Editorial | Anaheim’s two sports teams could not be any different
Collage by Easton Clark, Photo Editor
The Ducks are back in the playoffs for the first time in eight years. And the Angels still suck. That is the state of sports in Anaheim.
Nobody is shocked by this. The Ducks have been strategic and built a roster of young talent. While the team has been inconsistent at times this season, they’ve also had periods where they look like one of the best rosters in hockey. Give it a few years, and making the playoffs will be the standard. Chasing Stanley Cups will become the goal.
For the Angels, they have no direction. It’s indicative of their identity in the city. Which is that they have none. Always longing to be part of the LA sports-sphere without ever truly embracing the Orange County culture. The team doesn’t even call itself the Anaheim Angels anymore, which is a fun alliteration — it sticks with the terrible name of the Los Angeles Angels.
The Ducks, on the other hand, seem to love being here. Beating the rival LA Kings is one of the big goals of the season. Orange is their primary color. Right now, in The Circle, Play Coffee has rebranded itself to the “Ducks Playoff House,” selling team merchandise and themed drinks.
Anaheim and Orange County aren’t a footnote of the franchises’ identity. The Ducks have made it clear that they care about the community around them.
The fact that the Angels brand themselves as an LA team is pathetic. Yes, other sports teams represent cities that they don’t actually play in. For example, The New York Giants and New York Jets play in East Rutherford, New Jersey. But they don’t have another local team across the street calling itself “The East Rutherford Ducks” now do they?
Also, LA already has a baseball team. One that actually plays in the city!
The Angels continue to be middling at best and utter garbage at worst. They are once again relying on an aging Mike Trout to be great, just as they hoped Shohei Ohtani could carry them to a World Series with no true investment in the squad around him. Blessed with generational talent twice, and the franchise has nothing to show for it.
Imagine the Ducks told Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier to just go out on the ice with a bunch of scrubs and try to drag the team to the playoffs. It would be utter nonsense. But it is what the Angels continue to do.
I am not an expert on baseball by any means. But all hope for the Angels to have a great season like the Ducks did is gone. They started 2-0. Outfielder Jo Adell made national headlines when he robbed three home runs in one game. But those good vibes quickly dissipated. And now they’ve started this season with almost the exact same record through 20-odd games as last year. A year that ended with a 72-90 record and the bottom spot in the American League West.
Being at Chapman, there is no sense that the greater OC community has embraced the Angels. The games are rarely packed. There is no buzz around the team.
Contrast that with the Ducks, and it feels like a different world. You go to a bar and see jerseys being worn everywhere. The game is on the TV and people are cheering. Classmates and friends chat about their success. Games are sold out.
If you build a talented and fun team people will be invested. If you care about the city you play your games in, people will be invested. The results don’t have to come right away, but the fans need some level of hope to cling onto.
No matter how this playoff run ends for the Ducks — whether in great triumph or blowout defeats — fans will have a reason to look forward to next season. They’ll be disappointed that the current one ended. For Angels fans, these 162 games can’t be played fast enough.
