Freeway Series

Freeway Series

Los Angeles Angels Los Angeles Dodgers
Location	Greater Los Angeles
First meeting	June 17, 1997[1] Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Angels 3
Latest meeting	September 4, 2024[1] Angel Stadium, Anaheim Angels 10, Dodgers 1
Next meeting	May 16, 2025 Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Stadiums	Angels: Angel Stadium Dodgers: Dodger Stadium
Statistics
Meetings total	148[2]
Most wins	Angels
Regular season series	Angels, 75–73 (.507)[1]
Largest victory	Angels, 13–0 (June 25, 2004)[3] Dodgers, 16–3 (May 19, 2006)[4]
Longest win streak	Angels, 6 (June 22, 2003–June 26, 2004)[1] Dodgers, 10 (August 7, 2021–July 8, 2023)[1]
Current win streak	Angels, 1[1]

45km
30miles

Dodgers

Angels

  

Locations of Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers

The Freeway Series is a Major League Baseball (MLB) interleague rivalry played between the Los Angeles Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Angels are members of the American League (AL) West division, and the Dodgers are members of the National League (NL) West division. The series takes its name from the massive freeway system in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, the home of both teams; one could travel from one team's stadium to the other simply by driving along the Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5). The term is akin to Subway Series which refers to meetings between New York City baseball teams The Yankees and The Mets. The term "Freeway Series" also inspired the official name of the region's NHL rivalry between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks: the Freeway Face-Off.^[5]

The rise of Southern California as a major region of the United States brought about a significant economic rivalry between neighboring Los Angeles and Orange counties.

To many living outside of Southern California, the entire region is often simply referred to as "LA", associating Los Angeles and Orange counties with the same stereotypes and preconceptions. However, the two counties differ sharply in political ideology, socioeconomic status, and demographics.

Los Angeles County is considered more liberal, and is represented by a more ethnically diverse population, while Orange County was known to be one of the most conservative areas in the state.^[6] This divide led to the Los Angeles/Orange county line being colloquially referred to as the Orange Curtain.

This can be somewhat misleading, though, because the older, more urban, cities of northern and central Orange County (Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Buena Park, etc.) are much more in tune with Los Angeles County cities than their southern Orange County counterparts. These older Orange County cities are much less homogeneous than the south, and the income levels and demographics represent this.

In recent years, coinciding with the postseason success of the Dodgers and the growing postseason drought for the Angels, gameday experiences for each team have drastically changed (with a Dodgers game costing much more money to attend than an Angels game)^[7] because of this the economic situations of each fanbase have experienced a sort of role reversal. Another contributing factor of the changing fanbases of both franchises is the ownership of the Angels by Arte Moreno (the first Mexican-American to own a major sports team in the United States) which has led to a significant growth of its Hispanic and Latino American fanbase.^[8] This has even become a contributing factor toward players such as Anthony Rendon choosing to sign with the Angels over that of the Dodgers.^[9] Following the addition of Shohei Ohtani to the Angels in 2018 and the Dodgers in 2023, both teams saw an increase in both Asian and Asian American fans, particularly Japanese and Japanese American fans.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Dodger Stadium (left), the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Angel Stadium (right), home of the Los Angeles Angels.

The Freeway Series began as a pre-season exhibition series regularly played between the Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers at their respective regular season ballparks during the final days of each pre-season. The first exhibition game between the two clubs took place on April 2, 1962, which saw the Angels beat the Dodgers 6–5 in Palm Springs, at the time the spring training home of the Angels. The first pre-season series was played at Dodger Stadium, at the time the home ballpark of both teams April 6–7, 1963. The Angels won both of the two games played. The Dodgers and Angels continued playing spring training exhibition games against one another in 1964. On the eve of the Angels' 1966 move to Anaheim Stadium, the series paused for the 1965 pre-season and did not resume until the 1969 pre-season. The exhibition Freeway Series has mostly persisted since its 1969, with only occasional skipped years in 1972, 1980 and 2000-02 pre-seasons,^[14] the latter of which was the result of bad blood that developed between the teams' front offices following the Dodgers' late cancellation of the 2000 pre-season Freeway Series to play the New York Yankees, which left the Angels to scramble to find a last minute replacement club to play. While the novelty and transition of the exhibition Freeway Series lost much of its luster following MLB's adoption of regular season interleague play, the exhibition Freeway Series continues to this day. Generally, the exhibition Freeway Series is two or three games, with at least one game played at each of Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium between the end of the Cactus League and Opening Day, and is extremely well attended for preseason games (for example, the average attendance for the 2023 preseason Freeway Series was 36,108.^[15]

The Angels' Mike Trout and the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw both won the MVP awards for their respective leagues in 2014.

