Angel Ticket Sales Heat Up as Playoff Fever Rises : Business: Fans want to make sure they have a chance to watch games in October.

The last time the Angels made the playoffs Becky Luna stood in line for seven hours to get tickets. That was nine years ago. This time, Luna and her friend Anna Castillo took precautions.

They were at Anaheim Stadium Tuesday afternoon buying a nine-game ticket package so they could get guaranteed seats if the Angels reach the American League playoffs.

Luna and Castillo, from Long Beach and Lakewood, thought the deadline for purchasing mini- and full-season ticket packages was Tuesday, but the Angels extended the deadline to Aug. 28 because of the incentive package’s popularity.

Kevin Uhlich, Angel vice president of operations, said the team has been selling between 200 and 300 full-season plans a day. Since July 27, the Angels have sold 2,246 full season packages and 1,606 mini plans. The full-season plan requires fans to buy tickets to the remaining 24 games, but it also gives them a guaranteed seat location for the playoffs and the World Series.

The nine- and 14-game packages guarantee playoff tickets but do not guarantee specific seat locations. Fans can purchase $11, $10 or $8 seats for either package.

“We’ve been to more than nine games already anyway, and we’d probably go to nine more, so this wasn’t a bad deal,” Luna said. “We hope to get a field level seat, but terrace or loge would be good. The main thing was, I didn’t want to go through standing in line again.”

Uhlich said fans who have had season tickets for the entire year will get the best seat locations for post-season games. They will also get to buy a like number of additional seats for the playoffs and World Series--meaning a season-ticket holder with three seats would have the option to buy up to six tickets.

Fans who buy season-ticket packages for the rest of the season will get next choice and mini-season ticket holders will be next. Uhlich said he expects about 45,000 playoff tickets will be guaranteed by Aug. 28. The remainder will go on sale in early September. Uhlich said prices for playoff and World Series tickets have not been determined.

Jeff DeAugustine of Garden Grove hasn’t been a season-ticket holder since 1986, but he came to Anaheim Stadium to purchase two tickets on the nine-game plan. Uhlich said most fans are choosing either the full- or the nine-game plan.

Michael Ingram of Huntington Beach said his son convinced him to buy a mini package.

“I never followed the American League until this year, but my son got me back into baseball and into the Angels,” said Ingram, who was considering buying a nine-game package. “I used to be a Padre fan, but I’ve been converted to the Angels.”

Uhlich said the Angels, who lead the American League West by 10 1/2 games, are beginning to make a lot of converts.

“We dropped so low with our season ticket base,” Uhlich said. “It took a team that took the American League by storm to get some of the people back.”

If people weren’t dropping by Anaheim Stadium to purchase mini-ticket packages or daily game tickets Tuesday, they were calling the switchboard. One switchboard operator said she was almost hoping the deadline for ticket packages was going to be Tuesday.

“Don’t remind me,” said the frantic operator between calls. “I thought [Wednesday] was going to be a good day.”

Uhlich said the situation could be worse.

“There’s nothing more depressing than going into the last six weeks of the season knowing you don’t have a chance at the playoffs,” he said. “This is a lot of hard work, but you kind of thrive on it.”