![]() ![]() Publicity stunts aside, the Angels have endured an inordinate number of freak injuries, inexplicable losing streaks and bizarre occurrences. Presumably the Herald-Examiner sold more papers. The Angels went into a tailspin and finished 14 games under. She tired of the insults, saying, “I’m not Mary Poppins. Huebner busily spun daily spells and incantations, cracking, “I haven’t been this tired since I flew to Transylvania on an economy broom.”īonds, meanwhile, continued to disparage Huebner despite hitting five home runs in the six wins. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani would never bench himself, but the Angels relied on him to say when he needed a break and that may have ruined his arm. 3.Īngels Hernández: Angels failed to stop Shohei Ohtani from a disastrous injury that alters his future Huebner also distributed medals to the players before they faced the New York Yankees on Aug. Huebner gave Magic Circle medals to Dalton and Angels owner Gene Autry with instructions to rub them under a full moon, according to longtime baseball writer and Henry Chadwick Award winner John Holway. and something of a celebrity after appearing on “The Tonight Show.” Herald-Examiner, took Dalton’s statement as marching orders and contacted Louise Huebner, head of the Magic Circle - the largest coven of witches in the U.S. Pleas to priests, witch doctors and shamans to rid teams of spells have largely been exorcises in futility.* But Dick Miller, Angels beat writer for the L.A. The Angels were in another colossal slump in August 1977, and general manager Harry Dalton said he’d “try anything.” “They could have hit something and kept it very quiet.”įast-forward a decade and a sportswriter was called to action. “A lot of that stuff was ‘hurry up and bulldoze the area before anybody knows,’ ” Juaneño tribal chief David Belardes told Dufresne. Juaneños remaining in Orange County cannot verify whether the stadium was built on sacred ground because laws protecting Juaneño land from developers were not enacted until the 1970s. Harry Sidhu admitted lying to FBI agents and obstruction in connection with his secretly helping the Angels during negotiations with the city over the stadium land. “I do remember directing Chris to the local tribal leader,” she said.ĭufresne learned that the Juaneños tribe lived for 10,000 years in hamlets along the Santa Ana River bed that runs adjacent to what is now Angel Stadium.Ĭalifornia Ex-Anaheim mayor to plead guilty to corruption charges tied to Angel Stadium sale Newell remains on the job and still has no definitive information on the subject. Jane Newell, the city of Anaheim’s local history curator, couldn’t verify a Native American village, let alone a burial ground, under the stadium when interviewed by Dufresne. Construction began on Angel Stadium in Anaheim in 1964 with Mickey Mouse presiding,* smack-dab in a cornfield that may or may not have been a Native American burial ground. Times article by Chris Dufresne about the woebegone and paranormal Angels cleverly headlined “ The Hex Files.”ĭufresne, who died in 2020 at age 62 of melanoma, was a renowned wordsmith whose primary focus was college sports, but as a lifelong Orange County resident couldn’t help but employ a playful touch to chronicle the Angels’ calamitous flirtation with the occult.ĭufresne unearthed speculation that over the years has been bolstered or debunked, depending on agenda. That indicates the prose was borrowed from a brilliant 1999 L.A. Several passages below end with an asterisk. Deep-rooted Orange County fans might say the curse gained new life in 2005 when Moreno changed the team name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and cemented it by dropping “of Anaheim” in 2016. The Angels eventually retreated to mediocrity pocked by misfortune that weighs on their wings to this day. They defeated the San Francisco Giants, themselves burdened by the hubris of manager Dusty Baker‘s insistence on employing his 3-year-old son as bat boy.īut the lone championship provided merely a tease of elation. More on that below.īy rights, any curse spooned atop the Halos should have ceased in 2002 with their only World Series title. Alas, Maddon, for all his smarts and slogans and 30 years of dedication to the franchise, couldn’t escape the Angels’ curse.
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