‘We try to teach our kids something other than the F-word.’ --Sandy Salgado : Fans Begin to Root for Big A’s Family Seating

Far away from the guys in right field who were wearing toilet seat shields on their heads Sunday afternoon sat 4-month-old Marisa Goldstein, a native Californian but a Yankee fan by heredity.

Clutching a baseball from the nearby bullpen in her hands, the tot had come from Los Angeles to Anaheim Stadium with her parents and grandfather to enjoy her first baseball game.

Three generations of Goldsteins, all Yankee fans, watched the New York team beat the California Angels 10-8 in 10 innings in a novel setting: a section of the stadium with no beer-powered rowdies and no four-letter words.

In fact, it was downright placid for the Goldsteins, who were sitting in the new family section of the Big A. Could this possibly be a true baseball experience for any self-respecting New York fan?

Mellowed Out Fans

“You kind of take your life in your hands at Yankee Stadium. I once saw a man get stabbed three or four seats away from me over an argument about the game there,” said Barry Goldstein, a 34-year-old native New Yorker who moved with his wife to Los Angeles 10 years ago. “But we’re mellowed out Yankee fans,” Goldstein said.

“The family section here was an important thing. I don’t like it when the fans are yelling and screaming and to have the baby in the middle of all that.”

Opened a month ago today, the Big A’s no-booze, no-foul-language family section hosted its biggest crowds to date with the first three of four games against the Yankees this weekend, stadium ushers and police said Sunday.

Previously there have been sparse numbers--as few as 25 or 30 people--in the 2,615-seat section of left field that was designated an alcohol-free zone April 27.

Word May Be Spreading

But there were about 800 fans in the family section Friday night and perhaps half that number for the Saturday and Sunday games. Ushers said word of the section may be spreading and the traditionally larger crowds attracted by the Memorial Day weekend and the Yankees probably helped, too.

For the total stadium crowd of 35,500 Sunday, there were no arrests, 14 citations issued and only nine fans ejected for being unruly or foul-mouthed, Anaheim police said. It was a quiet day--especially for a game against the Yankees, who as a rule attract the most raucous spectators, they said.

As usual, ushers said, it was a hassle-free Sunday in the outfield land of sodas-only.

“Another grueling day in the family section,” one usher said with a grin.

The majority of the fans sitting in the family section--whether they were with children or not--said they think it’s a good idea.

Likewise, the responses to questionnaires the Angels circulated in the field-level, reserved-seating section Sunday were overwhelmingly in favor of the plan.

Some people complained in the questionnaire that the $7 ticket price was too steep for families, while numerous others responded that they’d like to see smoking banned from the section as well.

The Angels management will be reading comments like this:

From a father: “Good view and no beer on your lap or back.”

From a boy: “I think they should not allow smoking. I like the idea. Better seats would be nice. I like not having beer spilt on me.”

From a newcomer: “Excellent idea for the kids. We just moved from Michigan and this stadium makes Tiger Stadium look like a barn.”

And another: “The price is too high for the quality of seat. Clean family environment should not cost more.”

Ordinarily, said Sandy Salgado, a 45-year-old mother of six from Mission Viejo, she would not pay the ticket price for the family section. But, Salgado said, she was celebrating her new title of Catholic Woman of the Year, awarded recently by the Diocese of Orange. So the family tested the new section Sunday.

“Especially at a Yankee game, we prefer not to be exposed to the language,” Salgado said Sunday. “Most of the time, we sit up in the top part (general admission seating) and some of the language gets a bit much. We try to teach our kids something other than the F-word.”

Joann Glenn had brought 14 boys with her from Irvine Sunday to celebrate her 8-year-old son’s birthday. They were sitting in right field, where the seats go for $3 each.

“It hasn’t been too rowdy,” she said in the ninth inning, as the Angels tied the score 8 to 8 and the beer drinkers a few rows away got a little louder.

“If the price was the same, we would have sat in the family section,” she added.

Below her was the Toilet Seat Cover gang, a dozen men from a Cerritos Alpha Beta grocery store who were attempting a disjointed Wave.

“I think for $7 they’re not getting their money’s worth sitting there,” said Mark Feffer, 25, of Orange, of the family section spectators. He adjusted his cowboy hat and shield and said he was ready for another beer for the 10th inning.

“They could be up here with us, just sitting here--for $3 bucks--having a great time.”