In anticipation of the Angels moving to Anaheim for the 1966 season, the Angels renamed as the "California Angels". They would keep this name from late-1965 to 1996 and rename as the "Anaheim Angels" from 1997 to 2004. After the Angels added Los Angeles to their official name in 2005 (as the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim"), the rivalry took on renewed interest, as the series took on a more intracity atmosphere. Throughout the 2005 season, Dodger Stadium listed the Angels as "ANA" on its out-of-town scoreboard and team schedules, as it was prior to Angels' name change. However, the Dodgers now post "LAA" on both their scoreboard and schedules. Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully refers to the team as just the Angels when mentioning them on the air. Dodgers tickets still refer to the Angels as the "Anaheim Angels." As of the 2011 season, however, the Angels' out-of-town scoreboard in right field still lists the Dodgers by their pre-2005 "LA" abbreviation instead of "LAD". The Angels' name change was largely opposed by the Dodgers organization, city and county of Los Angeles, Anaheim, every other city in Orange County, and fans on both sides. The prevailing argument was that the Angels did not play within Los Angeles county limits, and that adding LA to the name inaccurately represented the location and background of the team's fans. The Angels' ownership countered that bringing the Los Angeles name to the American League was beneficial to the entire region and organization.^[16] Furthermore, the Census Bureau's definition of Greater Los Angeles includes Orange County in its definition, and the Angels have always used Los Angeles stations to broadcast their TV and radio games. The adding of the "Los Angeles" to the Angels name still causes some resentment in the minds of both Angel and Dodger fans today.^[17]

Regular- and post-season games between the two teams take place at either Angel Stadium of Anaheim or Dodger Stadium. The two stadiums are located approximately 30 miles (48 km) apart,^[18] and take approximately 40–50 minutes to travel via Metrolink or Amtrak from their closest stations, Los Angeles Union Station and the Anaheim Station.^[19]

At one point, both teams were owned by major media conglomerates: the Angels had been owned by the Walt Disney Company,^[20] and the Dodgers were owned by News Corporation (each company owned one of the MLB broadcast partners, with News Corporation changing its name to 21st Century Fox in 2013, and subsequently being purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2019).^[20] Both teams have been sold in recent years.

Shohei Ohtani spent his first 6 seasons with the Angels before signing a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in 2023.

During the 2002 World Series, there was a moment of peace in the rivalry as a result of the nightmares the Dodgers and their fans were facing because the Angels played the San Francisco Giants, the fierce in-state rivals of the Dodgers.^[21][22][23] The Los Angeles Times called the series "the Dodgers' 'Nightmare Series.'"^[20] The New York Post called it "the worst-scenario World Series for the Dodgers."^[23] The San Francisco Chronicle called the series "a Dodger fan's worst nightmare."^[24] The Dodgers and their fans, including Chairman Bob Daly and former manager Tommy Lasorda, rooted for the eventual champions and attended their games in Anaheim.^[21][22][23] Lasorda was at Game 2 and stood behind the batting cage and said that he's a big fan of Angels manager Mike Scioscia (Scioscia had spent his entire 13 year playing career with the Dodgers).^[25] Daly attended Game 7 and sat near the Angels dugout, as a fan of late Angels owner Gene Autry.^[26] This series was the Angels first championship, while the Dodgers' most recent title came in the 2024 World Series.

History was made in 2014 when two MVPs were chosen from the same metropolitan area with the Angels outfielder Mike Trout winning the American League MVP and Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw winning National League MVP for the year. This occurred again in 2019 when the Angels' Trout and Dodgers' Cody Bellinger won their league's respective MVP awards.^[27][28]

Another recent point of contention between the two fanbases occurred on December 9, 2023, when Angels’ star Shohei Ohtani signed with the Dodgers for $700 million.^[29] Ohtani's decision to leave the Angels to sign with the Dodgers led to some Angels fans dubbing him a "traitor" and "sell-out".^[30] Following the firing of Ippei Mizuhara in 2024 due to his theft of $4.5 million from Ohtani for sports betting, animosity towards Ohtani's departure from Angels fans only grew. The first regular season meetings between the two teams since the signing took place on June 21, 2024 at Dodger Stadium and on September 3, 2024 at Angel Stadium.

Note: Dodgers records only from 1958 when they moved to Los Angeles.
As of October 2, 2023.

Updated to most recent meeting, September 4, 2024.

As of 2024, the two sides have never met in the postseason. To meet in the postseason would require that they both advance to the World Series in the same year. To date, the two teams have made the playoffs in the same season four times: 2004, 2008, 2009, and 2014. In 2009, both teams advanced to their respective League Championship Series. The Angels lost the ALCS 4–2 to the eventual champion New York Yankees, while the Dodgers lost the NLCS to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4–1. This would be the only time each team qualified for its League Championship Series in the same season.

The Angels won their only World Series appearance in 2002. The Dodgers have seen eight World Series titles, most recently winning in 2024.

• Major League Baseball rivalries

• National Hockey League: Freeway Face-Off
• College Football: UCLA–USC rivalry
• Major League Soccer: El Tráfico
• Major League Soccer: Honda SuperClasico (former)
• National Basketball Association: Lakers–Clippers rivalry

Inline citations

Bibliography

• DiGiovanna, Mike (June 18, 2007). "Freeway Series is Turning into a Romp". Los Angeles Times.
• Newhan, Ron. "Freeway Series Pits Dodgers Against Bad Angels". Los Angeles Times.