The Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels have played almost 60 seasons of baseball. As the baseball world is suspended due to circumstances outside its control, it is time to look back at the history of this organization. There have been many talented players to put on the uniform, and we at Crashing the Pearly Gates wish to highlight the best who have ever represented the Angels. Without further ado, here we go!
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Sandy Alomar Sr., the father of better-known baseball player Sandy Alomar Jr., was a nothing-burger prior to being traded to the California Angels in early 1969. While he hadn’t received much playing time to develop, he also hadn’t encouraged others to take a deeper look, with a pitiful sub-.600 OPS as a member of the White Sox in ’68.
That all changed when the Angels parted ways with longtime friend Bobby Knoop, and Alomar became an Angel. Alomar broke out as a world-class defender at second base, playing the full 162 games two out of the five seasons he was an Angel and making the All-Star Game in 1970. While his hitting had much to be desired, even at the time, his defensive prowess more than made up for it. While there’s no way to quantify past defensive ability, the venerable Baseball-Reference pegs his 1971 season at a whopping 5.2 wins above replacement. In fact, of his career 63.2 Def (on FG), 48.1 of those came as an Angel, suggesting he earned the Angels nearly five wins from defense alone.
Not too shabby from someone with a career 69 wRC+ (not nice).
Sandy Jr is mentioned, but Sandy sired another kid who made it to the MLB….and oh, btw, the other made to the HOF… Roberto
Off the top of my head, can’t think of another player who played in the MLB who had two offspring make it, and at least one made it to HOF.
Pretty amazing baseball family – but maybe not as cool as three brothers all playing in the same outfield at the same time. (With all three playing 15 seasons or more.) One of them had a son who also played for 19 seasons and collected over 2,000 hits. (And his half-brother is a highly respected baseball guy and the new manager of the New York Mets.) About 7,000 hits between all of them.
Looking back, it’s amazing how many good second basemen the Angels have had: Knoop, Alomar, Grich, Kennedy and Kendrick. Maybe we’ll add Fletcher to that group as well.
Johnny Ray says Hi too
Yeah, and I’m sure Jerry Remy wonders what he needs to do to get some respect. Of course he was another of those all glove, no bat types.
Also, Alomar holds the Angel franchise record for most consecutive games played, with 648.
That’s incredible.
That’s four full seasons.
I remember that Alomar was “my guy”, because he was the first Angel whose card I had.
after a ST game in PS, he slid me up two baseballs from the dugout. Sears had a slogan back in the day “you get more from a Kenmore”, so i remember riding my ten speed home that day happily singing to myself “you get more from an Alomar”
also there was no Sandy Alomar “Sr” – the dude is Sandy Alomar.
also as point below, he hold a couple more records
689 ABs in one season – might not ever be broken
162 games played in a season – he did it twice, and Baylor/Fregosi/Knoop also did it
man, i’d love to see Mike Trout tie both of those records!!
The AB’s was insane as well, but I didn’t mention it. I didn’t think I’d be seeing black on his BBRef page.