Can they be the California Angels again?

The city of Anaheim has decided to drop that lawsuit in which they’re trying to force the Angels to change their name:

Mayor Curt Pringle says the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to give up its battle to restore the team’s name to the Anaheim Angels.

The city had argued that team owner Arte Moreno violated the city-owned stadium lease agreement when he changed the name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005.

A California appeals court ruled against the city last month, and an Orange County Superior court jury sided with the team in 2006.

Pringle says city leaders believe the wrong court decision was made twice, but says “it’s in everybody’s best interest to take no further action.”

Given the contract language at issue — as you’ll recall, it only required that the word “Anaheim” be in the name somewhere, and Moreno has certainly done that — dropping the suit is clearly the right decision. Heck, they probably shouldn’t have even sued to begin with.

Which is why this story confuses me a bit. I mean, at some point, some lawyer had to convince the City Council that this was a winnable case even though it clearly wasn’t, right? Well, if he’s that good a salesman, how come he couldn’t convince them appeal this baby to the Supreme Court? Depending on whether he’s a private practice guy or a city staff attorney, that’s a good six months worth of fees and/or job security he just threw away.

Almost makes me ashamed of my profession.


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ken dynamo
15 years ago

could have just been about the city of anaheim venting their frustration and the local pols showing their constituents that they wont take this abuse lying down.

but yeah, pretty silly for everyone involved.

Andy
15 years ago

Speaking as a lawyer, sometimes you can tell the client they don’t have a case, but they have to lose twice before they believe you.

Rob
15 years ago

Still looking for a job, eh?

Craig Calcaterra
15 years ago

Yeah, but I felt the same way about things even when I was working.

Sara K
15 years ago

Maybe they could do a sports/weather crossover and show us a clip of a baseball frozen stuck to Gaylord Perry’s hand?

Charles Kitchen
15 years ago

I agree with Andy. While its easy to imagine some evil lawyer, in this case I am going to imagine he was the voice of reason in a room full of politicians.

Bob Timmermann
15 years ago

So technically you don’t have a profession now? Slacker!

As for the Angels, their one World Series title came as the Anaheim Angels.

The Ducks are the Anaheim Ducks and quite proud of it. Especially because they aren’t the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Stanley Cup is safe because those words aren’t engraved on it.

Daniel
15 years ago

Craig, as a resident of Anaheim, I can tell you this was a Pringle thing.  He was (and still is) raging mad about the whole incident.  He felt he had to defend his city’s rights to the name of the team. 

I can’t say I completely disagree with him – being the butt of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim joke as well as losing impressions of the name “Anaheim” from most media publications who shorten the name to just LA Angels was something he thought was worth fighting.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the attorneys did try to talk him out of it, but to no avail.  He was pretty hell-bent on getting the name change reversed.