Usher Faces a Sad Year at Big A (as in Absent) : Careers: The Rams are gone. The baseball strike continues. So, after three decades working at Anaheim Stadium, Chuck Plumberg’s prospects for ’95 are gloomy.

In three decades as an usher at Anaheim Stadium, Chuck Plumberg has seen thousands of Angels games, hundreds of Rams games and one Madonna concert.

But the 70-year-old Orange resident, who has worked at the Big A since it opened in 1966, may remember this year for what he will not see. With the Rams gone and the Angels perhaps fielding a replacement team, the stadium’s head usher faces the prospect of his first season ever without a bona fide professional sports team to watch and watch over.

“The (baseball) strike breaks my heart,” said Plumberg, who was recently honored as the stadium’s employee of the year. “I have my fingers crossed they will resolve this thing and play ball again.”

Another shortened or abandoned baseball season would be a poignant loss for Plumberg, whose love for the national pastime is rooted in his Kansas boyhood. At 18, as a naval serviceman during World War II, he clung to baseball broadcasts as a vital connection to his country.

“It brought home back to you,” said Plumberg, whose cruiser patrolling in Pacific waters survived a torpedo hit by the Japanese. “It made a dramatic difference in my morale.”

Years later, while working at the state’s Employment Development Commission, Plumberg again turned to baseball for a lift. When he heard that the brand-new Big A was looking for employees, he immediately applied.

“I’ve been a baseball nut my whole life,” he said. “To hear the crack of the bat and to smell the infield grass, it’s a great joy for me. . . . I decided the stadium would be a great place to get a job and see baseball.”

He was right. Originally a New York Yankees fan, Plumberg quickly converted and cheered a parade of baseball talent over the years.

“When I stop and think of all the great stars that I’ve seen play, it’s a dream come true,” he said.

In his opinion, Plumberg saw the greatest baseball player in his lifetime the first day on the job. An Angels exhibition game on April 9, 1966, brought an all-star center fielder for the San Francisco Giants to Gate 5 of the new stadium.

“I saw somebody standing near a yellow cab asking how to get into the stadium. It was Willie Mays,” Plumberg recalled. “I walked over to him and led him through the concourse. . . . It was a great thrill for me.”

Until he underwent successful surgery for prostate cancer, Plumberg amassed a consecutive game streak that surpassed even that of Yankees iron man Lou Gehrig. Plumberg didn’t miss a game or other stadium event for 28 years.

In that time, he learned the differences between the crowds drawn by the two pro teams to the Big A. Angels games attracted more families and were more low-key; Rams events lured a more spirited crowd, he said.

“The two are like night and day,” said Plumberg, who supervises about 235 workers. “Rams fans stand up a lot more, and that means people behind them can’t see.”

Plumberg lamented the Rams recent departure, but he had sensed it coming as he saw more and more empty seats in the past few years.

“Orange County fans are sophisticated. People aren’t excited about coming out to watch a team consistently lose,” he said. “But I still think Orange County would support a pro football team. This facility is too good not to.”

If there is a bright side to the Rams leaving Orange County, Plumberg reasoned, it means no more Raiders fans, who are viewed by some as too rowdy and physical.

“We always had trouble when the Raiders played here,” he said.

But even a Rams-Raiders matchup cannot compare to a sellout Madonna concert. In July, 1987, Plumberg’s nightmare came true when Madonna invited 60,000 fans on stage.

“That’s the scariest moment I’ve ever had,” said Plumberg, whose responsibilities include crowd control. “There was a crush of humanity rushing toward the stage. I didn’t expect her to say that. There were some injuries and some people were pushed down. It was chaos.”

Recent talk of building a baseball-only stadium for the Angels has made Plumberg uneasy.

“I’ve seen this place from the beginning to end,” he said. “I’m attached to this building. It’s just a tremendous facility.”