The story of the stadium operations staff that spawned the rally monkey that would later propel the Angels to their only World Series championship.
The original rally monkey was just a clip from the movie “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” but the team now has its own to use for promotional purposes.Angels baseball
Among the most memorable dates in the 62-season history of the Los Angeles/California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels, it’s hard to find two more significant than the back-to-back nights of October 26 and 27, 2002. Magical nights where the Angels won Games 6 and 7 of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants to secure the first and still only title in Francis’ career.
Perhaps it was a lazy night 28 months ago that offered pixie dust to those same protesters on I-5, allowing the Disney-owned franchise to turn the ballpark into its own Magic Kingdom. ? On June 6, 2000, the Angels and the world first witnessed the birth of a force that would become a vital part of a long-sought championship.
Behold the incredible power of the rally monkey.
The secret weapon was unwittingly created by the group’s event operations staff. Like every venue then and now, the stadium’s big board frequently shows movie clips to engage the crowd. Late in the game, as the Angels tried to come back from a 3-0 deficit, Peter Bull looked down from above the press box acting as the show-caller, and an exclusive clip shows a monkey jumping up and down. The scene in “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” was shown.
Dean Fraulino, who was serving as the game’s video director that day, knew the team needed a comeback, so he suggested putting the words “Rally Monkey” on the clip the next time they ran. Bull approved and the crowd immediately responded as soon as the clip was released. Soon the team did the same, and before the night was over the Angels won 6-5 and the franchise had a new lucky charm.
The rally monkey soon became a fixture on the video board and helped give a unique identity to a franchise that would forever live in the shadow of its Los Angeles neighbors. Not realizing that the team store had opened up a new revenue stream, fans began bringing their own stuffed monkeys to the ballpark. “People call and say, ‘Do you have these assembly monkeys for sale?’ they used to say,” Bull recalls. The team store said, ‘We’ve got people calling, tell me what this is?’ I explained to them and they bought these cute monkeys.
However, not everyone was happy. In fact, Fraulino said the day after the Rally Monkeys’ first game, he was suspended for one game by his then-boss for failing to obtain prior approval.
In Game 6 of the World Series two years later, the Rally Monkey was never more desirable or more important. The Angels entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 5-0, with nine outs. But Anaheim won 6-5 as 44,506 fans reached a new decibel level, armed with their favorite cheerleaders. The next night the angels closed the giants.
Fraulino missed out on a title run, retiring before that season, while Bull remained with the team before retiring a few months ago. Both are proud of their co-creators like current superstars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, who are the faces of the franchise. Tangible benefits are lacking, but their place in franchise history is secure.
At one point, Fraulino recalls with a laugh, “They were giving away Rally Monkey board games to fans and I walked in and said, ‘Would you mind if I got one of those games?’ And they said, ‘They’re for fans only.’ But I found my name [in some stories] And I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’m a little bit of history, I can live with that.’
