Sports
As critters and losses pile up, Angels fans call for owner Arte Moreno to sell team
Lifelong Angels fan Johnny Gonzalez has reached his boiling point as the team sits at the bottom of the standings, but he’s not giving up. And he’s not alone.
The Angels completed a surprise sweep of the Rangers Sunday, but the team still is tied for the worst record in Major League Baseball with a 20-34. Their fans spent the holiday weekend pushing back against the idea that the franchise would never be more than a bargain option amid rising prices all around them.
Frustrated fans have gone shirtless during the Angels’ homestand and chanted for owner Arte Moreno to “sell the team.” And about 75 fans heeded Gonzalez’s call for a protest, gathering in front of the Angel Stadium State College Boulevard entrance on Saturday chanting “sell the team,” “we want playoffs” and “winning matters.” Drivers passing the spectacle honked their horns in support.
“They’re not doing much for us fans,” said Gonzalez, who organized the protest using the Instagram account @AngelsBoycott. “It seems like every other team is just doing a lot more than us, despite us having a huge following [and] having some of the best players to ever play the game. I mean, it’s just like a lack of commitment, to say the least, and that’s why we’re here today.”
Angels fans wave signs and urge owner Arte Moreno to sell the team to an ownership group willing to invest more in winning during a pregame protest Saturday at Angel Stadium.
(Joaquin Ruiz / For The Times)
It has been three months since Angels owner Arte Moreno told the Orange County Register that, according to Angels survey results, winning was not a top-five priority for fans and that data showed they valued affordability, safety and a “good experience” first.
Outrage over the remarks has grown as the Angels remain anchored at the bottom of the standings.
With a megaphone in his hand, Gonzalez pointed to the Ducks’ recent Stanley Cup playoff run as proof that Anaheim enjoys winning. He also noted how the nearby Dodgers and even the Padres demonstrate how Southern California teams can play for the postseason.
The Angels have missed the MLB playoffs for 11 consecutive seasons — including six with stars Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout on the roster — and have reached the postseason six times since Moreno purchased the team in 2003 after the franchise’s sole World Series title win in 2002.
Team officials did not respond to The Times’ request for comment on the fans’ protest, but manager Kurt Suzuki addressed the “sell the team” chants that are so loud they can be heard during Angels television broadcasts.
“I know it’s a thing, the no shirts and waving,” Suzuki said. “But yeah, we see it. We recognize it. They have the right to their opinion, and … they cheer for the guys, they roll-call them. I think it’s pretty neat for them to have that kind of support.”
A fan wears a bag over his head that says “Sell the Team Arte!!!” during a game against the Rangers on Friday at Angel Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Ap Photo/mark J. Terrill)
Suzuki added that the Angels remain focused on winning and haven’t paid the chants too much attention.
The Angels entered Sunday’s game ranked No. 9 in MLB attendance with 34,555 announced fans per night, according to ESPN. There are swaths of empty seats during every home game, suggesting some season ticket holders are choosing to stay home.
There is an expanding contingent of fans in the upper deck adjacent to the right-field foul pole who have chanted “sell the team” while waving T-shirts, joining in on a trendy “tarps off” fan movement across MLB sparked by Cardinals fans in St. Louis.
Angels fans who haven’t joined the protests are pleased to see the calls for change.
“I think it’s good that there’s fans that are passionate enough to actually speak out, to want to see a better team and really want to get us back into the playoffs,” Darren Shimasaki, an Angels fan from Yorba Linda, said Friday.
Debbie and Reed Olive, meanwhile, said they usually attend games for the promotions.
“You’re not going to come away with the wins,” Debbie said. “So, we got to get something for our ticket price.”
Even the fan experience unrelated to winning that Moreno touted has taken a hit.
Angels officials said they quickly resolved a rodent infestation Orange County health inspectors flagged at an outdoor food stand in View Level Section 432. Videos of stadium workers capturing a possum in one fan section and spraying gnats on the field during the last few weeks haven’t helped the team’s image.
Reed said the rodent infestation “was a bad look” and that the Angels need a new stadium in addition to a new owner.
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who has spent his five-year career with the Angels, said he understands the fans’ frustration.
“We don’t like not doing well, either,” O’Hoppe said. “It’s not OK to us. It doesn’t matter how much we’re getting paid or that we get treated great throughout the league and things like that. We hate it, too. I think people definitely don’t realize that. I think I can speak for a lot of guys in here that we dedicate our lives to this. … We’re not happy with how it’s going, but we’re doing everything we can to fix it.”
O’Hoppe is a New York Rangers fan and gets frustrated when his team struggles, but he said he reminds himself that “we’re all humans.”
The Rangers’ Josh Jung is tagged out at home by Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe on Friday at Angel Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Ap Photo/mark J. Terrill)
Angels left fielder Wade Meckler, who made his debut on Friday night, is an Orange County native who grew up cheering for the team.
