(CNS) Posted Tuesday July 19, 2011 – 9:10am
The late Gene Autry, the Angels original owner, will be the ninth inductee into the team's Hall of Fame during a ceremony preceding tonight's game against the Texas Rangers at Angel Stadium.
Autry's widow Jackie and four other members of the Angels Hall of Fame -- Rod Carew, Brian Downing, Chuck Finley and Bobby Grich -- will participate in the ceremony.
All fans in attendance will receive an Angels Hall of Fame shirt.
Autry, one of the nation's most popular entertainers in the 1930s and 1940s as a singing cowboy of the movies, radio and records, unexpectedly became the owner of the Angels.
Autry had gone to Major League Baseball's 1960 winter meetings in St. Louis, seeking to ensure that a radio station he owned, KMPC-AM (710), would have the rights to broadcast the games of the Los Angeles expansion team the American League would be granting at the meeting.
Instead, after attempts by Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg and future Oakland Athletics owner Charlie O. Finley to own the team failed, Autry, who had been part-owner of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, ended up owning the team.
Autry's years as the Angels' owner were marked by disappointment.
The team had an improbable third-place finish in 1962, its second season, but had only three winning records over the next 15 seasons.
The team failed to advance to the postseason until 1979, when it won the American League West Division championship, but lost the American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles, three games to one.
The Angels won their second division championship in 1982 and took a two games to none lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the best-of-five American League Championship Series, only to become the first team in championship series history to squander a 2-0 lead.
The Angels were even closer to the World Series in 1986, needing just one more strike to defeat the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, which had become a best-of-seven series.
However, Dave Henderson hit a 2-2 pitch from reliever Donnie Moore for a two-run home run that gave Boston a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth inning of Game 5.
The Angels rallied to tie the score in their half of the ninth, but Boston scored what proved to be the winning run in the 11th inning and won the final two games of the series at Fenway Park.
In 1995, the Angels had their worst regular-season collapse in franchise history.
They led the American League West by 11 games in August, only to be tied by the Seattle Mariners by the end of the regular season, who defeated them, 9-1, in a one-game playoff.
"I don't live with disappointments," Autry once said. "I try not to place blame or carry it with me."
Autry sold controlling interest in the team to The Walt Disney Co. in 1996, two years before his death at age 91.
Autry was "the ultimate fans' owner," former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley said following Autry's death.
"The fans always came first for him," O'Malley said.
Copyright © 2011 City News Service
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