Promotions: Hype, Hype, Hype for the Home Team : Baseball: Clubs are trying everything--rally bells, makeup bags, neon items--to attract more fans to the ballpark.

The Angels have lost more than they’ve won this season. After Friday night’s victory in Boston, they are 59-60.

But the Angels’ losing percentage is even worse (.375, 6-10 record) when they give away stuff such as calendars, caps, beach bags and squeeze bottles.

When the promotional freebies are a trifle unusual, such as “rally bells” and makeup bags, the Angels are 1-4.

And the Angels are 0-2 when they give away anything “neon.”

It’s probably only a coincidence that the Angels don’t play as well when they hand out promotional doodads.

But baseball people say there’s a definite relationship between the giveaways and how well a team does at the turnstiles.

“We know that every promotion, without exception, increases attendance,” said John Hays, the Angels’ vice president for marketing.

In fact, when the Angels offered their fans free squeeze bottles, baseball cards or any other promotional inducement this season, attendance has averaged 35,960 compared with an average of 32,163 on dates with no promotions.

“Naturally, a winning club is by far the best promotion you can have,” said Barry Stockhamer, the Dodgers’ director of marketing and promotions. “But all these other elements . . . help keep the people coming to the ballpark.”

Promotional gimmicks have been around about as long as baseball. The late Bill Veeck, baseball’s P.T. Barnum when he owned the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox, was a promotional whirlwind, giving the tradition an outlandish or good-humored twist, depending on your point of view. Veeck once held “Joe Early Day” for a fan who had complained that he deserved more recognition than the Indians’ high-paid players.

In recent years, baseball has been deluged with promotional schemes that not only hype the home team but also serve as marketing tools for sponsors. And more and more, the free trinkets have less and less to do with baseball.

As recently as the 1970s, promotional items were almost exclusively baseball-related: Caps, balls, bats.

There have always been the gimmicks, such as the Seattle Mariners’ “Funny Nose and Glasses Night,” in which every man, woman and child could look like Groucho Marx.

But the advent of sponsors has brought a different dimension to giveaways.

Three years ago, thousands of fans in Anaheim Stadium were seated on cushions fashioned like packages of wieners. A hot dog manufacturer paid for the giveaway and in return got its name, if not in front of, at least beneath, every visitor to the Big A.

Two years ago, AMC Movie Theaters began sponsoring promotional nights for the Angels, Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

“The major reason we are sponsors . . . is that the demographics fit so perfectly,” said Nora Dashwood, Southern California district supervisor for AMC.

People who attend baseball games tend to be “families, young people, teen-agers, people who like to go out”--in other words, the same people who attend movies.

“We feel this is a much more targeted audience” than can be reached through general advertising, she said.

The sponsor’s name is normally emblazoned on the giveaway item. So while Angel fans may continue to wear their neon caps in the off-season promoting team awareness, they also are walking billboards for Oscar Mayer, whose logo is printed on the back.

AMC Theaters also sponsored a fireworks display June 23 after the Angels-Tigers game. By sponsoring the event, AMC also was allowed to pass out discount cards for $20 of free popcorn and drinks at AMC theaters to each of the 50,527 spectators.

Dashwood isn’t sure whether the passes attracted new customers to AMC’s theaters or simply encouraged return visits by regular patrons. But one thing is certain: The passes are not valid at competing theaters.

“The redemption rate has been very high,” Dashwood said of the discount cards. “We made the offer big enough so it could insure free popcorn all summer long.”

The trend toward sponsorship also has had an another effect on the promotional items, baseball marketing people say.

“The quality of items has gone up,” according to Hays, who says it is a direct “reflection of advertising or sponsor involvement.”

Though the value of the items has increased, sponsorship also seems to have stepped up the gimmickry quotient as well.

Consider the “rally bells” given away April 17 at the Angels-Athletics game. The miniature cow bells, which added a new sound to the old ballpark, drew mixed responses from baseball fans, with some purists denouncing the trinkets as annoying or silly. Or worse.

Hays good-naturedly described the promotional items on the Angela’ schedule as “certainly a variety of flimflam and mirth.” But while there have been critics, such as those who derided the “neon” lime green Angels caps, “we have gotten a lot of compliments, too,” Hays said.

The Dodgers were the last major league team to allow sponsors to pay for (and put their names on) promotional items.

Also the Dodgers “tended to stay close to things that help you play the game,” such as balls and gloves, said Stockhamer, the team’s marketing and promotions director.

“But people enjoy getting wrist watches,” he conceded. “It seems to have a strong impact on attendance. In the last five to 10 years you’re seeing more things with batteries (such as) wrist watches, and less traditional baseball-playing equipment.

“I think it seems like all clubs have seen the need to be aggressive, to do everything possible because you’re competing with the beaches and all the other amusement parks,” Stockhamer said.

“The sponsors see it as a way to associate themselves with a very strong institution,” he said. “When you tie in with the Dodgers you are teaming up with someone who enjoys a very strong reputation in the community; very family-oriented. And it’s those sorts of images (sponsors) want.”

Sponsors also are looking for a good return on their investment, according to Imran Currim, a marketing professor at the UC Irvine Graduate School of Management.

“In the last decade one finds much more frequent use of promotions by firms than in the decade earlier,” Currim said.