“I mean, I get it,” Meckler said. “It’s a hungry fan base. The fan base is hungry for a winning team. So I understand, you know, being frustrated. They just really want a winning team.”
Meckler has been following the Angels since age 5 and remembers feeling dejected after attending the Angels’ 4-1 home loss to the Royals in Game 2 of the 2014 American League Division Series.
“It’s a super loyal fan base,” Meckler said. “I feel like they show up with energy every day.”
The Angels are on track to miss the postseason for a 12th consecutive season, prompting restless fans to call for new owners who will invest in building a team capable of reaching the playoffs.
“Arte don’t know what he’s talking about,” said Austin Kleschka, an Angels fan who joined Gonzalez at the front of Saturday’s protest. “Winning is a priority. We want that.”
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A lot of history has a chance to be made when it comes to the MLB MVP awards this season.
Let’s check out the odds for the AL and NL MVP race at FanDuel Sportsbook as of July 16.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
American League MVP
Yordan Alvarez: -165 (bet $10 to win $16.06 total)
Junior Caminero: +450 (bet $10 to win $55 total)
Bobby Witt Jr.: +500 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Ben Rice: +1400 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Nick Kurtz: +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Julio Rodriguez: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Shea Langeliers: +5500 (bet $10 to win $560 total)
What to know: We’re going to have a new AL MVP. Two-time defending AL MVP Aaron Judge has not played since May due to injury. His three MVP awards are tied with a host of MLB legends for the third-most all-time, including Yankee icons Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. However, he’ll have to wait to get his fourth, according to the current odds. The name atop the board is Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who is leading the AL in home runs (31), hits (111), RBIs (70), on-base percentage (.426), slugging percentage (.633) and OPS (1.059). He is also second in the league in batting average (.318).
National League MVP
Shohei Ohtani: -1500 (bet $10 to win $10.67 total)
Pete Crow-Armstrong: +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Kyle Schwarber: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
James Wood: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Juan Soto: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Corbin Carroll: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
Otto Lopez: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
What to know: It appears Ohtani is gonna do this thing again, mostly because of his combination of pitching and hitting. At the plate, he’s third in the NL in OBP (.403), third in OPS (.952), fifth in home runs (22) and fifth in slugging (.549). And on the mound, he’s 8-2 in 14 starts with a 1.79 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 95 strikeouts. Yeesh. Last season, Ohtani won back-to-back NL MVP awards for the first time since Albert Pujols did it in 2008 and 2009. He also won the AL MVP in 2023, making him the first player in MLB history to win MVP back-to-back in each league. This year, if Ohtani is to win NL MVP, he will make a dent in Barry Bonds’ record of four straight MVP wins (2001-2004). All four of Ohtani’s MVP wins have been unanimous, with him receiving all 30 first-place votes. He has the second-most MVPs in history, trailing only Bonds’ seven.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If something happened once, it can happen again. That’s kind of what Yogi Berra was getting at when he said “it’s like deja vu all over again.”
Berra, the late Yankee catcher and once New Jersey’s unofficial poet laureate, spent most of his life within walking distance of East Rutherford, N.J., where history could repeat itself all over again in Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. And that makes his words newly relevant.
Argentina and Lionel Messi, the reigning champions, will be seeking to become the first to repeat in 64 years while Spain will be playing in the title game for just the second time ever. And the similarities to its first trip, in 2010, are uncanny.
Sixteen years ago Spain became just the second reigning European champion to win a World Cup. It will enter Sunday’s game as the reigning European champion.
In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, Spain ran off a 35-game unbeaten streak, which matched the longest in history at the time. La Roja will enter Sunday’s game with a 37-game unbeaten streak, which matches the current longest streak in history.
And that 2010 team was known for an absence of ego and a depth of character, a blue-collar collection of quiet superstars built around a core of Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol, players who emphasized humility, unity and selflessness.
This team? It’s the same.
“We’re one big family,” center back Pau Cubarsí said in Spanish.
A family that has already achieved its goal, according to coach Luis de la Fuente. So while Argentina may be feeling the pressure of chasing World Cup history, De la Fuente said his team is playing with house money
“I don’t believe in the idea that finals are there to be won. They’re there to be enjoyed,” he said. “What’s to come could be the icing on the cake.”
Of course a cake is nothing without the icing. But then Spain hasn’t had to separate joy from success in this World Cup, enjoying an unbeaten run to the final whose only blemish has been a tournament-opening draw with Cape Verde.
That was the first of six clean sheets for Spanish keeper Unai Simón, though it’s really been a group effort with Simón facing an average of just two shots on goal a game.
“This team never ceases to amaze me,” De la Fuente said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”
De la Fuente, 65, whose only senior international appearance as a player came in the 1988 Olympics, coached Spain’s U-23 team to a silver medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021 then took over the national team a year later, after it crashed out of a second straight World Cup in the round of 16.
