Angels fans borrow Pirates fans' playbook with sell the team chants

There exists a special class of professional sports teams where losing isn't part of a plan — it's just the culture. Over the past decade, the Pittsburgh Pirates have arguably exemplified that better than any other club, having missed the playoffs for a decade straight while largely serving as uncompetitive NL Central fodder.

When things get that bad at an organizational level, the fans tend to push back. They might continue filling up seats, but they'll boo and chant until their voices are hard. Heck, calls for Bob Nutting to sell the Pirates became so raucous in Pittsburgh that you'd hear them at pop-up concerts at your local Sheetz.

Of course, the Bucs aren't the only MLB team in that kind of losing purgatory, hence why other fanbases have made "Sell the team!" their unofficial battle cry.

While the Los Angeles Angels' faithful were already a part of that growing list, some of their fans have taken it a step further: chanting right in front of team owner Arte Moreno during a spring training game.

Pirates faithful aren't the only MLB fans fed up with losing

As painful as the Pirates have been to watch in recent years, the Angels have a case as the worst-run franchise in the sport over the past 15 seasons. They haven't made the playoffs since 2014 and haven't posted a record above .500 since 2015.

And, unlike the rotating cast of characters the Buccos have rostered, the Angels have featured Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Shohei Ohtani in that time. No wonder Arte Moreno isn't well-liked by his own fans.

This isn't an isolated issue, of course. Fans of the White Sox, Athletics, Twins, Nationals, Marlins, and Rockies have all made headlines in recent years for filling their team's stadium only to jeer and demand more from the owners.

And it's not like constant losing is the only cause for this phenomenon. Remember when Cincinnati Reds President and CEO Phil Castellini was mercilessly booed at an Xavier college basketball game? That was after the Reds made the playoffs in 2025!

Being cheap — something Nutting knows a lot about — is also a good way to draw ire. The Pirates have at least treid to break that habit, signing Ryan O'Hearn, Marcell Ozuna, and José Urquidy this past offseason in an effort to get Paul Skenes to October. The Angels, meanwhile, somehow never found a way to get the Trout-Ohtani tandem into the playoffs (signing Anthony Rendon certainly didn't help).

We'll see if this new-look Pittsburgh team can finally emerge from the NL Central cellar, but at least there's been a jolt of excitement injected into the franchise. The same can't be said for the Angels, for whom hope does not spring eternal.