Mead named head of Hall of Fame
The longtime Angels executive will replace the retiring Idelson as president.
The Angels have been in business for 59 years. Tim Mead has worked for the team for almost 40 of them.
On Tuesday, he joined the Hall of Fame.
Mead was selected as the new president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, replacing the retiring Jeff Idelson. Mead will become the man who makes the nationally televised announcement of the Hall of Fame class each January, and the man who makes the private phone calls welcoming each inductee in advance of the announcement.
“It’s not the business of baseball. It’s not the thing that all of us here have to go through every day,” Mead said of the Hall of Fame. “It’s purity. It’s the history of an institution. It’s the spot where everybody wants to go.”
Mead, 61, joined the Angels in 1980 as an intern from Cal Poly Pomona and never worked anywhere else. He was the Angels’ unifying voice amid times of turmoil and tragedy. He organized compassionate responses after pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed by a drunk driver in 2009 and after manager Buck Rodgers nearly died in a team bus crash in 1992.
He represented the Angels under three owners, nine managers and six interim managers. Last year, Vladimir Guerrero became the first player to wear an Angels cap into the Hall of Fame.
Mead was a one-man alumni relations department, keeping generations of players connected to the organization, and he artfully navigated the tightrope of representing owners who did not always enjoy dealing with the media: Jackie Autry, wife of founding owner Gene Autry; Tony Tavares, the sometimes mercurial president installed by Walt Disney Co.; and current owner Arte Moreno.
“Tim’s love of the game, his dedication to our organization, along with his extraordinary work ethic, have been invaluable to the Angels,” Moreno said in a statement. “He is the perfect fit to represent the Hall of Fame’s rich history and bright future.”
Mead once said he hoped to work for the Angels long enough for the team to win the World Series. They did, in 2002. The championship ring meant the world to him.
“For the past 40 years I have had the distinguished honor of working for one of the finest organizations in Major League Baseball,” Mead said in a statement. “The Angels have meant everything to my family and me. My gratitude and respect to those I have worked with and for can never be totally conveyed.”