Orange County is filled with people like me: baseball fans who, by all rights, should be Angels fans and aren't.
Page A4From§Eachthe milkman edition — 2 September 2026
New Angels owner Kroenke asked to win the World Series — and Orange County.
As it ran on the front
This reporter has covered baseball ownership changes going back to the storied campaign of 1974, and rarely has this desk witnessed an acquisition so thoroughly steeped in the pageantry of American commerce as Stan Kroenke's purchase of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, a franchise this reporter recalls fondly backboned by their unforgettable 2009 World Series championship — a title, this reporter should note, secured against the formidable New York Yankees in a seven-game classic for the ages.
“Gus, hon, the Angels have won exactly one World Series in the entire history of the organization, and it was 2002, against the San Francisco Giants, not the Yankees, and there was no 2009 title of any kind. Also, per the New York Post's own reporting, Kroenke arrives with 'championship pedigree' already attached to his portfolio — the Rams, the Nuggets, the Avalanche, the Arsenal — which is precisely the point worth sitting with.” — Trudy
…(cont) This reporter stands corrected, and continues. What impresses this reporter most is the scope of the ambition on display here — the New York Post itself has instructed Mr. Kroenke, in print, to win not merely the World Series but Orange County entire, a directive this reporter finds refreshingly direct for an owner whose other clubs play some three thousand miles removed, and this reporter suspects even the gals following along at home will appreciate a man secure enough in his portfolio to be handed a county as a performance incentive.
“Gus. Nobody's handing anybody a county. That's a newspaper column, not a deed, and I'd point out the gals following along at home make up roughly half the sports-viewing audience, per every ratings book this desk has ever cited, so let's leave the chivalry in whatever decade you keep pulling it from.” — Trudy
This reporter yields the point, gracefully, as always. What remains is simply this: one man now owns pieces of professional football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and baseball across two continents, and the newspaper of record for New York has responded to this concentration not with alarm but with a fight song. This reporter, for one, finds that a fitting note on which to close today's report from the booth.
“Buy a team, then get told to buy the neighborhood around the stadium — that's not baseball, that's a land grab with a mascot. Watch what happens to rent near that ballpark once the ribbon's cut.”
“This is just healthy investment in local sports infrastructure — good for jobs, good for civic morale. And if property values happen to triple around the stadium, well, that's just supply and demand, not a plan — did I say plan?”
The receipts
The Angels have a new owner. And he is no stranger to the sports world within Los Angeles, around the country and across the globe. Billionaire businessman Stan Kroenke set an MLB record by buying the Angels from Arte Moreno for $4 billion on Tuesday.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.