PRO FOOTBALL ’95 : Rams and Raiders Are Gone, but They’re Not Forgotten : Relocation: At least some die-hard fans will travel to St. Louis and Oakland in teams’ absences.

Lance Goldberg’s devotion to the Rams knows no bounds. Even though the team has moved from Anaheim to St. Louis, Goldberg will be at the Rams’ home opener Sept. 10, as always. And as he screams encouragement, he will be wearing a carved-out watermelon on his head, as he has at home games for the last 10 years.

What fans at Busch Stadium will make of Goldberg and his fanatical friends in the “melon patch” is beyond imagination. But Goldberg, a Santa Monica painting contractor when he’s not leading cheers as “the big seed of the melonheads,” can’t imagine why the Rams’ relocation should end his 20-year infatuation with the team.

“My friends can’t believe I still like the Rams as much as before,” said Goldberg, whose loyalty was rewarded with 10 tickets to the Rams’ St. Louis debut, courtesy of the team’s president, John Shaw. “I’ve seen all their preseason games on TV and to me, it’s just that the announcers are making mistakes when they say, ‘St. Louis.’ ”

The Rams’ relocation hasn’t killed Phil Ginsburg’s devotion, built over 30 years as a season-ticket holder.

“I’m going to be equipping my house with a new satellite dish,” said Ginsburg, a San Diego lawyer. “I have two Charger season tickets and I plan on seeing the Rams in the morning [on TV] and then maybe going to the Chargers’ game later. They’re super seats, but it’s very possible I’ll watch the Rams in the morning and not go to the Chargers. I also plan on going to see the Rams in San Francisco or the West Coast if I can work it out. . . .

“I have a table at home that I call my Ram shrine, with a helmet and other stuff I’ve picked up over the years. I’m very attached to the history of the Rams. To me, they’re still the Rams. You identify with certain players as the years go on, and as long as there’s that continuum of players, I’ll remain a Ram fan.”

Some Raider fans, similarly jolted when owner Al Davis moved the team back to Oakland, also remain loyal.

Lawyer Tim Truax of El Segundo, who had season tickets in Los Angeles for about 10 years, considered buying tickets in Oakland but balked at the cost. He said he had no trouble getting good seats for Sunday’s game against the Chargers by calling an Oakland phone-charge number.

“There’s just something about the Raiders,” he said. “I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of boring Raider games I’ve been to. They always seem to be in the game at the end, whether they win or lose, and most of the time it turns out to be a win. There have been some lean years, but not that many.

“This won’t be the only game I’m going to. It doesn’t mean I have to like Al Davis, but the Raiders have always been a good team for the fans to support. They’ve always been exciting.”

When the Raiders left Los Angeles, Ed Summers of Ventura considered ending his allegiance. He found his habit of rooting for the Raiders too deeply ingrained to break.

“I wasn’t certain if I’d continue to be a fan of the team until I saw them in the preseason on TV, and it just seemed natural to keep rooting for them,” Summers said. “I’ve been a fan since the middle ‘60s.”

Summers’ work as a bank loan officer occasionally takes him to the Bay Area, and he might combine business and football one weekend.

“I won’t make that my main matter in going there,” he said. “The whole thing has disappointed me with the way things are these days in professional sports. If I can find a way to buy a ticket and not have the profit go to Al [Davis], I’ll do it.”

Michael Naughton, director of ticket operations for the Rams, said 13 people with California ZIP codes had bought personal seat licenses and season tickets in St. Louis. A spokesman for the Oakland Football Marketing Assn., which markets Raider tickets, said 838 seats had been sold through season ticket orders to fans living in the 818, 213, 310, 714, and 909 area codes.

Fans who can’t afford trips to St. Louis or Oakland--or expensive satellite-cable hookups--have only memories and dreams.

“I’m going to be a Ram fan until I die,” said Dean Dunson of Yucaipa. “I’m trying to talk my wife into going to St. Louis as a little honeymoon, but she’s more of a Raider fan. I won’t go to Oakland because I hate the Raiders.”

Some fans, however, have turned against the teams they once supported.

“I may have a business trip [to St. Louis], but I won’t go to a game, out of principle,” said Frank Bryant of Long Beach, who headed the futile Save the Rams movement and has rooted for them since the 1950s. “The fans we’ve talked to--and we’ve talked to quite a few--have the attitude that the team divorced them instead of the other way around, and, consequently, they don’t feel real happy about it. They feel like the Rams deserted them.

“A couple of fans called and said they were interested in forming a ‘Left-behind-by-the-Rams fan club,’ but it never got off the ground.”

Dave Bueche of Irvine objected to the mere mention of St. Louis. “I don’t even say those words,” he said. “[The Rams’ move] kicked me in the stomach. I can’t remember not being a Ram fan. We had season tickets for 20 years. We were those obnoxious kind of fans that were first in the gate to picnic and were wearing all that Rams paraphernalia.”

Linda Moomau of Cypress, who said she cried while watching the Rams’ first game as a St. Louis team, said their new home is too far to maintain her ties. She is executive vice president of the NFL Booster Club of Orange County--formerly the Rams Booster Club--and hopes the NFL will grant the area an expansion team to replace the team in her affections.

“It was difficult to realize the Rams are gone,” she said, “but I guess now I can take down all my paraphernalia and pack it up for my grandchildren. Maybe it will be worth something someday.”