By AngelsWin.com Senior Writer, David Saltzer -
Happy New Years Angels fans & AngelsWin.com faithful. The Announcement you have all been waiting for is finally here! It's time to celebrate an anniversary, and one that will be celebrated over the entire course of the 2014 calendar year. (More details on that later)
Ten years. That’s a long time. In internet years, that’s
almost an eternity.
Think back: where were you 10 years ago? What were you
doing? Where did you go to talk Angels baseball?
They say that all it takes for good things to happen is that
someone stands up and says I’ll do it. And that’s how AngelsWin.com
started—Chuck Richter looked around the internet at the limited options for
Angels fans and decided that Angels fans needed and deserved an internet site
to call their own. He created AngelsWin.com: a website by Angels fans for
Angels fans.
If you go back that far with AngelsWin.com, give yourself a
gold star. Heck, go ahead and give yourself 5 gold stars—Lee won’t mind.
When AngelsWin.com started, it was a small group of friends
who got together to talk Angels baseball. There was a lot to talk about: The
memories of the 2002 Championship Team were still strong. Arte Moreno made a
big splash by signing Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, and Kelvim Escobar. The
team seemed poised for a spectacular run.
Not one to be complacent, Chuck wanted to do more than just
talk about the Angels. He wanted to help shape the conversation. So, he started
reaching out to members on the site and leveraging contacts with the Angels to
give Angels fans their own unique perspective where they would drive the course
of the conversation.
By doing that, AngelsWin.com became dubbed the “Voice of the
Fans” by KNX 1070 AM Radio. Whenever they, or for that matter any media outlet,
needed an Angels fan’s perspective, they contacted AngelsWin.com. Whether it
was providing commentary for USA Today during the playoffs, commenting on the
Dan Haren trade on XM Radio, or giving a perspective on the ongoing
negotiations between the team and the City on CNN Latino, AngelsWin.com has
been there to be the voice of the fans.
As the website grew, Chuck wanted to branch out into all
things related to Angels baseball. For hardcore fans, that meant branching out
into all levels of the organization. AngelsWin.com started providing prospect
lists, bios, and updates. As the connections between the website and the
players grew, we got them to write blogs on our site to give fans a unique
perspective into their lives. Over time, we began to advertise with Angels
affiliates.
As the collection of writers grew, more possibilities opened
for the website. At first it was a few interviews, almost all of which were
audio recorded. Hours were spent transcribing them for fans to make them useful
for fans. In time, it grew to video interviews and holiday greetings.
Through the steady and professional work put forth by the
website, the Angels front office began to pay attention to AngelsWin.com. They
became more receptive to our interview requests giving us the chance to truly
shape the conversation. AngelsWin.com arranged for online chat interviews with
Eddie Bane, the Director of Scouting for the Angels. He gave fans true insights
into the development of players who would go on to become staples of the team.
Soon, doors opened with Abe Flores, Tony Reagins and Jerry Dipoto.
With content like that, more fans kept coming. Soon
AngelsWin.com was busting at the seams and the website needed to be redesigned
to handle the volume of traffic. Shortly thereafter, a second redesign had to
be done. And by 2013, we had already done our 4th expansion to
handle all the Angels traffic. What had once been a little chatboard had become
mainstream.
AngelsWin.com has always been about the community. And,
there’s no better way to build community than to get people together in person.
So, in 2006, a group from AngelsWin.com decided to meet up in Spring Training.
At a bar called Hail Marys they met, ate food, drank suds, and relished in
Angels’ stories. And thus, the Spring Training Fanfest was born.
But, as with the website itself, the Spring Training
Fanfests grew until they too burst at the seams. Within a few years, the crowd
could no longer fit into Hail Mary’s—a new location had to be found. Soon,
getting together just once a year as a community wasn’t enough; a summer
Fanfest at the Big A was added including charity events dedicated to raising
funds for the O.C. Miracle League. Even that has grown in just a few short
years to include a charity golf tournament, a golf tournament, and a whole weekend
of fun.
In 2012, Arte Moreno, the Angel’s owner attended our Spring
Training Fanfest to take questions directly from the fans. Since then, Jerry
Dipoto, the Angels General Manager, Tim Salmon, and all the Angels reporters
have come to speak with our ever growing community.
Along the way, AngelsWin.com got credentialed to sit in the
press box. Then, we got credentialed to be in the clubhouse and conduct
interviews. And, finally, we were invited to the press conferences where we
were allowed to ask a question on live national TV!
But really, AngelsWin.com is all about you, the fans. It’s
about the community that comes here daily, follows us on Twitter and Facebook,
and engages with one another.
So, how shall celebrate our 10-year anniversary? By honoring
you, our fans. Over the next year, we will be interviewing members of our
community to tell their stories, to share their favorite memories, to relive
their greatest moments.
Of course we will continue to do all that makes
AngelsWin.com THE internet home for
Angels fans. We will continue to debate all things that are Angels baseball. We
will continue the Fanfests. We will continue to provide content, news, and
prospect lists. We will have our game day chats and our interviews.
As we begin the second decade of our existence, we want to
thank you, our fans for making it all possible. What started as an idea from
Chuck Richter has grown into so much more. As each of you has joined our site
and encouraged others to come, we have continued to grow and expand our
offerings to make AngelsWin.com truly a 24/7 community by Angels fans, for
Angels fans.
