"Disneyheim!" a Anaheim Travel Page by american_tourister

I have a love-hate relationship with Anaheim. I am an (HUGE) Anaheim Angels and Anaheim Ducks fan but I do not care for Disney Corp. I worked for them once as a consultant and was appalled at some of their management methods. Disney runs this town. The officials may be elected but Disney (Michael Eisner) pulls the strings.

This picture shows why I go to Anaheim so often. It is the baseball stadium. It used to be called Anaheim Stadium and we all lovingly called it "The Big A." Disney sold the name to the power company (Yeah, the guys who bankrupted California!) and they renamed it "Edison International Field of Anaheim". Now that just rolls off the tongue doesn't it? We now call it "The Big Ed."

I love watching the Angels but Disney took the security issues to extreme measures lately. They dig through packs and just go nuts when they find a drink or any food. I had an old Power Bar in a camera bag and they made it out to be a Capitol Offense.

The funny thing is that even though they are the "Anaheim" Angels and Mighty Ducks of "Anaheim", most of their fans live in other cities. Orange County is a collection of cities sprawling over an area the size of LA. 50 years ago they were all separate towns with farms and orchards in between. You have to travel a long way out of town now to find a farm or orchard.

Anaheim got it's name from the German settlers who came here originally. They named it ANA for the Santa Ana river which runs through it and HEIM which means "home" in German.

Being an Angels fan was a lifetime of misery until 2002. That was a dream season (World Series Champs at last) and finally lifted the "tragic loser" tag from the franchise. It may never happen again but at least it happened in my lifetime.

We have always considered our team to be the Boston Red Sox of the West. The Chicago Cubs are the "loveable losers" who cannot get to the playoffs but the Red Sox shared misery with the Angels. Both teams get just good enough to offer hope and then crash and burn in the post season in the most spectacular ways.

I hope the Red Sox get theirs now. Nomar Garciaparra is a local boy and we all hate the Yankees.

We love' em but hate the name and colors. They are our team but Disney named them after a cartoon and a children's film and gave them those 90's colors.

I would love for Disney to sell them and have another owner change the name and colors so we can get some respect. Even maming the Stanley Cup finals in 2003 is not enough. It has to change one day.