Even in that long-ago time when they weren't mere carpetbaggers, when they could justifiably refer to Los Angeles as their home turf, the Angels knew they were just passing through.
That's the way it is again tonight as L.A.'s two baseball teams -- one facing legal and legislative challenges to that geographical designation -- open a three-game interleague series at Dodger Stadium.
This is where they were once the established landlord and the expansion tenant, and the Angels were aware from the start they would have to move to find an identity, ultimately choosing the Orange County city that they have now virtually disowned for failing to symbolize a big enough and broad enough marketing base.
So, the onetime Los Angeles Angels return as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and if there's some 40-year irony in that ... well, it doesn't change the fact that they had no alternative other than to move in the first place.
Baseball history had shown that two teams playing in the same facility didn't work, and in four years at Dodger Stadium -- from 1962, when Walter O'Malley's new park opened, through 1965 -- the Angels were dissed and dismissed by fans, media and the Dodgers
Said a reflective Buck Rodgers, a young catcher during those years and later an Angel manager: "All you had to do was pick up the newspapers during that time. We always felt like we were like a stepson or poor cousin."
Said a reflective Ron Fairly, then a young infielder-outfielder with the Dodgers and now a Seattle Mariner broadcaster: "The only time we talked about the Angels was in the context of hoping they didn't tear up the infield. Otherwise, there weren't any interleague games then and we simply didn't pay much attention to them. They were trying to build a team. We were the Dodgers, for goodness sakes. We were focused on the World Series."
They were the Dodgers then of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Tommy Davis and Maury Wills. In that four-year span, coming off a 1959 World Series title when they played at the Coliseum, they won two pennants and two more World Series titles, tying for a third pennant before losing a 1962 playoff to the San Francisco Giants.
With an expanding season-ticket base of about 27,000 in the new park, they drew more than 10 million fans in the four years, attracting between 2.2 million and 2.7 million annually.
