About Los Angeles Angels
The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League West Division. Since 1966, the team has played its home games at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
The franchise was founded in Los Angeles in 1961 by Gene Autry as one of MLB's first two expansion teams and the first to originate in California. Deriving its name from an earlier Los Angeles Angels franchise that played in the Pacific Coast League , the team was based in Los Angeles until moving to Anaheim in 1966. Due to the move, the franchise was known as the California Angels from 1965 to 1996 and the Anaheim Angels from 1997 to 2004. "Los Angeles" was added back to the name in 2005, but because of a lease agreement with Anaheim that required the city to also be in the name, the franchise was known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim until 2015. The current Los Angeles Angels name came into use the following season.
Throughout their first four decades of existence, the Angels were a middling franchise, but did win three division titles and notably hosted the careers of Hall of Fame players Nolan Ryan, Rod Carew, and Reggie Jackson. Under manager Mike Scioscia, they would eventually achieve their first Wild Card spot in 2002, and used this momentum to win the 2002 World Series, their only championship appearance to date. They, along with the Washington Nationals, are the two MLB franchises to win their sole appearance in the World Series. Over the next seven years under Scioscia's management, the Angels would then win five division titles, spearheaded by their lone Hall of Fame representative Vladimir Guerrero. They also saw an increase in fan attendance, consistently placing the franchise among the top draws in MLB. This notoriety has grown into international attention since 2012 with the signing of Albert Pujols and the emergence of superstars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, who cumulatively won five AL Most Valuable Player awards with the team. Despite this, they have not appeared in the postseason since 2014, the longest active playoff drought of any MLB team.
Through 2024, the Angels have a win–loss record of 5,021–5,115–3 . They were the first expansion team to reach 5,000 total wins, doing so in 2024.
The Los Angeles Angels name originates from the first Los Angeles–based sports team, the Los Angeles Angels of the California League, who took the name from the English translation of Los Angeles, which means 'The Angels' in Spanish. The team name started in 1892. In 1903, the team name continued through the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. The current Angels franchise was established by MLB in 1961 after original owner Gene Autry bought the rights to the franchise name from Walter O'Malley, the former Los Angeles Dodgers owner, who had acquired the franchise from Phil Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs at the time. As stated in the book Under the Halo: The Official History of Angels Baseball, "Autry agreed to buy the franchise name for $350,000, and continue the history of the previously popular Pacific Coast League team as his own expansion team in the MLB." After the Angels joined the MLB, some players from the Angels' PCL team joined the MLB Angels in 1961.
As an expansion franchise, the club continued in Los Angeles and played their home games at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field , which had formerly been the home of the PCL Angels. The Angels were one of two expansion teams established as a result of the 1961 Major League Baseball expansion, along with the second incarnation of the Washington Senators . The team then moved in 1962 to newly built Dodger Stadium, which the Angels referred to as Chavez Ravine, where they were tenants of the Dodgers through 1965.
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