ANAHEIM – From Section 510, in the top deck of Angel Stadium, the home team didn’t look so bad.
Of course, from that height, you couldn’t see much of the down-and-out-of-the-playoff-race Angels who faced the Tampa Bay Rays on Labor Day night.
This unofficial last day of summer should have been a big, festive night at the ballpark. But the place looked half-empty, the fans half-hearted, and the Angels, who began 2013 with great World Series expectations, half-staffed.
Three bench players and two minor league call-ups took the field for the injury-plagued Angels. Powerful right-hander Garrett Richards was on the mound, having replaced starter Joe Blanton and his 2-14 record.
Five-time All-Star slugger Josh Hamilton, the Angels’ $125-million addition for 2013, was batting cleanup but hitting an anemic .234 and enduring the longest slump of his career. Nine-time All-Star slugger Albert Pujols, the Angels’ $246-million signing before the 2012 season, had been on the disabled list since July, nursing a bum foot and a career-low .258 batting average.
The power-bat investments – at the expense of reliable pitching – had done little to prevent the Angels from being saddled with a 63-72 record going into that Sept. 2 game. It was just a matter of time before the team with the $148 million payroll would be officially eliminated from the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.
“It was another year of World Series-or-bust, and this is bust,” said lifelong Angels fan Mark Portman, 36, of Orange. “It hurts. It’s disappointing because we expected a lot more. This was supposed to be The Year, right?”
Everyone thought so.
THE MANAGER
Expressionless, calm, still and stoic, Mike Scioscia stood on the edge of the dugout during games, his focus entirely on the field.
He hasn’t shown a reaction. Not even when the team was in freefall to defeat on defensive miscues, on the arms of misfiring pitchers or on the bats of slumping sluggers.
He hasn’t listened to the boos and groans from stands. He hasn’t seen crowds thin as the games and this season lost their meaning.
But baseball’s longest-tenured manager knows he’s getting blamed for this unfathomably disappointing and underachieving season alongside elusive owner Arte Moreno and second-year General Manager Jerry Dipoto.
Scioscia, who guided the Angels to their only World Series title in 2002 and to the playoffs five other times in his 14 seasons, takes the heat off the field.
On his morning walks through his Westlake Village neighborhood, he can’t go by a table at, say, Starbucks, without getting an earful of comments and “What were you thinking?” questions from java-drinking, armchair GMs.
“When you put a little caffeine in a person in the morning, it’s almost like truth serum … and they’re letting me know (about the Angels), in no uncertain terms, as though I didn’t know if we won or lost the night before,” Scioscia said.
“It’s kind of fun, but, you know, it’s been probably more busting my chops this year than in any year.”
The Angels went 23-9 between Aug. 23 and Wednesday’s home finale victory over Oakland, the best record in baseball during a stretch when they had already fallen out of contention.
Still, Scioscia is encouraged by the improvement, the promising contributions of hungry young players and the-better-late-than-never emergence of strong starting pitching. The smarter baserunning, gutty defense and situational hitting – all hallmarks of Scioscia’s most successful teams – have paid off lately.
But it all came together too late to matter in the standings. Once the preseason consensus favorite to win the AL West and contend for a World Series, the Angels enter Sunday’s season finale with a 78-83 record.
THE PLAYERS
They didn’t plan to be packing the contents of their clubhouse lockers into cardboard boxes Wednesday, their final home game of the regular season.
Angels ace Jered Weaver got the victory over the $60 million payroll A’s, who managed to claim their second consecutive AL West title with half the Angels’ spending and none of their buyer’s remorse.
“It has been a long year, a lot of ups and downs,” said Weaver, who fractured his left arm in his second start and spent seven weeks on the disabled list. A 20-game winner in 2012, he finished this season strong and improved to 11-8.
“Obviously, we wish we could be playing in October.”
With a silver team MVP trophy amid flip-flops and cleats at the foot of his locker, 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Mike Trout took little solace in the personal triumphs of his sophomore season. The phenom didn’t disappoint, batting .323 with 26 home runs and 96 RBI as the Angels’ lone 2013 All-Star and the top merchandise seller in the Team Store.
