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Monday, February 13, 2006

THE BUSINESS END
The Angels, as you well know, have won in court against the city of Anaheim, and are free to call themselves by their wacky-fun two-city cognomen.

The court case received little digital ink in these pages, for the simple reason that I'm not a lawyer, don't want to be a lawyer, and didn't have any legal analysis to give you beyond what was being widely reported in the media. A general guiding principle I have is that if I have nothing to add to the discussion, I just shut up about it and get out of the way. Don't know if I always succeed in following that, but there you go.

Anyway, now that it's over, I'm glad the team won. I started off as an opponent of the name change, but the vociferous silliness of its opponents swayed me to Arte's side. And while many people complain that the name is silly, I wear that as a bade of honor. Yeah, we have a bizarre name -- so what? You know what else we have? Two consecutive division titles, three postseason appearances in the last four years, and one of the top (if not the top) farm system in baseball. You can call me anything while those facts remain true.

Added good news is reported in the LA Times today, as Arte and Fox Sports are on the brink of signing a 10-year deal for broadcast rights that could be worth as much as $500M to the club. $50M per year sounds good to me -- that's half the payroll paid out to the players!

The deal will reportedly call for FSN to broadcast 150 games per season, the only (slight) drawback being that you would need cable to see the games. Of course, just about everyone has cable now, anyway, but in case you're a television Luddite, your time has come. This is good news for certain out-of-town Halo fans, who should be able to follow all the action through the MLB Extra Innings package, which almost never includes broadcasts from local stations such as Channel 9.

So while this is all good news, it's just here to keep us somewhat satiated until we hear the best news of all: pitchers and catchers report this Wednesday!

Comments:
It will make a difference during the Toronto series for sure. Usually for the channel 9 games were EI just carried the opponent's broadcast. But now the Toronto games should be on as well.
 
And thanks for the backup over at Bruins Nation.
 
No problem. Those guys actually drive me crazy a lot of the time. But there isn't a big Bruin presence in the blogosphere, so there I go, regardless.
 
Well, Nestor just has so much hatred towards Lavin and Dorrell that any little thing that isn't completely rah-rah turns him into victim mode.
 
Should I be offended that I wasn't included in the "out of town Halo fans?"
 
Over the years, mixed with all of the disappointment, the Angels have had a "wacky-fun" quality, starting with the fact that the team was originally owned by a "singing cowboy." For that reason, I think our "wacky-fun, two-city cognomen" is somehow appropriate -- and I, for one, like it!
 
Josh: I'm just stupid.
 
It's ok, I swear.
 
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