Anaheim Angels: A Complete History

Veteran sportswriter Ross Newhan revisits the bittersweet memoir of the team that owner Gene Autry pulled up from its bootstraps long enough to savor victoryand then see it all come crashing down. Peppered with stories of baseball luminaries such as Reggie Jackson, and Nolan Ryan. The Anaheim Angels brings a stellar cast of baseball greats alive.

Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, rose from the dust and poverty of Tioga, Texas, to become an entertainment and corporate legend. Despite his Midas touch, however, Autry experienced mostly frustration with the one thing closest to his heart--his Los Angeles turned California turned Anaheim Angels of the American League. A former American Legion shortstop and lifelong baseball fan, Autry was awarded the league's Los Angeles franchise in 1960 but never reached the goal of a World Series--no matter how much money was spent nor how many moves the club made trying to win one for the Cowboy.

This book traces that history, covering all of the characters and controversy, all of the problems and personalities--from the zany Bo Belinsky, Dean Chance, and Leon Wagner of the early years through Nolan Ryan, Frank Tanana, Don Baylor, Bobby Grich, Reggie Jackson, and Rod Carew in the tumultuous '70s and '80s, to Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, Tim Salmon, Jim Edmonds, and Mo Vaughn amid the highs and lows of the '90s. The Singing Cowboy, confronted by soaring salaries and debts, ultimately sold the team to another entertainment giant, the Walt Disney Company. The curse, however, of untimely injuries and illnesses--a parade of agony that began for the Angels right from the start--even intruded on Disney's renowned magic. The story of the club's long attempt to carve its own niche in an area dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers is all here in this complete history.