Anaheim Angels Baseball Hat Autographed by the one and only ARTURO "ARTE" MORENO!
Angels Hat with END POLIO NOW Embroidery
Hat Manufacture: Sixth Man Promotions
Size: One Size Fits All (Velco Adjustable Strap)
100% Authentic. Item is from Rotary Night to Emd Polio event hosted by the Angels
Angels of Anaheim hosted “Rotary Night to End Polio Now”. On August 20, 2011 the goal along with other Rotary Clubs in our area is the raise at least $20,000.00 for The Rotary Foundation. Rotary International will soon eradicate Polio and other related disease from the face of the earth!
Arturo "Arte" Moreno (born August 14, 1946) is an American businessman. On May 15, 2003, he became the first Mexican-American to own a major sports team in the United States when he purchased the Anaheim Angels baseball team from the Walt Disney Company.
About Arte:
By 2001, Moreno wished to own a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. He attempted to buy controlling interest in his home state's Arizona Diamondbacks, but no deal could be reached. He nonetheless remained determined to own a Major League team, and soon set his sights on the 2002 World Series champion Anaheim Angels.
It was announced in April 2003 that Moreno had agreed with The Walt Disney Company to purchase the team for $180 million. On May 15, 2003, MLB commissioner Bud Selig announced that the sale of the Angels to Moreno had been approved.[4] One of the first people to congratulate Moreno after the news was Diamondbacks' owner Jerry Colangelo, a personal friend who declared it a good opportunity for Moreno.
Angels owneredit
Moreno soon demonstrated a willingness to spend the money necessary to sign premium players, including star outfielder Vladimir Guerrero. He also took a hands-on approach, becoming a regular attendee of the team's home games and periodically leaving his owner's box during games to mingle with fans in the regular stadium seating areas and concourses. All of these moves proved very popular with fans. In the first year of his ownership, the Angels drew more than three million fans, 750,000 more than their championship season.[5]
However, Moreno encountered a substantial backlash from fans of the team, and in particular, from the city leadership of Anaheim, California, over his decision in 2005 to change the name of the team from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Moreno saw the change as part of an overall strategy to increase the team's revenue by actively marketing it to, and associating it with, the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area, rather than restricting the team's identity to the city of Anaheim and to Orange County. In recent years, the San Diego Zoo and Los Angeles Times have been notable club sponsors, while all baseball TV rightsholders also use some variation of the team's new name, indicating the effect of Moreno's plan. But the move outraged Anaheim city officials, who responded by suing the team. It also angered a substantial segment of the Angels' fan base in Orange County, who took pride in the team's identity being distinct from Los Angeles. The awkwardness of the of Anaheim suffix, appended to satisfy a contractual requirement for Anaheim to be included in the team's name, also caused the new name to become the subject of national ridicule.[6][7][8] Eventually, the team won the lawsuit filed by the city. Whatever displeasure fans felt over the name change has not translated into diminished support for the team, as attendance levels have remained well above 2002 numbers.
Aside from the name controversy, Moreno's first few seasons as owner of the Angels were largely successful. The team posted three consecutive winning seasons for the first time in club history (2007–2009),[9] including winning the American League Western Division championship in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2014 when they finished with a league leading 98 regular season wins. However, the Angels, even with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout at the helm for the team, could not lead them back to the postseason or win a postseason game. From 2010 to 2022, the Angels failed to win a postseason game (the longest gap since their drought from 1987 to 2001) despite a massive deal for Trout for over $400 million and high priced signings of players such as Pujols, Anthony Rendon, Josh Hamilton, and Shohei Ohtani that totaled over $500 million.[10] A losing season in 2022 tied a franchise record of seventh straight losing seasons, matching the mark set from 1971-1977.
Just prior to the start of the 2006 Major League season, Moreno scored another success in signing a lucrative contract with Fox Sports Net for the television broadcast rights for the Angels' regular season games. The ten-year deal significantly increased the team's television revenue. In April 2006, Forbes magazine estimated the team to be worth $368 million—twice the amount Moreno paid for the club only three years earlier; in January 2018 Forbes estimated the franchise value at $1.75 billion.[11]
[Moreno] has really done an amazing job with the franchise. To double the value in three years without getting a new stadium is an incredible feat.
— Forbes magazine associate editor Kurt Badenhausen[12]
In October 2020, Moreno, through his company SRB Management, agreed to purchase Angel Stadium and the surrounding parking lots from the City of Anaheim for $320 million. In May 2022, it was reported that an FBI had conducted a corruption investigation into the dealings of the city and the stadium sale, which led to the resignation of Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu on May 24. In light of the scandal, the Anaheim City Council voted to cancel the sale later that day.
On August 23, 2022, Moreno officially announced that he would explore a possible sale of the Angels franchise. In a public statement, Moreno said that he and his family decided "now is the time" after a "a great deal of thoughtful consideration". The franchise was estimated to be worth $2.2 billion by Forbes in an analysis from March 2022.[13] However, he retracted that statement and committed himself to owning the team, citing "unfinished business".[14]
In his tenure, the Angels had a run of sustained consistency in the mid 2000s that included five American League West championships from 2004 to 2009. After failing to reach the World Series each time, they missed the postseason until 2014, two years after having signed Albert Pujols to a record 10-year deal for $254 million that outbid the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pujols deal is now considered one of the worst deals in free agent history as the career .300 hitter of the time proceeded to hit under .300 in each season before being released in 2021.[15] The Angels won 98 games in 2014 but were swept in the first round by the Kansas City Royals. The next year saw them win 85 games but it also started a spiral for the team. From 2017 to 2023, the Angels have had a losing season and failed to reach the postseason each time, despite the fact that in three of those eight seasons they had an MVP on the roster (Trout won in 2016 and 2019 and Shohei Ohtani, acquired in 2018, won it in 2021). The eight losing seasons, all under Moreno's leadership as owner, is the worst stretch in Angels history, eclipsing the 1971-1977 era.