season tickets and make it to every game. But if they buy a mini-plan and attend 20 games, that’s a victory for the Angels.

“I hope to hit about 5,000 of those type tickets,” Carpino said.

“More than anything, I’m trying to build a fan base throughout the area, because it really benefits my television and radio partners.”

And, of course, the best way to get fans in L.A. interested is to win.

The Angels will start behind the Dodgers. Both teams won their divisions, but the Dodgers at least managed to win a playoff game. There wasn’t much distress about the Angels’ sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox because everyone knew the Sox were the better team.

That won’t cut it anymore. With their new name -- their new brand -- if the Angels fail, they’re no longer the lovable neighborhood team.

And if they win ...

“If you’re winning, you could be the Culver City Angels,” Carpino said.