The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a Major League Baseball franchise located in Anaheim, California and belong in the Western Division of the American League. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are well-known as the Halos. Because of the extraordinary length of the team's official name, most news grups refer to the club as the Los Angeles Angels.

It was no surprise that an American League team had once more conquered the 2002 race with powerful hitting, vast defense and exceptional pitching on the mound. It was a surprise however, that the team left standing at the end of the marathon was not the New York Yankees. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had surprised the world by knocking off the defending champions 3-1 in the Divisional Playoffs and rolling over Minnesota Twins four-games-to-one in the Championship Series. Their foe, the San Francisco Giants had combated to the top of the National League after defeating Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals in a close post-season race. Both line-ups featured peak sluggers, but the Nationals showed off the newest all-time single season homerun champion in Barry Bonds, who reset the total at an amazing seventy-three.

Game 1 marked the Giants' Jason Schmidt going up against the Los Angeles Angels Jarrod Washburn. Neither pitcher stood out as San Fran belted three home runs (Bonds, Reggie Sanders, and J.T. Snow) and Anaheim's Troy Glaus launched two in the Giants' 4-3 win. Game 2 kept going to support the hitter as nine combined pitchers were taken for a remarkable twenty-eight hits. Four separate San Francisco Giants broke the seats again while Tim Salmon matched teammate Glaus's opener with two blasts of his own. Finally, the Los Angeles Angels Troy Percival (who was closing in on the New York Yankees Mariano Rivera as the games favorite closer) hung on for the 11-10 decision in what looked more like the All-Star Game's home-run derby and less like baseball World Series. The third outing once again found the American's "taking batting practice" but the Nationals were not capable to match them against Ramon Ortiz and company. In spite of hitting no homers (to the Giants' two), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim managed to cross the plate ten times to San Fran's four. Bonds added a third home run to continue his successive three-for-three performance and wasn't done swinging for the bleachers yet.

Game 4 evened the contest as San Francisco Giants' Kirk Rueter topped John Lackey in a 4-3 victory that kept going to the bat. Once again, both rotations had combined to give up double-digits in the hit column (twenty-two) and several fans felt that the "new dynamic" of "pitching winning championships" was no longer precise. Little did they know that pitching would turn out to be the main contributing factor as the World Series continued. The fifth contest turned the tables as it was San Francisco upsetting Los Angeles Angels with a 16-4 disaster in which every Giants hit resulted in a run. Kent followed Bonds' lead and added two more blasts to his scorecard and Rich Aurilia hammered his second. The Los Angeles Angels were down one more time (3-2) in the pivotal Game 6 and set the stage for the now world famous "Rally Monkey" to turn the tide. The postseason mascot had turned out to be the signature of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fans everywhere and the "10th man" was waved throughout the viewers and splashed on the JumboTron screens. The monkey had gone 27-11 during the season in games when the Los Angeles Angels trailed and its lifetime record was 57-41.

As both baseball teams took the field for the decisive Game 7, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim rookie John Lackey kept San Francisco "at bay", permiting one run and four hits in five innings while pitching on just three days' rest. Only Reggie Sanders' sac-fly in the second kept Lackey (1-0) from blanking San Francisco Giants in the major game in San Francisco's history. In the ninth, San Francisco Giants rallied themselves off of Percival to carry the tying run to the plate, but the Los Angeles Angels' closer earned the save by striking out Tsuyoshi Shinjo and getting Kenny Lofton to hit a fly ball to Darin Erstad in center field. After taking a 3-2 lead in the Series at home and a 5-0 lead into the seventh inning of Game 6, San Francisco Giants were outscored 10-1 in the final twelve innings of the contest. As the Los Angeles Angels got their first World Championship, it was the eighth successive time that a seventh game had been won by the home team dating back to 1982.