Anaheim Police Advise Fans to Get There Early

Police and transit authorities expect heavy traffic but few major problems when thousands of baseball fans converge on Anaheim Stadium tonight for the American League playoff game between the Angels and the Boston Red Sox at 5:20.

Even though the game’s starting time--set to accommodate East Coast television watchers--coincides with the height of Orange County’s Friday evening rush hour, Anaheim police don’t have too many special plans, said Mark Svein, a police traffic control supervisor.

The timing of the game’s start “will make things a bit worse for us, “ Svein said Thursday. “I just hope people will plan on getting there early. I’ve heard some people talking about taking the afternoon off from work. I just hope a lot of them do.”

Other than assigning some extra traffic officers to a few intersections, Svein said, his department isn’t doing anything it wouldn’t normally do when a sellout is expected at the 65,158-seat stadium.

“It will be pretty standard,” he said.

For those who don’t want to drive to the stadium, there’s always the bus. Two Orange County Transit District lines--No. 49 and No. 50--go right past the stadium on State College Boulevard (from Brea to Santa Ana) and Katella Avenue (from Long Beach to Orange). They run every 35 minutes and the one-way fare is 75 cents.

Fans coming from southern Orange County for Saturday’s and Sunday’s games can take advantage of the Pacific Amphitheatre’s regular-season, weekend-free-ride program to the stadium on OCTD buses, which has been extended into the playoffs.

On Saturday, the buses will leave Mission Viejo Mall at 3:55 p.m. and the Laguna Hills park-and-ride facility at 4:10 p.m., arriving at Anaheim Stadium at 4:50 p.m. For Sunday’s day game, they will depart from the mall at 10:35 a.m. and Laguna Hills at 10:50 a.m. and get to the ballpark at 11:30 a.m. On both days, the return trips leave 15 minutes after the last out.

Amtrak, which has its Anaheim station on the stadium’s grounds, will run its regular schedule with a train arriving from Los Angeles at 5:29 p.m. and from San Diego at 4:36 p.m. The last train will leave for San Diego at 9:30 p.m. and for Los Angeles at 9:34 p.m.

Anaheim’s Svein, meanwhile, has another suggestion for those who plan to drive.

“If people would just have their $5 ready when they get to the (parking lot) booth, there wouldn’t be the holdup there usually is,” he said.

It’s when a driver waits until reaching the booth and then begins searching for money that things begin backing up, Svein said.