A seemingly spontaneous fan reaction has begun to take place at Angel Stadium in 2014. Fans flashing their cell phones by turning on the strobe light function on their smart phone LED lights. This doesn’t seem to be coordinated at all by anyone or any event. Angel Stadium officials via social media have requested that fans only do this during the Away Team at bats.
Terry Smith and Mark Langston, the Angel radio broadcasters, were remarking that they have never seen anything like this at other stadiums. The television broadcast will occasionally show a wide shot of the fans as this happens. It was first noticed by this blog in late May.
Some fans call it a “Light Wave” or the “Rally Lights” and claim it is to distract the batters. It’s tough to say if it actually has that affect on the opposing team. It’s more than likely similar to “The Wave”, something bored fans start to do in an effort to have a shared experience with 40,000 other people. Kind of fun for now, but we’ll see if fans are able to form some game-etiquette around it or if it will begin to distract from the game itself.
The #LightWave is in full swing here at the Big A. The Halo faithful doing their best to spark the offense.
— Angels (@Angels) July 23, 2014