The Angels franchise has invested heavily in marketing its fiftieth anniversary in this its 51st season of play. And so fans have many historical moments concerning the team to ponder. Let's look at the classiest Angels teams of the past fifty years, shall we?
1961 - The expansion Angels had to carry themselves with class wherever they went -they were making baseball history as the first expansion team. One big screwup and the whole way that the major leagues conducted themselves could have been altered. They carried themselves with class and wrote the book on how to be the new kids on the block.
1963 - A lot is made of the 86-win 1962 Angels, but imagine playing in the shadow of the mid-60s Dodgers and actually being their tenant. The Dodgers go on to win the world series and you are stuck paying the rent. To even show up for the next season showed true class.
1978 - The first Angels team to surpass the 86-Win mark, the 87-win Angels were in the pennant race until the bitter end, but the free agent saddlebags were open and Anaheim was being marketed to baseball's best players as their dream destination. Gene Autry stayed classy, let the players do the talking and signed the paychecks.
1985 - One of two Angels teams to amass 90 or more wins and not make the playoffs, the 1985 Angels finished the season one game behind the eventual world champion Don Denkenger-aided Kansas City Royals. Most of the team returned the next season and took the AL West with a week to spare.
1998 - Counting the postseason, the 1998 New York Yankees won 125 games. Only one team had a winning record against them. Yep. The Terry Collins-managed Anaheim Angels. Might be hard to imagine being classy in a Disney-era winged logo jersey, but this essay is not about looking classy, it is about being the essence of class, and in putting it all into the box score no matter what, this Angels team was the benchmark of a classy bunch.