Angel Stadium turns 60 next year. By then, the city of Anaheim hopes to learn how many hundreds of millions of dollars it might take to keep the stadium viable for decades to come.
The Angels’ stadium lease extends through 2032, and the city manager said Tuesday there are no talks between the city and the team about what might happen beyond then.
“I want to be clear that there are no long-term discussions taking place, and none imminent,” Anaheim City Manager Jim Vanderpool told council members Tuesday.
In 2022, after the disclosure of a federal corruption investigation into then-mayor Harry Sidhu, the council killed a deal under which Angels owner Arte Moreno would have bought the stadium and surrounding land for $150 million, then built a neighborhood atop the parking lots and renovated or replaced the stadium.
“We expect a finalized assessment in mid-2026,” Vanderpool said.
After an initial visual inspection, engineers are currently testing concrete and metal structures within the ballpark, Vanderpool said.
The results could inform the city and team about what needs to be done to maintain the stadium into the future as well as spark a debate over which party should be responsible for any currently needed upgrades.
Cal Raleigh became the first player to hit 40 homers this season with a tiebreaking solo shot in the sixth inning of the Seattle Mariners’ 7-2 victory over the Angels on Saturday night.
Raleigh hammered a 97-mph fastball from José Fermin 416 feet into the right-field bleachers for his second homer in eight games since winning the Home Run Derby.
Julio Rodríguez hit his fourth solo homer in three games at Angel Stadium, and Randy Arozarena also connected for the Mariners (56-49).
George Kirby struck out nine over six difficult innings of five-hit ball to earn his fourth win in five starts despite not matching his 14-strikeout performance at Angel Stadium last month. Kirby fanned Luis Rengifo on a slider with the bases loaded to end the sixth.
Taylor Ward hit his 24th homer for the Angels (50-55), who have lost five of six.
Angels star Mike Trout walks back to the dugout after striking out in the first inning of a 7-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night.
(William Liang / Associated Press)
Tyler Anderson yielded six hits and two runs while pitching inefficiently into the fifth. The veteran left-hander and Angels trade candidate has a 5.66 ERA in his last four starts.
Rodríguez connected in the third, adding his 18th homer of the season to his solo shot Thursday and two more in the Mariners’ loss Friday.
Arozarena led off the fourth with his 20th homer, reaching the milestone for the fifth consecutive season.
Yoán Moncada, another Angels trade candidate, left in pain after Kirby’s fastball hit him in the hand. X-rays were negative.
Raleigh is the seventh catcher in major league history to hit 40 homers in a season. It’s been done nine times overall — twice by Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza.
Ron Washington was beaming in his black suit, complete with a red tie, as he sat at a table perched on a platform in the Home Plate Club of Angel Stadium on Wednesday.
The 71-year old manager from New Orleans, the newest in Angels history, scanned the room, taking in his moment as his new general manager, Perry Minasian, boasted about him. Minasian gave him his official Angels gear and Washington affixed his newest cap to his head and meticulously buttoned each button on his newest jersey.
“Now I’m legit,” Washington said and smiled.
It had been nine years since Washington had been in this position, the manager of a major league baseball team. Now that he was back, he stated his message clearly: The Angels will be a force to be reckoned with while he’s in charge.
“Our whole focus is going to be to run the [American League] West down,” Washington said in front of a crowd of Angels players, alumni, media members and team employees. “And you can take that to the bank and deposit it.”
Washington, hired by Texas Rangers ahead of the 2007 season, has had a chip on his shoulder after not winning a World Series despite AL pennants in 2010 and 2011 and a wild-card berth in 2012.
He left the Rangers before the end of the 2014 season — stating, at the time, that his decision to leave was because he had been unfaithful to his wife. Of the nature of his departure from the Rangers, Minasian said Wednesday that he had done his due diligence and felt comfortable hiring Washington.
Washington had been trying to return to a managerial position since then, interviewing with at least three other clubs over the years, he said, but he never stopped believing his next opportunity would come.
He has a World Series ring, having been an integral part of the 2021 campaign of the Atlanta Braves, the team he had been the third base coach for since the 2017 season.
Angels new manager Ron Washington, left, and general manager Perry Minisian hug during a news conference Wednesday at Angel Stadium.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
And he spoke with more than just determination, but a conviction in the Angels, with his confidence in himself and down-to-the-soul belief in a better Angels future paving the way.
The Angels have not reached the playoffs since 2014 and have eight straight losing seasons. In addition, Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani is a free agent and could leave the team. While some view the roster as weak, Washington sees potential.
“I really have been, since I’ve been here these past three days, focusing in on these young arms we got,” Washington said. “I am very impressed with the young arms we got. That’s why we trying to find us a pitching coach to guide them in the right direction.
