ALL-STAR GAME : CORPORATE COURTING : Tickets to Anaheim Event Score as Perk : Companies Are Taking Clients Out to the All-Star Game

While California Angel Devon White and Los Angeles Dodger Willie Randolph are on the field Tuesday taking care of business in Tuesday’s All-Star game at Anaheim Stadium, hundreds of corporate executives will be in the stands tending to business as well.

Companies ranging from the giant International Business Machines to the relatively small Straub Distributing Co. in Orange have purchased tickets to the game, and many are sponsoring several days of lavish food and entertainment as rewards for top performers and as gifts to valued customers.

This weekend, nearly 1,000 executives from Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, USA Today and dozens of the nation’s other large companies will be arriving, clients in tow, in Orange County and heading for Anaheim’s finest hotels.

On game day, while some unlucky Orange County residents dicker with scalpers for tickets, many of the corporate chiefs and their customers will be nibbling on shrimp cocktail and baby back ribs in the air-conditioned executive suites far above the crowd.

“Companies use the excitement of the All-Star game as a special way to say thanks,” said Rick White, president of Major League Properties. “Like at the Masters or NBA Finals, they want customers to feel the excitement of the game . . . and a ticket to the All-Star game is hard to come by, so they appreciate it.”

Major League Baseball itself is sponsoring the largest schmooze of all. Major League Properties, which manages the $800-million business of selling official major-league team gloves, apparel and souvenirs, will spend more than $100,000 to wine and dine representatives from 350 companies such as Rawlings, Champion Products and Topps baseball cards who will be attending Major League Baseball’s annual business meeting here. In addition, 500 All-Star game tickets will be given to the group for them to take themselves and clients.

“We want our retail and department store guests to feel what baseball is all about,” White said. “Then they’re more likely to buy our sporting goods.”

Each of the eight companies that are official sponsors of Major League Baseball--Coca-Cola, IBM, Rawlings, Equitable Insurance Co., Chevrolet, Leaf Inc., USA Today, MasterCard--are given as many as 150 tickets apiece. The 18,500 Angels season-ticket holders were also offered the opportunity to buy two tickets to the game for each season ticket they have. Many of the season tickets to the stadium and nearly all of the 113 executive suites atop it are owned by businesses.

Equitable, which is sponsoring the Old-Timers gameCQ, sez sports on Sunday, will give more than 500 agents and their guests the chance to hobnob with--and even ride on a bus to the park in the company of--Joe DiMaggio, Harmon Killebrew and Hank Aaron.

“I try to match my clients with old-timers from their area and then see of they can sit near them and really talk with them,” said Marvin Allender, an Equitable agent in Irvine. “Most of the agents here bring their best clients.”

IBM, another major-league sponsor, will bring in 200 employees and customers for a weekend of deep-sea fishing, Disneyland and dinners with some of the game’s finest. While they munch on gourmet fare, some of the company’s biggest customers will be able to chat with Hall of Famers Killebrew, Brooks Robinson, Lou Brock, as well as local boy Jay Johnstone.

Paper Sponsored Balloting

Carolyn Vesper, vice president of national circulation sales for USA Today, said the company has invited 150 executives of retail stores and restaurants to the game to thank them for distributing the newspaper in their establishments.

USA Today sponsored the balloting that was used to select the starting lineup for the All-Star game.

“This is the biggest customer party USA Today sponsors,” Vesper said. “We should have corporate CEOs from a number of Fortune 500 companies . . . and even they may be asking the players for their autographs.”

Chevrolet, which hands out the Most Valuable Player trophy, is bringing about 140 executives to the game. Although the company said it is trying to “keep things casual,” it will be handing out dozens of pieces of memorabilia from baseball caps and pennants to pens and gym bags to its guests, said Don Bishop, assistant manager of passenger car merchandising for the Chevrolet Division of General Motors Corp.

Leaf Inc., a Chicago company that makes Don Russ baseball cards, will not have the 100 customers it invited as guests meeting as many stars as some of the other companies, but it will offer them the opportunity to have baseball cards made with their own pictures and stats on the front and back.

Smaller Firm Gets Tickets Too

Many smaller Orange County companies that own season tickets will be inviting clients to the game too, of course.

The Oscar Mayer & Co. office in Irvine managed to score six tickets to Tuesday’s game, said spokesman Duncan McNaughton.

And although a lot of deals could be struck during the All-Star break, McNaughton said he is not concerned that the businesses with the large blocks of tickets and the sky boxes have an unfair advantage.

“Some of our customers don’t care at all about baseball,” he said. “All they want to do is play golf.”