Far From Big Apple, Former New Yorkers Try to Relish Subway Series

Rocko Svihra was itching to end his shift.

The Manhattan Beach mail carrier, who always wears a N.Y. Mets cap, yearned for the latest news about Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens’ fine for throwing bat shards toward Mets catcher Mike Piazza two nights earlier.

Besides, the former New Jersey resident had to change out of his postal uniform into blue shorts and an orange shirt before planting himself in front of the TV in his bedroom to watch Game 3 of the World Series on Tuesday night.

Not that he would stay in one spot for long.

“I’ll pace. I’m a little anxious,” the die-hard Mets fan said.

They’re pretty easy to spot these days, these New York area transplants with fanatic devotion to hometown baseball. Donning Yankee or Mets attire, they wax sentimental about the first subway series in more than 40 years, sitting transfixed in front of television screens and newspapers covering their beloved teams.

These subway series fans stand out like U.S. tourists might in Pyongyang, North Korea. Many say they feel equally isolated in their jubilation, living in an area where even the millennium celebration couldn’t get a rise out of the populace.

East Coast fever over the games certainly didn’t seem to inspire many waterfront residents to join in Tuesday. While pregame action and analysis flickered on television sets in rather empty Manhattan Beach bars and restaurants, hundreds of people played outside, hanging out on the beach, roller-blading down the pier, catching the waves on boogie boards and surfboards.

It didn’t seem to matter that this is the city where Piazza was once a fixture and his little brother still hangs out.

“Who cares?” asked Gilbert Corona of Hawthorne, when asked about the ongoing series. His preference was to fish for barracuda or yellowtail, relaxing in the warm afternoon sun. “I watched the first game. It wasn’t enough that the Yankees won. They had to play that Frank Sinatra song. . . . Talk about overkill.”

Hard-core fans who could afford it are already back East, catching the action firsthand, local ticket brokers report. For example, Ron Blanchard, president of Highland Tickets in Manhattan Beach, said he sold eight pairs of Game 2 tickets for several thousand dollars apiece to former New Yorkers who wanted to root for the Yankees up close.

Others left behind seemed to prefer the comfort and privacy of their homes to display their enthusiasm.

Ken Feldman of Marina del Rey hosted a New York-style fest for his non-New York friends Sunday, complete with Hebrew National hot dogs and sauerkraut. There were a few California touches, like the hummus and cigars on the deck overlooking the water, the Brooklyn native conceded.

“It would be wonderful to be back there and really feel it,” Feldman said. But he and others who lingered Tuesday at Joni’s Coffee Roaster Cafe, a favorite New Yorker hangout in Marina del Rey, said they hoped to get over to Tony P’s restaurant on Admiralty Way to watch the series on the 10 huge televisions lining the wall above the bar.

Exactly how many former New Yorkers live in the Los Angeles area is hard to say, according to state demographers. But the Internal Revenue Service reports more than 3,600 moved to Los Angeles County in 1999.

One of those is Jack Benza, an aspiring actor who works at a CityWalk restaurant across from where Universal Studios set up bleachers and a 16- by 22-foot screen broadcasting the games. He waited on tables Sunday evening while wearing his beloved Yankees jersey inside-out, so as not to annoy his employer.

“New York fans really care deeply about this sport. L.A. fans don’t realize what’s going on, what’s at stake,” he said.

Being a subway series fan here stinks, said Greg Lattimore, a food vendor from North Hollywood who moved here from Long Island 15 years ago. At one postseason Dodgers game in Los Angeles several years ago, he recalled, most of the seats were empty. When he got up to cheer at one point, “the entire section turned around and looked at me like I sat on their quiche.”

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Times staff writer Ray F. Herndon contributed to this story.