Saturday, October 26, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Worlds Apart on Series Souvenirs

Fans flock to California teams' gear while retailers lament loss of Yankees

A competitive World Series featuring two California teams has boosted sales of baseball-related clothing and souvenirs this fall, but some Las Vegas-area retailers said they'd have preferred yet another appearance from the New York Yankees.

The widely loved -- and for many baseball fans, widely loathed -- Yankees have been regular participants in the Fall Classic since the mid-1990s. The team qualified for the World Series after five of the past six regular seasons, but this year the Yankees' quest ended early when the Anaheim Angels eliminated them in the American League Division Series.

Anaheim later beat the Minnesota Twins to reach the franchise's first World Series.

Although Angels gear, as well as that of the team's World Series opponent, the San Francisco Giants, has sold well locally, business just isn't as strong without the Yankees, said Tom Simonson, co-owner of six Front Row Sports and Front Row Kids stores in Southern Nevada.

"Nothing will compare in sales to years when the New York Yankees are in the World Series," Simonson said. "We'll bring in maybe 1,200 Yankee hats with the official World Series logo on the side, but I think we'll only need around 300 of the Angels and 150 Giants. ... It's not even a fair comparison."

Javier Garcia, manager of the Champs Sports store at the Meadows mall, said sales of Angels gear slowed once the playoffs started earlier this month. He also believes World Series items would have been more popular if they featured a Yankees logo.

"At first (the Angels) were the surprise team so people wanted to get on their bandwagon, but we haven't really sold a lot of their stuff since the World Series started," said Garcia, whose store displayed several "West Coast Showdown" World Series T-shirts near its entrance Thursday. "I'm still getting asked for Yankees stuff, though. Their products always sell really well at this time of year because they have such a wide fan base."

Despite the Yankees' absence, Simonson said he's glad to have two teams from cities close to Las Vegas competing in the World Series. He called this year's all-California matchup "a special treat" for West Coast baseball fans, although most fans he's come across favor the Angels, whose gear has outsold the Giants' nearly 8 to 1 at Front Row Sports.

"We've had some great Angels fans throughout the year, and now they want those items with the (World Series) patches on them," said Simonson, who added his stores received nearly 550 replica Angels game and batting practice jerseys earlier this week. He expects the shirts, which cost between $69 and $89, will all be sold before the first pitch of today's Game 6.