Dodgers Announce 2020 Slogan: It's an L.A. Thing.

Dodgers Announce 2020 Slogan: It's An L.A. Thing

Courtesy of L.A. Dodgers

Anaheimers wouldn't understand. Because it's an L.A thing. Which is entirely the point.

The Dodgers have introduced fives fresh sets of logo designs to set the stage for the 2020 season. Two of them feature a star to celebrate the club's hosting its first All-Star Game since 1980. And while the Dodgers would never admit to slighting the neglected stepchildren of Orange County -- this time anyway -- there's nothing stopping me.

In fact, while I think it's good-natured fun (some of the make-fun-of-ees in the OC might disagree), I make it a point to poke fun of the Angels, with their prepositional phrase of a name, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, at regular intervals. And while minus a full-throated marketing research campaign I could never prove it, I've said for years that I believe there are more Dodgers fans in Orange County than there are Angels fans out of it. Think about that for a sec.

Of the Dodgers slogans that I can remember distinctly, my favorite is L.A.'s response to the LAAA name, introduced by Angels' owner Arte Moreno in 2005. Because, I presume, he thought it was clever. The Dodgers were cleverer, with "This is L.A. baseball." Emphasis on the this. 

I thought then as I do now that Moreno can appropriate the L.A. name all he likes, but he's not convincing anyone. Not his own fans in Anaheim, and certainly not the ones to the north who are in on the joke. Lower beer prices as his first marketing device upon buying the Angels in 2003? Sure, most of us can relate to that. But the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim? No.

This isn't a shameless plug because my 20-year-old site is sitting there dormant and full of bugs and I don't want anyone looking at it in its current state, but back in the day I was hawking "no Angels" t-shirts to get in Moreno's face. Sold a lot of em too. "No Angels, no where," was the line of thinking. Not in Los Angeles, not anywhere outside of the OC. Let the Halos have their fun, God bless em. Just not in my backyard.

No Angels t-shirts, sold in 2005 at baseballsavvy.com

Dodgers > Angels, right? I think so. And the same goes for their marketing departments. In the 1960s, now, and at every time in between.

And remember, glove conquers all.