Bargain Baseball : Angel Game Tickets Were Only a Buck, but Parking, Hot Dogs--No Such Luck

It was the final game of spring training Sunday and Angels fan Cheryl Gill was getting her dollar’s worth.

For that tidy sum, she had a seat eight rows from home plate, where--equipped with two bottles of suntan lotion, a spray bottle of water, sunglasses and a romance novel--she was seriously working on her tan during batting practice.

True, Gill and her husband, Ray, had to get to the ball park 2 hours early to grab the prime seats for the preseason game, and the Angels were not even playing another major league team, just their farm club, the Edmonton Trappers. But the Gills did not mind.

“It’s a nice way to spend an afternoon,” Cheryl Gill said. “We never get to sit down this close,” said Ray Gill, who was eager to see the Angels’ noteworthy rookie pitcher, Jim Abbott, pitch.

“And it’s baseball,” Ray Gill said. “Triple-A or otherwise, it’s still baseball.”

For $1, the most avid baseball fan Sunday could get the best seat in the house--even the chairs that go for $9 a pop during the season--as Angels lowered the admission price for the last preseason game.

(Some Angel fans might have wondered by the game’s end Sunday if they got their money’s worth. The farm team beat the big leaguers 13-1.)

Under a blazing sun and a rain of foul balls, 12,602 people nearly filled the bottom tier of Anaheim Stadium--and of those, 7,838 paid the cut rate. The remainder held season tickets.

“I liked the dollar for admission,” said Mary Glovier of Anaheim, who worked in the stadium’s concession stands until last year, when she decided she was too big a fan to miss the games. “But I can’t get over them charging $1.75 for a Coke.”

True, the dollar admission tickets belied the true cost of the game. It cost four times that much to get your car in the parking lot--a sum that did not go unmentioned by fans. And because they arrived early to get good seats, the fans had more time to spend at the concession stands.

The cheapest hot dog cost 50 cents more than a ticket. The requisite peanuts and Cracker Jacks cost a buck each, and a large beer was $4. For non-traditional fans with grumbling tummies, a sausage sandwich cost $3.50, a cinnamon roll $1.50.

With an hour to go before the game would even start, Mike Flannery of Azusa--whose family of four was admitted free, thanks to a generous friend with season tickets--had spent $20.

“And we haven’t gotten past the souvenir stands yet,” Flannery said.

“Four dollars for parking, and $1 for the game, it’s a rip-off,” said William Tack of Anaheim, who took his 9-year-old grandson, Anthony Silvas of Westminster, to the game.

The dollar admission also lured Ed Jacks of Irvine, who took his three sons, ages 15, 4 and 2, to the ballpark to give his wife “some R and R.” His 2-year-old, dressed in a little Angels’ uniform decorated with chocolate ice cream, was cradled in his arms as they sat four rows from third base. The sun was hot, the game was only a couple innings old and it already had been a long day. “But they’re having fun,” he said.

A couple hundred people were lined up outside the stadium when gates opened at 11:30 a.m. for the 1:05 p.m. game, and the fans ran to the choicest seats, behind home plate and the Angels’ dugout.

Dugan Jennings of Rancho Santa Margarita had four boys in tow--two sons and their two friends--for the game, leaving his wife behind with their newborn daughter. “I wasn’t going to attempt that,” he said with a laugh. He and the boys sat in the shade about 30 rows back from first base. They arrived an hour early, “but apparently it wasn’t early enough,” he said. “Next year, we’ll have to come earlier.”

But Mike Rubel of Placentia and his 2 1/2-year-old son, Justin--dressed in baseball pants, T-shirt and cleats--grabbed two seats beneath the net behind the plate. “We just walked up and sat down,” said Rubel, who used to play in the minor leagues and whose brother-in-law plays for the New York Yankees. The game seemed like a great deal. “My wife wanted a break and my son loves baseball,” he said. But he knew his wallet would be thinner by the day’s end.

“I’m sure he wants a hat and a program,” Rubel said. “I’m sure it will be a $30 day by the time we get out of here.”

Others made an effort to keep their costs down.

“We packed our lunch,” said Dottie Adams of Upland, who was with a party of six adults and seven children, aged 23 months to 8 years, “so all we have to buy is drinks.”

Vince Gonzales of Norwalk got to the stadium plenty early but chose to sit in the far reaches of the stadium with his son, 3 1/2-year-old Benjamin, who was attending his first baseball game. They hoped to catch a foul ball or an autograph or two from the bullpen.

“The game takes a back seat to the atmosphere,” he said.

Jim and Denise LeGendre of Huntington Beach, sitting nearby with their three children and a friend, agreed.

Recent transplants from Detroit, they marveled at the view from their left-field seats.

“We never got this good seats in Detroit,” said Jim LeGendre. As his family sat in the temperate shade, he added contentedly, “And it’s warmer.”