Anaheim Angels: A Complete History

For so long, it has been impossible to be an Angels fan. No longer. After 42 years, the Angels have done the impossible, they've won the World Series. This book gives you the background on how they got there. I highly recommend you read the compelling story of their humble, and later tragic, beginnings. You can fill the glory in later.

Having been a fan of the Angels since before I was born, yes that's right Mom was pregnant with me at an Angel Game. My parent's had season tickets the first year they were in Anaheim. I have been an Angel fan all my life and season ticket holder for a good portion of my life. My husband and I have been to several years of spring training, all the way back to Palm Springs Days.I thought I knew about the Angels, boy was I wrong. This book gave me insights in areas I did not know.Thank you Ross Newhan for writing a wonderful book about my favorite team.

THIS BOOK IS WELL WORTH THE PRICE. I FOUND IT A VERY DETAILED AND WELL WRITTEN HISTORY OF A TROUBLED FRANCHISE. THE NUMBER OF TRAGEDIES IS ALARMING. THE FRONT OFFICE BLUNDERS AND THE IMPATIENCE OF THE MANAGEMENT LED TO MUCH OF THE LACK OF SUCCESS ALSO. GENE AUTRY DESERVED MUCH BETTER THAN THE MUDDLED AND INCONSISTENT SEASONS THEY ACHIEVED. A MUST HAVE FOR EVERY ANGELS FAN. FROM ALBIE PEARSON, DADDY WAGS, AND DEAN CHANCE TO JIM EDMONDS AND TIM SALMON THIS IS A GOOD HISTORICAL LOOK AT THE ANGELS. MUST READ.

Ross Newhan is definitely an expert on the Angels and it really shows in this book. He takes you from the founding of the team through every season and important event including the 1999 season with Mo Vaughn. An inevitable theme in the book is the curse that has seemed to plague the Angels since their inception. At times this makes for depressing reading, especially in Newhan's account of the 1986 playoff game with the Red Sox when the Angels were one strike away from the World Series. Unfortunately, you can't rewrite history and have Gene Mauch leave Mike Witt in the game. This is a very enjoyable book that brings back a lot of memories (Don Aase, Dave LaRoche, Dan Ford, Bobby Bonds, etc.) but it desperately needs an index and some sort of statistical appendix.

The author does a very admirable job of reviewing the history of the ill-fated Angels from their beginnings in 1961 through the present. One cannot help but hope their luck will improve; some things have happened to this organization that were almost unbelievable. Gene Autry was obviously an honorable man of his word and didn't mind shelling out the bucks to get the players he believed would bring him a world championship. One of the best features of the book is that the chapters each cover a year or so and that makes it easy for the reader to understand the history of the team. They are certainly not in the same class with the Dodgers, either financially or historically, but the Angels have a unique history that makes for interesting reading.