Last night, a friend of my wife calls. She is distraught and choking back tears. Her five year old cat is dying up the street on her front lawn and she had just come upon him as she pulled up in her driveway. Being a divorced, single mother of two boys, she was afraid to approach the cat and all she had managed before calling me was to throw a blanket over the once magnificent animal.

I put on a coat and some gloves, donned one of my bright red Angels caps, (whose main virtue is that of being easily spotted by even drunken drivers), grabbed a flashlight and walked to the scene. Indeed there was a lump covered by a blanket. The cat's owner doesn't want leave her doorway, She doesn't want to look at her cat anymore. She asks me for my opinion as to whether the cat can be saved. I lifted the blanket. . . .

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A consistent marketing identity has seemingly always eluded the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles/Anaheim. It didn't have to be this way, but the inconstancy is what it is. The resulting disconnect between the Angels' on the field performance, especially in the Mike Scioscia era, its regional TV ratings (second worst in the majors), media market size, (Number 2 Designated Market Area), and MLB merchandising popularity, (abysmal given the media market they hail from), all combine to make the Angels a sleeping giant as far as mass or national popularity goes. the Angels seem to be stuck as a distinctly regional brand with no larger footprint outside of its home market.

The signing of Albert Pujols creates an opportunity to change the perception of the Angels from a marketing standpoint. The question is, how? More importantly, will the Angels do what it takes to become more popular? More thoughts on that after the jump.

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