Heavenly Days Are Here Again for Angels Fans

For a month there was famine. Now, for the feast.

After a wobbly start, Major League Baseball gets under way tonight in Orange County after a spring training lockout that sidelined players and made even the most hard-core of fans threaten to boycott the favorite American pastime.

Tonight is the first game in the long-awaited Freeway Series as the Dodgers and the Angels duke it out for local bragging rights in the traditional, preseason rivalry.

Game time is 7:35 p.m. at Anaheim Stadium. Tickets at the stadium cost between $3 and $9 and there are thousands of seats left, Angels team officials said.

Stadium caterers will be serving up sushi, pasta and low-fat yogurt for baseball fans who have burned out on the traditional hot dog and soda. Rowdy KLOS radio disc jockeys Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps will throw out the first pitch.

However, the Angels-Dodger contest itself is off to a blander-than-usual beginning.

When the lockout ended, the game in Anaheim was scheduled for Sunday, then moved to tonight. The false start seems to have dampened enthusiasm for the Freeway Series with Angels officials predicting a modest turnout of 43,000 for tonight’s opener.

“With the Dodgers we usually have upwards of 60,000,” said Angels spokesman Tom Seeberg. “But I think the uncertainty and the last-minute change from Sunday to Friday has probably hurt attendance.”

Still, fans lined up at Anaheim Stadium Thursday afternoon for tickets to the cross-town rivalry. The Angels recently broke a team record, surpassing the 18,500 mark for season tickets, Seeberg said.

“I’ve got a bet on the Freeway Series,” said Mike Megia, an Irvine ticket agent and die-hard Dodgers fan who plans to attend tonight’s game. “Nothing serious, just lunch.”

Although the Freeway Series does not count in the season standings, some fans are still taking it seriously.

“I just want to go down there and see what these guys look like so I can have an idea of what’s going to happen the rest of the season,” said Angels Booster Club President Rich Kanger. “There’s always a certain anxiousness about seeing the baseball season start.”

The excitement was infectious at Anaheim Stadium, where bustling concessionaires prepared food and grounds-keepers painted fences and trimmed grass during furious, last-minute game preparations.

“I’ve just been running all over the building,” said a winded John Trosper, stadium concessions manager. “The ice machines and Coke systems have been dormant for about six weeks so now we’re in the process of turning everything on.”

Meanwhile, three days before the official season opener, baseball mania is flourishing in Orange County. Memorabilia shops that couldn’t give away baseball cards during the lockout now can’t keep enough items with the Angels logo on the shelves.

“It’s like night and day now compared to before the strike was settled,” said Bob Saucedo, an Orange sports store owner whose business suffered during the lockout. “I’m sold out of Angels trash cans and if I don’t have one when they (fans) come in, they get really upset.”

Says Bob Jablonski, a Santa Ana store owner: “Fans show their allegiance by buying caps, T-shirts, even jackets, which is amazing considering how thick they are and how hot it is in Southern California.”

Meanwhile, local ticket agencies have been fielding hundreds of calls each day from fans who want a prime piece of the action. Prices for premium seats for regular season games have doubled over last year.

“We cater to people who want to see the game without having to bring binoculars. They like mustard on their hot dogs instead of bloody noses,” said Kevin Miles, an Irvine broker whose corporate clients plunk down $75 to $150 to impress out-of-town clients with choice seats in field boxes. “They want the good stuff between bases and don’t want to take a prized client and stick them up in the boonies.”

In an ironic twist due to rescheduling after the lockout, the Angels and the Dodgers will both open at home on the same day for the first time ever, splitting the loyal following of two teams just a freeway jaunt apart--especially among Orange County transplants who still root for Dodger Blue.

The Angels’ regular season opener, against the Seattle Mariners, will begin at 6:05 p.m. Monday--just 4 1/2 hours after the first pitch is thrown in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers play the San Diego Padres at 1:35 p.m.

Some fans, such as Jim Simpson, 33, of Huntington Beach, have found an easy solution to their dilemma. “I’m going to make opening day of the Dodgers then swing by, pick up my son and go over to Anaheim Stadium,” he said. “I’m either going to miss the end of one or the beginning of the other. But I grew up in Pasadena following the Dodgers and I still haven’t let them go--kind of like a kid with an old teddy bear or a blanket.”

Others are still undecided. “I’ll probably go to the Angels game with my radio and play the Dodgers game, or, go to the Dodgers game with my radio and listen to the Angels so I won’t miss anything,” said Lorraine Saunders of San Clemente.