Angel Stadium

The Big A

When the stadium opened on April 9, 1966, the feature that made it itself was already standing beyond the outfield: a scoreboard 23 stories high, costing one million dollars, twice as tall as any other building in Orange County at the time. They called it the Big A. Architect Noble Herzberg, who had worked on D.C. Stadium and prior Yankee Stadium renovations, borrowed from RFK's multiuse concept, but the Big A was Anaheim's own. The halo lights up after Angels victories, and it still does.

The Ground

Anaheim was a city of roughly 150,000 residents surrounded by cornfields and citrus trees when the ballpark went up — already on the map because of nearby Disneyland, and looking for a second draw. Over 40,000 fans showed up on opening day to see the Big A come to life. The total project cost about $24 million in city bonds, real estate, scoreboard, and equipment, with an initial baseball capacity near 45,000. The park holds 45,517 today.

Center field measures 396 feet — the second-shortest in the American League, tied for fourth-shortest in the majors. The lines run 330 to left, 330 to right. Despite that shallow center, Nolan Ryan threw two of his seven career no-hitters in this park and recorded 2,416 of his 5,714 career strikeouts here.

Sixty Seasons

The stadium is the fourth-oldest active ballpark in the majors, behind Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Dodger Stadium. It has hosted the All-Star Game three times — 1967, 1989, and 2010 — and the 2002 World Series, which the Angels won over the San Francisco Giants for the franchise's first championship. The park has also seen six American League Championship Series and seven AL Division Series.

The Angels have been the only club to call it home. Sixty seasons of baseball on the same Anaheim ground, and the halo still goes on after a win.

Reporting: Los Angeles Times, Ballpark Digest, MLB.com, Wikipedia. Park data: MLB StatsAPI and Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.