Angels-Dodgers

While I will never hide my disdain for the Angels and 95% of their fans, I will say that there is one thing that they do substantially better than the Dodgers do. That of course is treat their players and loyal fans with the respect and loyalty that they deserve. 10 years ago, you couldn't give Angel tickets away, and now they are in the top 5 of attendance figures every season. Dodger fans have drawn 3 million fans since well forever, yet the last two ownerships (Fox/McCourts) have treated Dodger fans with a type of disrespect that is bordering on unacceptable! Don't get me wrong, I will always bleed Dodger blue no matter how big a piece of shit the owners are, but I am sick of myself and Dodger fans as well as the players being disrespected. Here are my list of grievances:

- Arte Moreno takes control of the team and lowers beer prices, and keeps ticket, parking, and food prices reasonable. Despite playing in the far wealthier Orange County, it is far more affordable to go to an Angel game than a Dodger game.

- Frank McCourt raises parking to a ridiculous $15, and the parking situation is still atrocious, small beers cost $9 well at least last year, I shudder to think what they will be this year.

- The Angels at least try to keep their fans happy. I won't lie, I love their Friday Night Fireworks Show, and while some of their promotions are extremely gimmicky/lame, at least they try (sidenote: that whole world record snuggie thing was like the OMG teh gheyest thing ever). The McCourts give Dodger fans a few bobbleheads (but who doesn't) but other than that the promotional schedule is a joke (not that I go for promotions) but you could at least try.

- The Angels have made a commitment to retain their franchise players, and their organizational structure is generally built around loyalty with many players returning said loyalty. Tim Salmon, Garrett Anderson, Vlad Guerrero, and Chone Figgins among many others all had incredible runs with the Angels, and gave the franchise a face to the franchise for years.

- The Dodgers since Fox took over in the mid-90's have shown ZERO fucking loyalty to their players, and their players have reciprocated such lack of loyalty. It all really began with the Piazza trade, continuing with the LoDuca trade, and the Dodgers' consistent failure to resign and pay their top free agents sans Manny. To illustrate the extent of this problem, the Dodgers currently have ONE player on their current roster who was on the 2005 roster, and that is Jeff Weaver who had a stop over in St. Louis before returning to L.A.

- I understand that free agency is a major part of the game, and sometimes you have to trade a guy to make the team better, but we need to take note from the Yankees/Angels/Phillies/Red Sox who built their title/perennial teams around a solid core of players (Jeter/Posada/Rivera/Pettitte)/(Salmon/Anderson/KRod/Percival/Lackey/Figgins/Vlad)/(Howard/Utley/Rollins)/(Manny/Big Papi/Beckett/Papelbon/Lowell) and then filled in the missing holes either through their farm system or free agency. The Dodgers' philosophy of trading away studs entering their prime, and then signing overpaid free agents exiting their prime expecting them to lead the team has failed over and over again. We have a very solid young core (Kemp/Ethier/Kershaw/Billingsley/Broxton/and maybe Loney, this year is the year the power must show up), and I hope we lock them up for long term deals, filling in remaining holes via free agency or through the farm.

Cliffs Notes
- Arte Moreno= great owner
- Fuck the McCourts
- I still hate the Angels, but their organizational philosophy is solid, very very solid
- I will still bleed Dodger Blue until the day that I die, but a shift in the way they do business and treat their fans needs to happen, and happen NOW!