Angels Waste No Time In Pissing Off Albert Pujols
If baseball fans ever wanted to hate a team because of its name, the sheer stupidty of doing business as the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” would suffice. Yet 10 years ago, it seemed this n’er do well franchise was becoming a force to be reckoned with: with one of the game’s brightest young managers, deep pockets, and a stocked farm system, the Angels seemed poised to challenge the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox for American League superiority. Alas, that never happened.
The front office made a series of bizarre personnel decisions affecting the Major League roster while simultaneously failing to develop many of their prospects. Meanwhile, the young genius manager became old, obstinant, and controlling quite fast. Each off-season, fans sat around and waited for the Angels to do something stupid: trade for Vernon Wells, sign (and subsequently re-sign) Bobby Abreu, add another Southern California region to their name, etc. Despite the astute hire of Jerry Dipoto as the team’s GM, observers in 2011 weren’t disappointed when the team committed over $300M to free agents Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. At the time of the signings, Pujols was coming off of the worst season of his career and Wilson had just finished only his second season as a full-time starting pitcher. Both players are over the age of 30, so there ain’t a lot of ceiling left. Owner Arte Moreno (seriously, dudes named “Arte” or “Artie” just can’t be trusted) predicated the signing of Pujols as not just a significant event for the team, but rather a cultural phenomenon for Hispanic baseball fans, Angels fans, and oh hell, all of Southern California in general. In other words, “I’ll market anything to make money off this.” I guess he should have checked with Pujols about that first:
But one segment of the [Pujols marketing] campaign has run afoul of the player’s wishes. The Angels have 20 billboards around Southern California with Pujols pictured in an Angels uniform alongside the Spanish words, “El Hombre.”
Pujols has asked not to be called that in deference to St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial, who was referred to as Stan “The Man” during most of his 22-year career.
The Angels said they did not consult Pujols or his agent before launching the campaign. It was planned shortly after the Angels signed Pujols to a 10-year, $250 million contract in December.
Big surprise. Maybe the marketing people should have done a little research — it wouldn’t have been hard since the quite-respectful Pujols has mentioned his preference not to be referred to in that way over and over and over again.
Chalk this up as just another example of how this would-be juggernaut franchise just can’t seem to get out of its own way (Sound familiar, Dodger fans? Seriously, what’ s up with LA baseball?). Not a good omen. At least they have 10 more years to figure it out.
Tagged with: Albert Pujols • Angels • Arte Moreno • CJ Wilson • El Hombre • MLB • When Corporate Marketing Goes Wrong
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Hey Duke,
Get a fucking life. If this is the best story line you can come up with and feel that you need to write crap like this then you better realize you should go back to school and re-think what your new career should be.
I am sorry your mother dropped you on your head when you were 14 years old. Note to yourself……Pull the pacifier out of your ass next time you write something. I might be able to think of something better to write!
Signed,
Not a Fan of Yours!
Thanks for reading and offering a poignant rebuttal full with insightful facts, Bryan! Feel better, little guy?
Yikes! I’m not sure what to say about this article but what’s very clear is your disdain for the Angels and their organization. This read less as an insightful piece of news and more like a small tantrum about a team you clearly dislike? Very odd!
wasted space
Um, OK…clearly you despise the Angels; we got it. Was this article even necessary?
Hey Dipshit of Davenport….time for u to get a life. Arte is a marketing genius and a self made billionaire thru marketing. Unlike most owners….Arte _REALLY_ cares about his fan base. #5 will be just fine with the marketing campaign and both Pujols and Wilson will cause a tectonic plate shift shift in the American League.
See your sorry ass in the ALCS this year loser!
That was the worst 45 seconds of reading I have ever experienced. Don’t quit your day job buddy. It’s sad that the internet age allows a person of your lack of any writing skills or gravitas to infest the web with this dish rag of blog perversion. Hate the Angels? WAAAA WAAAAA WAAAAA, go home.
All I hear from these comments is, “Wah!!! Some guy on the Internet doesn’t like my baseball team!” Why don’t one of you mouth-breathing mongoloids come up with a cogent rebuttal? Oh wait, that would require too much independent thought. And yet, you still read. Thanks for the page views, assholes.
Can we talk about LA strip clubs for a minute? And why I am not allowed in them?
Duke,
Defensive much?
Truth is when you waste everyones time with such drivel, youre gonna get a response. Was there a reason or a purpose to this article other than to tell people how much you hate everything about the Angels? If so, what is it?
Saying that I dont want someone to throw me a birthday party and saying Im pissed off if they do are very different things. So if Pujols would prefer not to be called the Man in spanish or english out of respect for a local hero from his former team how do you get pissed off from that? The Angels know now and have agreed not to throw him a birthday party (use that campaign again) so there is no story.
As for the attacks on one of the winningest franchises of the decade because they didnt do what you deem to be wise is just bitter. Im a Los Angeles Angels fan… yeah Im in Los Angeles a mile from Dodger stadium, am I not allowed to be an Angels fan because they play in Anaheim? Should Fox sports not broadcast the Angels games to Los Angeles which is the bulk of their viewing market and where the bulk of their ad revenue comes from? Should Los Angeles media outlets, TV, radio, cable, newspapers, magazines, etc not cover the Angels because they arent actually in Los Angeles even though 1/2 of their fans are? Well if LA media outlets can embrace the Angels as an LA attraction, then why cant the Angels include them in their name? the New York Giants and Jets dont even play in NY, but thats where their fans are.
Now lets talk about not developing their own talent… Weaver, Santana, Morales, Kendrick, Aybar, Callaspo, Bourjos, Trout, Conger, Trumbo and most of the bullpen were developed by the system… is that not enough for you? Its probably a higher percentage than most of the elite teams. And like their moves or not, the LA name helped them expand their market and get a media contract that allows them to compete with the Red Sox and Yankees if not surpass them and do so while having some of the lowest ticket and concession prices in the league. That can only be seen as a dumb move in your bitter and hateful world, not ours.
Finally you talk about all the Angels dumb moves… Well those dumb moves have built the best team in franchise history…not just pujols, but solid role players or stars at every position, youth up and down the roster and poised to be more than good for years to come. And we all know if Vernon Wells goes off and has 3 Vernon Wells type seasons you wont be back on here telling everyone you were wrong, You will have moved onto something new to attack them on.