Angels Spoil the Party With Their Playoff Loss

Bruce and Barbara Schmidt were hoping, right up until the end Monday, that they would improve on their last Angel playoff experience.

Instead, they stood in line Monday to return playoff tickets. Their last, and lasting, Angel playoff memory remains Game 5, 1986 American League Championship Series.

“We were sitting down the right-field line, by the foul pole, when Donnie Moore gave up that home run,” said Schmidt, 56, of Huntington Beach. “We were really looking forward to these playoffs. We got our tickets in September and were confident right up to 4:30 p.m. [Monday].”

They, like many others, had their plans altered. The Angels lost, 9-1, to the Seattle Mariners in a one-shot, winner-takes-the-Western-Division playoff game at the Kingdome.

It cost the Schmidts a chance at better memories. It cost the part-time workers at Anaheim Stadium some extra cash. It cost local businesses record receipts, not to mention a little cleaner neighborhood this weekend.

Fans trickled into the Anaheim Stadium ticket office Tuesday. The talk was exclusively about the O.J. Simpson not-guilty verdict, but the business at hand was returning playoff tickets.

By 11:30 a.m., about 20 fans had exchanged tickets for vouchers, with checks to follow in the mail. Many other ticket returns were expected via the mail.

Susan Weiss, the Angels’ assistant ticket manager, said the ticket office began making plans immediately after Monday’s game. But the expected crush didn’t hit until late Tuesday morning.

“We had no one here until after the O.J. verdict, then boom,” one worker said.

Meanwhile, the Angel Booster Club changed plans that were less monetary, but more painful. They had planned to watch the Angels play the New York Yankees Tuesday at the Orange County Hall of Fame.

About 300 people were expected to attend a reception--which had been planned for a month--to honor people who have worked as volunteers at the hall. It was to double as an Angel rooting section until the Mariners gave it a less festive theme.

“Call it an open house, not a party,” said Casey Wright, a member of the booster club’s board of directors. “We planned this for a long time, before any of us could know about the disaster. Several of us watched the game here [Monday]. When it was over, we started asking about ticket returns. I guess we’ll just celebrate the volunteers tonight.”

Don Myers, manager of The Catch restaurant in Anaheim, will reap the benefits of two conventions, plus the Mighty Ducks’ home opener and two R.E.M. concerts.

“If the Angels would have made it to the World Series, we would have had a record month,” Myers said. “It would have been like 10 days of Ram-49er games. It would have been huge.”

Myers, too, will return his playoff tickets and find something else to do come Friday, as will others.

“I guess I’ll watch the Dodgers,” Bruce Schmidt said. “I was a Dodger fan before I was an Angel fan.”