“Pitching and defense is the key to success. The rest of it, I’m going to take care of as we move along. … The defense, you’re looking at the best in the business, and that’s not patting myself on the back. That’s a fact.”
The Houston Astros have won the AL West six of the last seven seasons. The Rangers won this season’s World Series.
While some view beating the top teams in the division as a tall order, Washington says so what.
“Yeah, the Astros [have] been there,” Washington said matter-of-factly. “When I took over in Texas, guess who was the big dog? The Angels. And what happened? We ran them down. So my intent is to run Houston down.
“I’m not saying that’s gonna happen this year. But we don’t know when it’s gonna happen. I can tell you what, we’re gonna get back on top.”
Washington’s official candidacy for the Angels job began with a dinner with Minasian in New Orleans a few weeks ago — though Washington’s familiarity with the Minasian family dates back much further. After that, Washington was invited to meet with Minasian and other members of the front office in Scottsdale, Ariz., for a brunch on the Tuesday of the general manager meetings last week.
Team owner Arte Moreno picked Washington up from the airport and Minasian and the rest of the Angels contingent talked with him for more than three hours, Minasian said, and he was offered the job. The next day, the Angels announced Washington as their new manager.
Washington’s Angels have already secured their new third base coach, Eric Young Sr., who followed Washington from Atlanta, as well as their new infield coach, Ryan Goins. Washington also said Wednesday that he knows who his first base coach is, though he did not give a name. The Angels confirmed Bo Porter as their new first base coach on Friday. The Angels also confirmed on Friday that they promoted Jerry Narron to major league catching coach after previously serving as their minor league catching coordinator. The Angels subsequently named Johnny Washington as their hitting coach and Barry Enright as pitching coach.
Next up on Washington’s agenda: making calls to the team’s biggest leaders for the foreseeable future: Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon.
Washington and Dave Roberts of the Dodgers are the only Black managers in the majors, after Dusty Baker retired from his position with the Astros last month. Washington replaces Phil Nevin, whose contract for next season was not picked up by the Angels.
The two New York teams dropped by Dodger Stadium a couple of weeks ago, first the Yankees and then the Mets, and broadcasters for each team made sure to complain about how loud it was.
“The Dodger Stadium center field speakers are in full assault mode,” Yankees radio voice Dave Sims tweeted.
On the ESPN Sunday night broadcast from Dodger Stadium that week, Karl Ravech introduced an in-game interview with the Dodgers’ Tommy Edman this way: “He’s in center field now, being blasted by, I think, arguably the loudest speaker system I have ever heard in my life.”
Notwithstanding the audacity of New Yorkers whining about someone else’s volume, the broadcasters did lend their distinguished voices to a long-running debate among Dodgers fans: Is it loud at Dodger Stadium, or is it too loud?
“It’s just all part of an entertainment show,” Mookie Betts said. “There is no ‘too loud.’”
Organists Helen Dell and Nancy Bea Hefley soothed generations of fans, but the traditional soundtrack to a Dodgers game has gone the way of $10 parking and outfield walls free of advertisements. The fan experience now includes a finely choreographed production at virtually every moment except when the ball is in play, and that includes recorded music, cranked up.
“We don’t make it louder just to make it louder,” said Lon Rosen, the Dodgers’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “It’s all part of what fits in the presentation.”
And the players, the ones whose performance determines whether the Dodgers win or lose, love the presentation.
“I think it’s great,” Clayton Kershaw said. “Even on the road, I’d rather have that than quiet. St. Louis was just really quiet. It almost felt like golf at times.
“The louder, the more fun, the better. The Dodgers have the best sound system out there. So why not use it?”
Said former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen: “When I used to come out to ‘California Love,’ that thing used to bang. The bass they have, you can feel that thing shake in your chest.”
Just how loud is it at the ballpark?
To find out, I downloaded a decibel meter and visited Southern California’s three major league ballparks during an eight-day span this month. At Dodger Stadium, I walked around the ballpark, and up and down to different levels, but the readings were relatively consistent no matter where someone might be sitting.
Bottom line: It’s pleasant at Angel Stadium, lively at Petco Park, booming at Dodger Stadium.
Caveat: Even with all other things equal, it always will be louder at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers sell 50,000 tickets to a game more often than not; no other major league ballpark even holds 50,000.
At 60 and 30 minutes before game time, as fans settled into the ballpark, Angel Stadium and Petco Park registered in the 65-75 dB range, roughly the sound of a normal conversation on the low end and household appliances on the high end.
The introduction of the home team lineup registered in the 80-85 dB range at Angel Stadium, 85-90 dB at Petco Park, and 90-95 dB at Dodger Stadium, roughly the sound of a noisy restaurant at the low end and power tools on the high end.
