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For the final leg of my California trip I dragged my best friend from college, Lucas, to a third baseball game. This time, we split the distance between Dodger Stadium and San Diego to arrive at Anaheim.

Angel Stadium is the least memorable of the three stadiums in southern California. The competition is tough, of course -- the beautiful backdrop and iconic size of Dodger Stadium and the new-age feel and stunning architecture of Petco Park are tough to beat. This isn’t to say that Angel Stadium is bad, though! The parking lot and drive in reminded me of American Family Field in Milwaukee or other suburban parks with its large surrounding parking lots and generally uneventful (which is a good thing) way in. The Big A sign in the parking lot serves as a great landmark when it comes to locating your car after the game ends -- taking a picture as we parked and aligning ourselves with it saved a lot of trouble when heading back. I was greeted by a few food trucks situated around the first base entrance, which was a welcome sight. I grabbed a grilled cheese from it which was alright, but nothing spectacular. I found the concourse itself rather easy to walk, and there were walls with Angels memorabilia scattered throughout. As a fan of both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, I very much enjoyed seeing relics from their great careers on display.

The field itself is nearly symmetric, with the right field creeping in compared to left. The park itself is pretty small and relatively close to sea level, which lends itself to three true outcome baseball (in 2023, the Angels had the fifth-highest park factor for home runs (112), sixth-highest for strikeouts (106), and ninth-highest for walks (103)). The backdrop is modest, with the highlights being the mountain range at the horizon and the fountain just beyond the center field wall. For people who call Anaheim or the surrounding area home, I can see how this park could become a comfortable place to watch baseball.

Speaking of, I met an Umarell at this game that, while scoring the game on his own scorecard, recounted tales of Angels gone such as the 2002 World Series, many rosters with talented players that never made the postseason, and watching players like Tim Salmon and Vlad Guerrero Sr. in their prime. This man also (metaphorically) clasped his hands and lamented the rise of three true outcome baseball, pinning a lot of the blame of his experience on Mike Trout in particular. He did like Ohtani, though, given his dynamic status as a two-way player and how it reminded him of the stories of Babe Ruth he heard from his father and grandfather. He was also decked out in head-to-toe Angels gear, with the centerpiece being a letterman jacket with the Angels’ logo proudly on display.

The game itself was like the stadium: not entirely memorable, but by no means bad. The Twins, still in town from their earlier series with the Dodgers, came in and fell into an early 3-0 hole. A one-two punch of a single and a double from Kyle Farmer and Alex Kirilloff in the sixth put the Twins on level footing, followed by a Will Castro bomb to left field in the top of the seventh putting them in the lead, 4-3. However, the Angels struck back that inning with a Zach Neto single that became a run off of the back of a Mickey Moniak triple, followed by a Taylor Ward run to give us the final score of the game: 5-4, Angels. Shohei Ohtani was a name not mentioned, as he went 0-3 with a walk and two strikeouts. An oddly forgettable performance in the home of the ‘Tungsten Arm’ O’Doyle meme (which I made sure to honor). And, of course, Carlos Correa as booed. As is tradition.

From 2014 to 2023, the Angels have a 738-780 record. In my eyes, the ballpark experience I had reflects it -- not bad by any means, but nothing spectacular. By virtue of me being wowed, moved, or pleasantly surprised by every other stadium I’ve been to Angel Stadium lays towards the bottom of my rankings. This is still true today, where at the time of writing I’ve knocked out 25 of 30. Regardless, if I find myself in southern California again and the Angels are in town, I don’t see a reason why I wouldn’t swing by here.