In the 1970s “much more marketing resources were used in advertising than in sales promotions,” he said. “The 1980s were just the reverse.”

The shift came with more precise efforts to reach specific markets. Corporate America has found this tact more successful than the shotgun advertising approach reaches more consumers, but many of whom are disinterested in the product, Currim said.

By targeting its audience, a retailer is “able to see the differences sales promotion can make,” Currim said. “In the short run, we can clearly see that it makes a very big difference.”

Sponsors also hope to associate their name “with good experiences in the person’s mind,” Currim said. “And a baseball game is a good experience for most people.”

To hard-core baseball fans, promotional giveaways serve another purpose. They add to the expanding market of baseball collectibles.

However, the items valued by collectors are “only those that picture ballplayers,” said Bob Lemke, publisher of Sports Collector’s Digest, a 55,000-circulation national weekly hobby newspaper, and the 330,000-circulation monthly Baseball Cards magazine. “Things like the souvenir bats or caps generally have no collector value.”

Lemke, a “life-long Gorman Thomas fan,” cherishes a souvenir drinking mug bearing his hero’s photograph, which was sponsored by a coffee company and given away at a Brewer game.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in baseball card promotions at stadiums,” Lemke said. “In the early ‘80s there were really only one or two teams doing it. Most of them are doing it now and some are several” times a season.

The Angels and Dodgers offer baseball cards, but the Dodgers have gone an extra mile in celebration of the franchise’s 100th anniversary.

On six dates, at least 150 collector cards are distributed to each fan. Those attending all six games will have a complete set of 1,000 cards, not available in stores, even though the sponsor is a discount department store.

“We printed over 70 million cards,” Stockhamer said.

What are the hottest items around both leagues this season?

Steve McKelvey, manager of corporate sponsorship for Major League Baseball Properties, says it is both the staples--bat day, glove day, ball day and cap day--and the not-so-staple--such as the love-’em-or-hate-’em neon sunglasses and neon caps.

“We gave away neon caps at the All-Star workout day,” McKelvey said. “It’s very in vogue, I guess.”

One risk in promotional dates is that the gimmick takes on a presence greater than the game itself.

“I know Disco Demolition Night wasn’t so hot,” said McKelvey, recalling the ill-fated event in 1979 when White Sox fans were asked to bring their disco records to be blown up on the field in protest of the dance music craze then sweeping the nation. The event, held between games of a double-header, ended when rowdy fans tore up the field and forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game.

Usually things don’t go quite so wrong.

To the amusement of many and to the irritation of more than a few, thousands of Dodger fans discovered this season that they could make high-pitched screeching sounds by twisting the plastic cases that held their give-away baseballs. During the game, Dodger Stadium periodically was filled with what sounded like the mating call of a million crickets.

It has proven unwise to distribute items that tempt fans to throw them onto the field. For example, free calendars at Anaheim Stadium have resulted in hundreds of paper airplanes littering the outfield.

Defying temptation, the Minnesota Twins have sponsored a paper airplane night for seven years running.

But rarely has a plane been tossed during a game. That’s because after the game, several vehicles, including a Mercedes-Benz with an open sunroof, are parked on the field.

Fans spend 50 cents to buy an official paper airplane, complete with folding instructions, then are invited to throw them onto the field. (The 50 cents is donated to the National Kidney Foundation.)

If the plane lands within a marked-off area, the fan is eligible for a drawing to win prizes donated by sponsors. If the plane lands in a truck bed, for example, the person who tosses it is eligible to win the truck. The same holds true for planes falling through the Mercedes’ sunroof. Two new Mercedeses have been given away.

“About two-thirds of the crowd stays to watch it,” a Twins spokesman said. “It looks like Times Square on New Years’ Eve.”

“They go nuts,” said Mark Webber of the Twins’ promotions department. “We’ve kind of created our own monster.”

ANGELS’ RECORD ON PROMOTION DATES

Category Wins Losses Percentage Regular season 59 60 .496 Promotional dates 6 10 .375 Trifle unusual promos 1 4 .200 Neon stuff 0 2 .000

(Outscored 15-5 on neon giveaway dates) PROMOTIONAL EVENTS

Date Won Lost Promotion Crowd 4/6 5-4 Calendar (Dodger exhibition) 47,555 4/9 7-4 Neon caps, opening night 38,406 4/14 7-5 Batting gloves 34,407 4/15 4-1 Famous Chicken appearance 27,302 4/17 7-5 Rally bells 34,370 5/5 11-3 Starting lineup figurine 21,141 5/13 8-4 Makeup/jewelry bag (for Mother’s Day) 34,399 5/27 7-3 Player cards 35,466 6/9 8-3 Player family game 34,226 6/10 2-1 Beach bags 44,932 6/23 9-4 Fireworks 50,527 6/27 2-5 Baseball 34,020 7/15 3-2 Old-timers game 31,609 7/18 3-2 Squeeze bottle 36,000 7/22 8-1 Neon sunglasses 32,129 8/5 4-1 Photo day 52,774 8/12 11-6 Fanny bag 33,657

(Items that are a trifle unusual are in boldface) TOTALS 17 promotional dates (includes Dodgers) to 8/16/90: 622,920 Average attendance: 35,960 61 home dates to 8/14/90: 2,022,702 Average attendance: 33,159 45 nonpromotional home dates to 8/16/90: 1,447,337 Average attendance 32,163