De la Fuente spent nearly two decades coaching at the youth level, including nine years with Spain’s U19 and U21 national teams. But seven months after taking over the senior team, he led later Spain to its first UEFA Nations League title and a year after that it won its first Champions League title in more than a decade. La Roja has lost just twice in 48 games under De la Fuente, who has the highest winning percentage of any man who has managed more than nine games for Spain.
Given his background, De la Fuente trusts young players — with an average age of 26.7, Spain has the sixth-youngest roster in the World Cup — and his starting lineup includes two teenagers in Cubarsí and forward Lamine Yamal. The core of the team — Simón, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Mikel Oyarzabal, Fabián Ruiz — are players he coached to European youth-level championships and ones he has known for half their lives.
That has given the team a level of familiarity and trust that goes both ways.
“This team never ceases to amaze me,” the coach said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”
And they’ve gotten there, said right back Pedro Porro, another product of De la Fuente’s youth teams, by all pulling in the same direction.
“From the very first day we got here — not just me, but the whole team — we’ve been working toward a common goal,” Porro said. “That’s part of the process. There are no excuses.”
That, too, is something De la Fuente brought to the job, though it’s not an original concept for Spain. It’s more like deja vu all over again.
“We are ordinary, generous people,” the coach said. “We’ve recaptured the spirit of 2010.”
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The ESPYS brought some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment to New York City on Wednesday night, a day that typically ranks among the slowest on the sports calendar.
But this year’s ceremony was preceded by a World Cup semifinal match in Atlanta that was already being described as an instant classic. Lionel Messi and Argentina punched their ticket to a second straight World Cup final with a win over England. The defending champions will meet Spain on Saturday in nearby New Jersey, just a short trip across the Hudson River from where comedian Marcello Hernández opened the ESPYS.
The “Saturday Night Live” star wasted little time taking a few jabs at Jake Paul, Tiger Woods and other sports figures.
ESPN’S JOHN BUCCIGROSS NAMES HIS MOUNT RUSHMORE OF ALL-TIME SPORTSCENTER ANCHORS
Marcello Hernández speaks onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
“Mike Tyson ripped my watch off. Welcome to the ESPYS!” Hernández joked after making a boxing-style entrance in a robe with Tyson as part of his entourage.
“I must say, it’s an honor to be here among so many great athletes, and Jake Paul,” Hernández began in his roughly 10-minute monologue.
Paul appeared to take the joke in stride, laughing and applauding as cameras cut to him in the crowd. Hernández then stayed on the YouTube star-turned-boxer, needling him over his history of fighting older opponents.
“Jake, that’s just a joke. Don’t fight me,” Hernández continued. “My dad and my stepdad are both here. They’re over 50, and I know that’s how you like them. So, fight them instead.”
Paul kept laughing as Hernández’s bit played out, eventually closing with the comedian shifting attention to his father and stepfather, who were shown in the audience.
Atmosphere at the 2026 ESPYS at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Square on July 15, 2026, in New York, New York. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Hernández later used Caleb Williams’ “Madden 27” cover as a lead into Woods.
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“I want to congratulate Caleb Williams, the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, who will be on the cover of the new Madden video game. Congratulations to Caleb,” Hernández said, before adding, “And Tiger Woods will be on the cover of Grand Theft Auto.”
Woods was arrested in Florida in March on charges of DUI after a car crash. The arrest report said a deputy found pain pills in his pocket and observed signs of impairment at the scene. Woods later announced he would take time away from golf to seek treatment.
Hernández also worked North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick into the monologue, using the 74-year-old’s relationship with Jordon Hudson as part of a joke about the New York Knicks’ title drought.
“The Knicks won their first championship since 1973. And to put into perceptive how long ago that was, in 1973 hockey players didn’t wear helmets, basketball had no three point line. And in 1973, Bill Belichick was the age his girlfriend is now.”
The Knicks later took home the ESPY for Best Team.
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and other members of the 2025-26 Knicks championship team took the stage to accept the award, but Josh Hart was noticeably absent. Brunson drew laughs when he joked, “I want to say thank you to the ESPYS for pulling Josh Hart’s invite.”
Earlier in the night Brunson also received the “Best Championship Performance” award.
Jalen Brunson accepts the Best Championship Performance award onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City on July 15, 2026. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W+P)
Former NBA player Jason Collins, who died in May at age 47 following a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, posthumously received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Former MLB pitcher Jim Abbott received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, while Scott Ruskan was honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
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The ESPYS are held every summer, bringing together top athletes and other stars to celebrate the best moments from the past year in sports while honoring figures recognized for courage, service and impact. In past years, the ceremony has been held in Los Angeles, but shifted to New York this year.
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