MLB was my 2nd fav sport growing up after NBA (the Lakers and Kobe had a lot to do with that). But still, the Angels were dominating the AL West and had studs to watch. I thought they would eventually be competitive again.
Fast forward 15 years, and I like totally don’t give a shit about the Angels or MLB. The Rams have taken over that spot as NFL has been really fun to watch as a whole (and the Rams have been good). Heck even when the Lakers are bad, they’re still enjoyable to watch because they’re trying to win. They get weird players and have had odd team compositions, but you get a sense they’re trying to win. Their whole strategy is built on how do we assemble the best players and coaches to pair with AD and Lebron so we can win like another title before he retires? Meanwhile the Rams are like we gotta build around Stafford and Donald and win another Super Bowl before they retire.
The Angels, outside of a brief window when they made the trade for Giolito, haven’t felt like they’ve been trying to win at all in the last 6 years. It felt like the entire marketing approach was to come see Ohtani do spectacular things, who cares about winning or playoffs.
And then add in all the news about how they don’t spend any money on scouting or developing players, it’s like what’s the damn point lol. Is this a baseball team or a circus? Simultaneously, the rest of MLB hasn’t been as exciting as the stars outside Ohtani have been pretty lackluster. It just feels like NFL and NBA have so much more going on with their narratives (e.g. Taylor Swift/Kelce, Mr Irrelevant being relevant, Durant villainized, Lebron still playing well, Ben Simmons being shit).
MLB is like “hey look Ohtani hit ball good.” That’s it. It’s like they don’t even market their stars at all.
In short, I’ve found MLB to be less enjoyable as a whole, but the Angels acting like they aren’t even trying to win has intensified that apathy.
Edit: I should add that the most intriguing narrative from MLB the last few years was the Astros cheating and then followed up by the commissioner saying we don’t give a shit lol. Speaks volumes.
![[Michael Huntley] Angels manager Ron Washington on the trade deadline: “No matter who we have left, we will have O’Hoppe, Neto, Schanuel, Moniak. That core is going to be here. Mike (Trout), Rendon are going to be here and we are going to perform with whatever we have.” @SportingTrib #Angels](https://haloshub.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/minilogo.png "[Michael Huntley] Angels manager Ron Washington on the trade deadline: “No matter who we have left, we will have O’Hoppe, Neto, Schanuel, Moniak. That core is going to be here. Mike (Trout), Rendon are going to be here and we are going to perform with whatever we have.” @SportingTrib #Angels")