Alexander: Arte Moreno is definitely not the people’s choice

Arte Moreno should feel fortunate he runs a baseball team in Anaheim, rather than a German soccer team.

In the Bundesliga, it’s mandated that supporters retain majority control of a club via the 50+1 rule, with rare exceptions. Thus, the fans can vote out an owner or executive who isn’t getting the job done. The closest thing to that quaint custom that we have here, I suppose, would be the way Dodger fans eventually voted with their wallets and finally forced Frank McCourt out in 2012, though Chapter 11 bankruptcy helped.

Moreno’s sins aren’t as blatant as those of McCourt, who with wife Jamie (before they split up) treated the ballclub as a personal ATM. But if the reactions in the inbox or on the Twitter feed are any measure, Angels fans would vote thumbs down on the owner given the opportunity.

These aren’t latecomers, either. I’m hearing from fans who have followed the team, some as season ticket holders, for 40, 50 or 60 years. They’ve seen generations of blunders and bad luck under the ownerships of Gene Autry and the Walt Disney Co., but they’ve had enough of a team with two transcendent players and not enough else. We may be seeing “Arte Out!” signs and T-shirts any day now, or at least Angel Stadium ushers attempting to confiscate the same.

Among the reactions since the Sunday column, on the dilemma of whether to pursue a Shohei Ohtani trade, was published:

“I can’t think of another owner that has completely diffused the career of the current best player in baseball the way he did with Mike Trout, surrounding him instead with mediocrity,” wrote David Skonezny, whose discontent goes back to when Moreno changed the team’s identity from Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before the 2005 season.

Skonezny organized a protest in front of Angel Stadium in late May of 2005, with Register columnist Randy Youngman reporting that 60 demonstrators waved “Save the Anaheim Angels” signs outside the ballpark and chanted, among other things, “We are not L.A.,” before continuing their protest inside the park.

“That was the second nail in the coffin, the first was him buying the team in the first place,” Skonezny wrote.

Tony Cordero wrote that “we’ve been season ticket holders for more than 40 years” but noted that the only “foreseeable light at the end of this tunnel” might be that they call it quits before they reach 45.

“What’s fascinating is how Disney knew more about baseball than Moreno does,” he wrote. “He only knows ad sales. Hence the Big A looks like the Sunday ad insert in what was once known as a newspaper. Arte. Perry (Minasian, current general manager). Dennis (Kuhl, the club’s chairman, and club president John) Carpino. Collectively, these inepts are worse than Dan Snyder, Donald Sterling and Dean Spanos.

“It’s an embarrassment to be an Angels fan and admit you’ve been so for so long.”

Hal Brand wrote that after more than 20 years of buying season tickets in the Diamond Club section, he “finally gave up my seats several years ago because of Arte Moreno. He is easily the worst owner in sports!

“Moreno doesn’t seem to care about putting a winning team on the field as long as the value of the franchise goes up. His ownership decisions and free agent signings have been an absolute joke.”

Josh Hamilton is the free agent albatross with which Moreno will forever be associated, a five-year, $125 million signing in 2013 that turned out to be two mediocre seasons followed by Moreno cutting ties after Hamilton acknowledged a drug relapse.

More recently, Angel fans grumble about Anthony Rendon (seven years, $245 million in 2020), who has played in 103 games the last two seasons and is done for this year with a wrist injury, and Justin Upton, who signed a five-year, $106 million deal in 2018, gave the Angels one good season, was released at the end of spring training this year and is still soaking up $19.5 million of the Angels’ payroll.

In fairness, the willingness to pursue free agents suggests that Moreno does want to win. He just doesn’t make good decisions, and he’s prone to overrule those who do know what they’re doing.

William Stremel, a frequent responder to This Space, is inclined to also include Mike Trout’s mega-deal in the mistake category “because he, like Rendon, is proving to be made out of glass, prone to many injuries. They both get bizarre and lengthy injuries, and it won’t get any better as time moves on.

“The Angels have only Ohtani as a bright spot,” he added, “and, unlike Trout, my guess is he will likely get sick of losing and want to leave. Trout is obviously O.K. with staying with a losing team.”

Which brings us, again, to the question of the moment: Trade Ohtani for a huge package of prospects, or hold on to him and try to sign him long-term?

“Memo to Arte Moreno: Gene Autry never recovered from Nolan Ryan’s ugly Angels departure (in 1979),” John Stellman wrote. “Don’t let history repeat itself. Sign Shohei Ohtani.”

Oh, what would the late Buzzie Bavasi have said about this situation? He was the one who, when asked how to replace Ryan after he’d signed with Houston, quipped, “You mean, can we find two 8-7 pitchers?” I suspect the answer here would have been a lot more complex.

And if karma is to be considered, as Twitter respondent @NLDIT714 noted, losing Ohtani “could have repercussions of Ruthian proportions.”

Ohtani is the one player who is untradeable you make moves to keep him everyone is expendable. It could have repercussions of Ruthian proportions.

— Gong83 (@NLDIT714) July 31, 2022

Trading Babe Ruth cursed the Boston Red Sox for 85 years. Then again, the Angels have had their own hexed existence, not only bad luck on the field but a string of tragedies and misfortune. The theory for years was that the team was cursed because the ballpark was built atop an ancient Indian burial ground, but as I noted in a story 20 years ago, “City of Anaheim historians have said there is no evidence to indicate that’s true but nothing to prove it isn’t, either.”

But I’m a believer in the Curse of Eddie Bane.

The former left-handed pitcher was the Angels’ director of scouting from 2004-2010. He was in charge when the Angels drafted Trout in 2009, his first first-rounder as scouting director was Jered Weaver, and his department was responsible for a surplus of prospects that helped the team reach the postseason in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

And then, suddenly, he was let go. No discernible reason was ever established, but here’s my theory: Bane would refer to “Anaheim Angels” in interviews, and I suspect the guy who decided they should be the “Los Angeles Angels” didn’t care much for it.

So maybe the current curse is destined to last until Arte sells the team. Should that ever happen, the Angel fans who remain might hold a parade.

jalexander@scng.com