The high-end levels would be hazardous if sustained throughout the evening, but sounds ebb and flow as the game does. (Decibel levels are measured logarithmically, so an increase of 10 dB means sound is heard 10 times louder and an increase of 20 dB means sound is heard 100 times louder.)
The highest levels at any stadium occur not when a voice pleads “Get loud!” or “Everybody clap your hands!” but organically, as the result of a big moment in the game.
My decibel meter hit 100 dB twice during my three test games: immediately after the Angels’ Travis d’Arnaud homered in Anaheim, and as the Dodgers’ Will Smith slid safely into home plate with the tying run at Dodger Stadium, as the opposing catcher tagged him but dropped the ball.
What distinguishes the Dodger Stadium experience is the hour or so before the game starts. The Angels offer music, spotlight fans on the video board, and “invite you to enjoy the hospitality of Angel Stadium.” The Dodgers impose a relentlessly loud pregame show, with hype guys and hype girls, pounding away well above the 65-75 dB levels in Anaheim and San Diego, with dB readings into the 80s.
A Dodger Stadium screen encourages fans to be loud during Monday’s game against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers’ pregame show attempts to force anticipation upon the audience, as if that is somehow necessary. It’s not. You’re about to see Shohei Ohtani!
There is always something happening before the game in the center field plaza: a band, product giveaways, Instagram-worthy photo opportunities, the live pregame broadcast for SportsNet LA. You can get hyped there, if you like. Or you can enjoy a conversation with your friends in your seats, instead of getting a headache before the game even starts.
Tyler Anderson, who pitches for the Angels now and used to pitch for the Dodgers, said he finds no fault in the traditional way of presenting the game, or in the Dodgers’ way.
“It’s like you’re trying to turn that venue into one of the best bars in town, where you just go to the bar and listen to loud music and people are having a good time,” Anderson said. “I think that’s the atmosphere they’re trying to create. It’s a fun atmosphere for the fans too.
The center field plaza area at Dodger Stadium is always a lively spot for fans before a game.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“And then some places are more family-based. They’d rather have kids and older families, and young kids and grandkids coming to games. They probably have less of a party atmosphere and less of a bar kind of atmosphere.
“There is no right or wrong way.”
In his ESPN in-game interview, Edman called the Dodgers’ sound system both “absolutely absurd” and “great.”
I asked Edman about that seeming contradiction.
“That was one of the things that stuck out to me my first time playing here, just how loud the speakers are,” he said. “You can’t hear yourself think.”
He got used to it, and to how he need not be distracted because the sound shuts off “once the play actually starts.” He likes it now.
“It makes it more fun,” he said. “It’s like a big league game.”
The Dodgers’ game presentation is creative and compelling. And, instead of eliminating the beloved organ, the Dodgers include talented organist Dieter Ruehle as part of the show. Really, just tone down the pregame hour, and we’re good.
Rosen shrugged off the notion that the Dodgers should tone down anything. If fans did not enjoy the production, he wondered, why would they keep packing Dodger Stadium?
“It’s really not any louder than any other of the more popular stadiums,” Rosen said.
He might be onto something. Veteran baseball columnist Bob Klapisch reported that, during last month’s Yankees-Mets series at Yankee Stadium, “the decibel levels at the stadium routinely reached the mid-90s.”
That, Mr. Yankee Announcer, would be “full assault mode.”
The city of Anaheim is likely to wait until after the baseball season to address the future of Angel Stadium.
With the city expecting to complete a long-awaited assessment of the condition of the stadium this summer, deputy city manager Ted White told the City Council on Tuesday that the prudent course of action would be for his staff to get a “full understanding” of the stadium review before asking the council how to proceed.
“We want to have that opportunity to evaluate it and prepare a presentation for you,” said White, who projected making that presentation sometime that fall.
Angel Stadium, the fourth-oldest stadium in the major leagues, opened in 1966. The assessment is expected to detail the repairs and maintenance needed to keep the stadium safe and sound for decades to come, at a cost both the city and team estimate would be hundreds of millions of dollars.
The information could guide the city and team in determining what needs to be done to the stadium and who should pay for it, whether the Angels play out their existing stadium lease or negotiate a new deal, one that likely would include development on the sea of parking lots surrounding the ballpark. The Angels have committed to play in Angel Stadium through 2032 and have options through 2038.
On April 4, the day of the Angels’ home opener, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken sent an open letter to Angels owner Arte Moreno, inviting him to share in “an open and honest conversation about the future of baseball in Anaheim.”
Aitken listed eight starting points for negotiations, including her desire for the name “Anaheim” to reclaim its prominence with the team. Moreno and Aitken exchanged greetings at the home opener, but the Angels have not committed to any negotiations.
