The OC Sports Grill, a sports bar less than a quarter mile from home plate at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, has closed its doors according to the Orange County Register and the establishment's still extant FaceBook page.
There was no reason given for the bar's closure but one incident earlier this year might have sealed its fate: During the heated playoff series between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks, the OC Sports Grill sided with the Kings and announced giveaways for L.A. fans who made it down to the Honda Center and stopped by for a pregame beverage. With the Angels out of the postseason a little earlier than we all hoped, the crowd for suds before Ducks games might have been even smaller after the public turncoating to Anaheim's NHL team last May.. will we ever really know?
Before it was The OC Sports Grill it was Nationals (named while the Washington Team was still the Montreal Expos) and nothing seems to work in that neighborhood. With the greatest nearby sports bar in memory, Throwbacks, closing in December of 2012 and this recent shuttering, the reinforcement of pre-2002 notions of Angel Stadium's neighborhood being a faceless, unenjoyable geographical commuting armpit has returned as a demonstrable economic narrative. Platinum Triangle be damned?
BUT... (and like PeWee Herman said, there is always a Big But...)
But is this closure related to the Angels leaving Anaheim?
Do the owners of the OC Sports Grill know anything insider concerning the much-rumored move for the Halos from Anaheim? If a bar cannot thrive with two major sports franchises literally next door, imagined how bad it will be minus 80+ Angels games a season next door... If the biggest draw to your bar is leaving in three years, why would you renew for another six? Whispers of what is going on make their way to the insiders amongst us. Is this the writing on the wall, the canary in the coal mine or just a sign that yesterday's awesome gathering hole has not changed with the times and tastes of a much hipper, healthier and happier Orange County? Time might tell.