“We obviously wanted to be in a different position at the end of the year,” Trout said. “It’s one of those years again: a slow start that hurt us.”
THE MARKETER
Robert Alvarado walked the stadium for almost all of the Angels’ 81 home games. He checked in with ushers, housekeeping staff, and the porters who stock suites with beverages to make sure fans had the best possible experience when going to a baseball game at Angel Stadium.
“But I can’t control what goes on between the lines,” said Alvarado, in his 13th season as vice president of marketing and ticket sales.
“In this Southern California market especially, people gravitate towards a winner. People who are educated about baseball did the math, saw the gap back in early August and that’s when the irrelevancy of us started.”
He sensed trouble when the Angels entered May with a 9-17 mark. He marshaled his staff to begin gap measures, heavily targeting group ticket sales that are more immune to the Angels’ wins and losses.
“We had to pull a lot of rabbits out of our hats to get the numbers in here,” he said. “We made adjustments.”
The first season of dynamic pricing allowed ticket prices to drop in step with waning demand. Big-Bang Fridays, summer concerts, promotional giveaways and the new Trout Farm fan section in left field proved to be modest attractions that enabled the Angels to put up that “3 Million Fans” sign on the center-field wall for the 11th consecutive season.
The 3 million figure is based on tickets sold, not the confidential turnstile count that would have registered far fewer. Alvarado said the no-show rate exceeded the normal 20 percent in the past two months.
On the scoreboard during Wednesday’s home finale flashed the attendance of 36,226, followed by blinking, celebratory message of “3 Million Fans!” But you could look around and know about half that number came that day.
“The optimism has been here since 2009 (when the Angels made the postseason), and the expectations were higher and higher, especially after we signed Pujols and Hamilton,” Alvarado said.
“People, even here from the top down (of the Angels front office), weren’t just hoping for the playoffs, we were thinking, ‘Look at us on paper. We’re going.’ Then we felt short.”
Again. And again. And again. And again.
Alvarado knows it takes a special Angels fan to hang tough, which is why the team, for the first time, invited early-renewal 2014 season-seat holders to a brunch before the Sept. 22 “Fan Appreciation Day” game.
A band played. Champagne was served. Angels swag bags were distributed containing leftover giveaway items such as the Pujols pint glass that was distributed five days after the slugger went on the DL.
Angels broadcaster Terry Smith and players Ernesto Frieri and Kole Calhoun took the stage. Angels president John Carpino and Alvarado mingled with about 650 of the team’s most loyal fans.
“This was our way of saying, ‘Thank you for believing in us,’” Alvarado said.
Moreno was not there.
THE FANS
In a well-worn Angels T-shirt and sun-faded ballcap, Matt Karich hung out near the Angel Stadium ticket window before Wednesday’s game, two tickets fanned in his hand.
“I’m giving them away, and nobody wants them,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
One prospective taker turned him down and decided to go home after learning Trout wasn’t in the lineup for the finale.
“I thought we’d at least make the playoffs,” said Karich, 35, of Villa Park. “I was surprised the offense struggled so much and I knew we’d be in trouble with the pitching because of who they signed. We were pretty much out of it the whole time.”
The fans’ disappointment and anger over the underperforming Angels has had months to fade to apathy and acceptance. Some have turned to following the postseason-bound Dodgers. Some have taken to sports-talk radio and social media to demand firings and roster overhauls.
Still, hundreds of fans lined up early at the gate to say goodbye to the season, among them Ken Morrison, 70, of Anaheim.
“This season didn’t turn out the way it should have,” said Morrison, a fan since the team came to Anaheim in 1966. “Maybe if they started playing the way they are now six weeks earlier, they’d be in it.”
Like most fans, he doesn’t have any quick answers about how the Angels can fix their situation. But he knows what to say when asked if he will be back next season.
“Yeah, sure,” Morrison said. “Why not? They’re my team.”
Contact the writer: masmith@ocregister.com
