Let Snyder do what he does for a couple more decades, then we’ll talk.

I mean, apart from the fact that they created the Ducks in the first place, without which there would be no Ducks at all. Or bringing Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne – and Big League Hockey – to Orange County. Or taking Orange County to its first Stanley Cup Final. 7 games deep, no less. Yeah. All that totally sucked.

Or, maybe you mean the way that they took control of the Angels in 1996 and prevented the franchise from moving out of Southern California? Or worked with the city to tear down the eyesore of a stadium and restore the views and intimacy of a baseball park? Or re-created the entire foundation of the current baseball experience? Perhaps you resent the way that they brought in the likes of Bill Stoneman, Mike Scioscia, Tony Reagins and The Rally Monkey? Or oversaw the only Wolrd Series title in franchise history? Or sold the franchise to one Arte Moreno? Yeah, all that sucked as well.

Or maybe you suggest that we throw all that away because of cheerleaders, periwinkle, and cartoon logos. Go ahead if you want, but I won’t be joining you.

Tavares/Disney was a train wreck and it was after Tavares resigned (because the team was going to be sold) and Disney Exec Paul Pressler decided the best way to sell it would be to win now.

Realize that had it not been Pressler, another exec might have decided to abandon ship and toss the team in a firesale to whomever had a hundred million that would get Bud Selig’s vote.

Disney’s investment in the stadium, which is of course an investment in their own neighborhood, caretaking a property until a stable owner can come along and keep teh neighborhood elevated.

So perhaps that list above should read “Tavares” instead of Disney, but the list of owners of the Angels can read like this:

Gene – Good
Jackie on behalf of Gene – Bad
Tavares on behalf of Eisner – Bad
Pressler on behalf of Eisner – Great
Arte – Great

Bill Stoneman had Ersty traded to the White Sox. It was Eisner/Tavares that stepped in and shut that down and kept Erstad so that he was around for 2002.

As for “the stoneman and scioscia hires were only because they were the cheapest hires to be found”, state your sources for that. My recollection was that Sciscia was a strong candidate to take over the Dodger, but was stepped over. It was well known in SoCal that he was a strong managerial prospect. meanwhiel, Stoneman was a well respected front office guy for the Expos, which was running a well-recognized minor league and development organization below the big league club, something the Halos sorely needed to rebuild. He had proven himself a capable exec, working his way up to GM.

As for penny-pinching, you must have been born too late to recall the ways of Jackie Autry after she took control of the team. Thank the Lord that some local corporation with financial resources stepped in before she turned the team into the Kansas City Royals – West Coast Edition, which would most likely have resulted in the team shipping off to Arizona. And none of us would be on this blog today.