Add The California Post on Google ANAHEIM — The loudest thing inside Angel Stadium on Monday night wasn’t a home run. It wasn’t an inning-ending strikeout. It wasn’t even the game at all.
It was a sea of shirtless fans in the right-field upper deck, spinning their t-shirts over their heads beneath the backdrop of a cotton-candy sunset, while chanting the three words that have now become the rallying cry of a very frustrated fanbase:“Sell the team!”
The revolution will not be televised. Angels broadcasts intentionally avoid the fans, but inside the stadium they are impossible to ignore.
By first pitch the 500 sections at the Big A are completely empty. By the fifth inning a few fans have arrived and begin to take their shirts off. By the sixth inning, the transformation has begun.
With the smell of funnel cake and popcorn wafting through the concourse, hundreds of fans staged something far more compelling than the battle between the Angels and the Astros on the field.
It was a protest. It was a party. It was impossible to ignore.
The right-field upper deck was alive. It was bouncing, singing, screaming. Shirts twirled overhead like helicopter blades. New arrivals were greeted with chants of “Take it off!” until they surrendered to the movement and joined the crowd.
It was a sharp contrast compared to the plethora of dark green empty seats stretched across large portions of the stadium like abandoned farmland.
For a franchise that has spent more than a decade drifting through mediocrity, this was the most authentic display of passion Angel Stadium has seen in a decade.
And that’s what makes this moment in their history so significant and more than just another social media trend.
The “Tarps Off” movement started off innocently on March 18 as the Angels were being no-hit by the Athletics. A few kids in the outfield bleachers removed their shirts to try and make it on the Jumbotron. But a few innings later those kids were joined by hundreds of fans and it turned into a fullout rager. Minutes later Zach Neto delivered a walk-off home run to break up the no-hitter.
Eleven consecutive home games later, the tradition has evolved into something much larger.
A protest. An intervention. A fanbase that has finally rout of patience.
“I love the Angels and I hate Arte Moreno,” one fan told The California Post.
The sentiment was repeated over and over again Monday night.
One man wore an Arte Moreno mask while attending his first baseball game ever.
“This is my first ever baseball game,” he said. “I saw this on social media, and I saw everyone else doing it, so I wanted to join in for fun.”
Another fan named Enzo offered a more direct assessment.
“I want him to sell the f—— team. Enough is enough.”
The most striking thing about the movement was that these fans weren’t angry. They were passionate. These people hadn’t abandoned the Angels. They were still showing up. Still buying tickets. Still cheering for all the players in red on the field.
When Mike Trout drifted back toward center field to catch a ball on the warning track, chants of “Save Mike Trout!” echoed throughout the stadium.
“I hear the chants for sure,” Trout told Mike DiGiovanna on May 22. “It is what it is.”
Trout’s new manager, Kurt Suzuki, hears them too.
“They have the right to their opinion,” Suzuki said before changing the subject to the tarps off trend overall.
But the fans don’t just chant about baseball.
When phones lit up with the final score of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the crowd pivoted into a spontaneous “Knicks in 6!” chant.
Minutes later they were singing Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.”
Then came John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
It felt less like a baseball game and more like a college student section that had discovered a common cause.
“The only way to get to Arte is through his ego,” said a fan known on X as @HalosInTheInfield. “We’re not trashing the team. We’re going in on Arte.”
That distinction matters. These shirtless fans aren’t protesting the players or the team.
They’re protesting years of losing, failed promises, questionable contracts, a stagnant ballpark experience and an organization that too often appears disconnected from the people funding it.
“The thing that hurt the most is when he said the number one thing we want is affordability,” said the owner of the @HalosAnonymous account on X. “That’s a joke. That’s a slap in the face. We care about winning. We don’t care about affordability.”
They’re not asking for cheaper beers. They don’t want discounted parking. They’re asking for relevance. For hope. For meaningful baseball in September. And most importantly, for an owner who treats winning as the priority rather than a byproduct.
Meanwhile, Arte Moreno and the Angels continue to ignore the chants and remain silent.
The organization that currently has the worst record in the American League, just keeps moving forward as if nothing has changed.
That old stereotype about passive Angels fans is dead.
Because night after night, beneath a beautifully painted California sky, hundreds of shirtless fans make sure of that.
Their shirts are off. Their message is clear. They’re not going anywhere until Moreno sells the team.
And with every passing home game, they’re getting louder and louder.
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