Dodgers Won't Let This Become LAA-LAA Land

Once upon an O'Malley, the Dodgers greeted the Angels by sticking out their hand.

This weekend, they will stick out their tongue.

Back in the days of Big D and Big A, the games between the friendly rivals were called "the Freeway Series."

This weekend, the little boys blue will turn it into "the Sandbox Series."

The Angels will show up Friday night in Chavez Ravine to discover someone pouting, and something missing.

Their first name.

They're the Los Angeles Angels everywhere but there.

In a display of immaturity that makes you want to give Frankie and Jamie a timeout, the Dodgers refuse to recognize the league-sanctioned and nationally accepted change.

In newspapers, magazines and television tickers from coast to coast, they're the Los Angeles Angels.

But in Dodger press releases, they're the Angels of Anaheim.

On scoreboards large and small, it's LAA.

On the Dodger out-of-town scoreboard, it's ANA.

Public address announcers everywhere refer to the Los Angeles Angels.

Eric Smith, the Dodger public address announcer, calls them the Angels of Anaheim.

Talk about a high-decibel "nah-nah-nah-nah-nah."

Even on tickets printed after last winter's name change, the Dodgers are publicly whining.

Ask the many fans who were recently given new seats after the renovation fiasco. Their tickets for this weekend read, "Angels of Anaheim."

Animals have marked their territories with more grace.

"All this fighting over two lousy letters? You've got to be kidding me," said Steve Brener, former longtime Dodger public relations boss who runs Brener Zwikel and Associates, a prominent sports-publicity firm. "The Dodgers should worry about the Dodgers and let the Angels worry about the Angels."

Oh, but it gets worse.

The Dodgers are actually marketing their raspberries, selling caps and T-shirts that read, "Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles."

Twenty-five bucks per jeer.

"If every other team is recognizing the Angels as Los Angeles, then the Dodgers should do the same thing," Brener said. "They should call them by their right name."

Dodger radio announcers also refer to them as the Anaheim Angels, but they say they have not been ordered to do so, they are only making things less complicated, and I will not argue with Vin Scully.