The Cowboy Gets a Team 4 The Angels Take Flight 6 Jim Fregosi Shines First 8 Nolan Ryan Becomes the Strikeout King 10 Angels Fans Say Yes We Can 12 Color the Angels Red 14 The Angels Have a Heavenly Season in 2002 16 Iron Mike Leads the Way 18 Monkey Business Comes to Anaheim 20 Trout Makes a Splash 22 The Big A Still Shines 24 Lights Camera Play Ball 26 12 Key Dates 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the Author 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS
As a boy in Oklahoma Gene Autry loved playing baseball even if he wasn’t the greatest player I was always a frustrated ballplayer he once said Instead of playing ball as an adult Autry became an actor singer and businessman He gained fame as a singing cowboy in movies of the 1930s and 1940s Yet Autry never stopped loving baseball So in 1960 when the American League AL announced it would add two teams Autry put together a group to buy one of them The group paid 2 45 million for the expansion team The team was named the Los Angeles Angels A minor league team of the same name had played in Los Angeles from 1903 to 1957 Autry owned the team for 38 years He was known to fans as The Cowboy Players admired him for his love of the game His team played in Los Angeles from 1961 to 1965 Autry then moved the team to Anaheim for the 1966 season He changed the team’s name to the California Angels For years the Angels had little success But in the 1970s and 1980s Autry paid big money to a number of top free agents He brought in star sluggers such as Reggie Jackson Joe Rudi and Don Baylor The strategy worked The Angels reached the playoffs for the first time in 1979 Then they did so again in 1982 and 1986 But as long as Autry owned the team the Angels never reached the World Series Baseball has been the most exciting and frustrating experience of my life he said In the movies I never lost a fight In baseball I hardly ever won one THE COWBOY GETS A TEAM 1 4
26 Jersey number the Angels retired to honor Gene Autry in 1982 Major League Baseball MLB teams have 25 players Autry was the Angels honorary 26th player Gene Autry visits the Angels spring training in 1993 5
