They've always been the other team, the outsiders, for 50 years, their entire existence. They changed ballparks, changed logos, changed names.

They played in Dodger Stadium, calling it Chavez Ravine, and now they play in the suburbs, calling themselves the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which is as absurd as saying the New York Yankees of Long Island.

When they weren't anonymous, they were the punch line of jokes, like those Johnny Carson "Great Carnac'' observations:

"Catch 22.'' "What the Angels did when hit 100 fly balls."

The Dodgers were Hollywood; the Angels were Disneyland, after they were a 1961 expansion franchise.

Even when they finally won a World Series in 2002, it didn't resonate where the big shots live, 40 miles west in Beverly Hills and Brentwood and Westwood Village.

Southern California - Los Angeles, but that's only one city, if in fact the second-largest city in the country - has belonged to the Dodgers, who moved there in 1958.

They had the history, they had the venue - did you ever see a book about "Angel Dogs"? - they had the voice, announcer Vin Scully, who is no less famous in Dodger annals than Sandy Koufax or Fernando Valenzuela.

What the Angels had was an inferiority complex, a desperate need to be known, appreciated and glamorized. Now, for $254 million, they have found a way.

Albert Pujols? The best player in baseball? On the L.A. Angels of Anaheim, as the Dodgers in their faded glory go on the selling block while their disenchanted fans curse the fates and Frank McCourt, in no particular order? Brilliant.

How much is too much? That depends on the product and the money available. Want a Bentley for $150,000? If you got it, go for it. The Angels went for it. For him. And let us not forget C.J. Wilson, the lefty, because pitching still beats hitting. When you're trying to make a splash, there's no such thing as knocking too much water out of the pool.

Southern California is star-driven. Hockey didn't mean a thing until Wayne Gretzky arrived. Soccer won't get attention? The Los Angeles Galaxy grabbed David Beckham, the best-known player on the planet.

Jerry West told me, when he was general manager, the Lakers needed to do more than win. They had to have an attraction. Once that attraction was West, not to mention his teammate Elgin Baylor. Then along came Kareem and Magic, then Shaq and Kobe.

There's no NFL franchise in L.A. at the moment, but USC, with those quarterbacks and Heismans, serves the purpose. A Trojans home game has as many celebs along the sidelines as first-round draft picks on the field.

Angels owner Arte Moreno decided he would play Moneyball, the literal way, going big figures for a big star. In L.A. from the days of silent movies, the truism has been you needed a name - a Clark Gable, a Marilyn Monroe, an Alan Ladd, a Cameron Diaz.

The Angels have their name, Albert Pujols, who has a .328 lifetime batting average and 445 home runs in 11 seasons.

The world is unfair. St. Louis is an honest, hard-working city of fanatical baseball fans. They so idolized Pujols for his excellence that the plan was to build him a statue outside Busch Stadium, like the one they built Stan Musial, as it says on his plaque, "the perfect knight."

But St. Louis also is a flyover town, a spot on the map between New York and Los Angeles. When the coins are jingled and the possibilities are considered, a Pujols or an A-Rod invariably goes coastal, goes West or East, goes Red Sox or Yankees, Dodgers or Angels, Knicks or Lakers.

Maybe one man won't make a difference on the diamond. But Pujols and C.J. Wilson are two men, two great ballplayers, two great attractions. Until Wednesday evening, the assumption was Pujols either would stay in St. Louis or maybe shift over to the Chicago Cubs. But the Angels moved forcefully and rapidly, stunning much of the sporting cognoscenti.

Moreno, the Angels' owner, wants to win, but no less importantly, he wants to be recognized, wants to have the headliners who walk the red carpet walk through the gates of Angel Stadium. Wants to make it impossible to be ignored.

The talk previously was Moreno hadn't made a commitment to winning. You surmise $254 million and the $77.5 million to Wilson for five years would be judged a sufficient commitment.

"I don't know if it's necessarily bad for the game,'' said Walt Jocketty, now the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds but with the Cardinals at the beginning of Pujols' career. "It's a good question. I would say it's bad in the sense a player of that stature didn't take the opportunity to play for the same team his entire career."

The opportunity he took instead was to earn $254 million and go Hollywood. That's a satisfactory alternative.