Souvenir Sellers Scoring Over Dodger Fever

The world champion Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t have to advertise on Friday that they were selling everything from T-shirts to pennants that said: “Dodgers, World Champions, 1988.”

Word-of-mouth attracted about 3,000 fans to Dodger Stadium, where a 40-by-60-foot white tent was set up Friday morning in the stadium’s Sunset Boulevard parking lot. Behind a makeshift counter were piles of Dodger T-shirts, sweat shirts, caps, pennants and other World Series memorabilia.

So eager were Dodger fans to scoop up mementos of their team’s stunning five-game World Series triumph over the Oakland Athletics that Friday’s sales were expected to total about $100,000, according to concession manager Jack Mayhall. And, after today’s advertising of the sale, Mayhall said, business is expected to really take off.

“We’re looking for $500,000 a day for each of the next five days,” he said.

The souvenir tent will be open for about two weeks between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m, said Mayhall, whose products are manufactured by an independent firm.

“Tomorrow (Saturday) will be crazy,” said salesman Steve Reynolds, adding: “Too bad we don’t have crying towels” for the Oakland team.

Businessmen in pinstripe suits from downtown offices mixed with blue-collar construction workers grabbing anything that would remind them of Kirk Gibson’s astonishing game-winning, last-of-the-ninth home run in the first game or Orel Hershiser’s pitching heroics.

Nearby, adding to the festive atmosphere, was a smaller white tent with four color television sets in each corner replaying highlights of the Dodgers’ epic games against the Athletics and the New York Mets. Dodger announcer Vin Scully’s voice boomed across the parking lot, reviving the magic moments.

Dodgers assistant trainer Charlie Strasser, wearing a white sweat shirt and a big smile, was glued to one of the TV sets while his family proudly stood nearby. He said he was still on a cloud “and I hope it never comes down.”

Eager fans tried on caps and shirts at the concessions tent.

“It’s kind of like a candy store,” said Stan Finch, 40, of Burbank, a tax and real estate consultant, referring to the piles of shirts and pennants.

Tom Baird, a salesman from the Chino area, came with plenty of cash so he could buy seven T-shirts and eight baseball caps, all labeled “Dodgers, World Champions.” He said he wanted to pass them out to members of his family and friends.

Emulate the Lakers

Jim Dowling, of Monterey Park, an engineering executive, like others gathering at the tent, said he figured the team would set something up for the fans because that’s what the Los Angeles Lakers did earlier this year after they won the National Basketball Assn. championship.

“This is great, fantastic,” he said, holding up a brace of T-shirts.

Curtis Cross, a dentist from Monrovia, and his wife, Chris, said they just kept driving around the stadium until they saw the tent.

“Don’t you think guts had a lot to do with it--and determination?” he asked rhetorically as he picked out some shirts.

A beaming Gabriel Mendez, 24, of Wilmington, a construction worker, summed up the legacy of the 1988 Dodgers as he walked away with two Dodger caps:

“It tells you you don’t have to be the best team to win as long as you have heart.”