ANAHEIM -- The last time the Angels changed their baseball cap, they won the World Series.
The Angels have been using the same red hat with a red “A” encircled by a silver halo since 2002, the same year they won the only title in franchise history. It’s the team’s eighth official hat design, dating back to 1961, although their ninth is their alternate Nike City Connect cap that debuted in 2022.
After previously exploring all of the club’s primary logos, here’s a look at all nine cap designs in Angels history, with several changes related to the club changing names over the years, including going from the Los Angeles Angels (1961-65), California Angels (1965-1996) and Anaheim Angels (1997-2004) before becoming Los Angeles again:
1961-64
The first Angels hat design featured an interlocked “LA” in red with a blue frame and a red bill. The “LA” has a squiggly shape with a silver trim and a white circle near the crown of the hat but no halo.
1965-70
The second iteration came when the Angels changed their name from Los Angeles to California and introduced a hat with an interlocked “CA.” But the color scheme remained the same with a blue frame, a red bill and a white circle near the top of the cap.
1971
Their shortest-lived hat came in ’71, when they first introduced a golden halo to their cap. It kept the same colors and featured a lower-cased “a” with a golden halo tilted above the upper left of the “a.” It also dropped the white circle at the top.
1972-88
The Angels debuted one of their most-beloved caps in ’72, and it’s one they still use as part of their annual Throwback Weekend. It features the iconic capital red “A” with a golden halo atop it and the same color scheme as their previous caps.
1989-92
After a nearly 20-year run with their previous hat, the Angels made a design change to the “A,” widening it and adding a thicker halo atop it. But the colors remained the same.
1993-96 (two similar designs but different bill)
A big change was made in ’93, as the franchise opted to use a darker shade of navy blue to alter the color scheme for the first time. The interlocking “CA” was also brought back, but in a different variation than from ’65-70, and a golden halo was added above the “A.” At home, the Angels used the red cap with the blue bill, while on the road they used the all-blue variation.
1997-2001 (two similar designs but different bill)
Again, the Angels made a significant change to their color scheme, going to their dark blue and periwinkle era that came when the Walt Disney Co. bought the club in ’97. It featured a new logo on the cap with a slanted cartoonish red “A” attached to a white wing. It also dropped the halo for the first time since 1970. The main hat was all blue, but they also had an alternate cap with a periwinkle bill, although they didn’t use it during the ’01 season.
2002-present
After their run of blue caps, the club went to their familiar all-red hat that features the red “A” with a silver halo above it. The Angels have adopted red as their primary color since then and have been using the cap design for more than 20 years, as Arte Moreno kept it upon buying the club in 2005.
2022-present
As part of MLB and Nike’s City Connect collection, the Angels debuted an alternate hat they wear at home for special occasions during the season, such as their annual Beach Week. It's a color scheme meant to evoke visions of Orange County beaches, as it keeps the red colorway but has a sandy white front panel. The red “A” is also wider and keeps the silver halo atop it.
