Take me out to the ball game. Buy me an Orioles T-shirt, a set oftrading cards, an autographed mitt and whatever else you can get yourhands on.
It has been less than a week since baseball announced that liveMajor League players would join the starting lineups in the '95season, and fans already are singing joyous music to local retailersselling baseball-related merchandise.
The end of the 232-day strike Monday caused long lines this weekat Orioles ticket outlets, brought shoppers back into trading cardshops and perked up sales of baseball jerseys and hats at area sportsclothing stores.
'In the last seven months, we couldn't give this stuff away,' saidSteve Garett, an assistant manager at Superstars in Arlington, whichsells licensed baseball clothing. 'Now people are coming back in,looking for their teams and actually taking stuff home.'
But even as fans said welcome back with their wallets, there wasplenty of lingering bitterness about a strike that many regarded as ashameful, bench-clearing brawl. Tellingly, only the vintage baseballcard and memorabilia market, with its mementos of less litigiousdays, has fared well in recent months.
Sales could only have gotten better, but with many fans stillseething, few retailers are expecting a banner year. On Wednesday, inthe throngs lined up to buy game tickets at the Orioles Store on 17thStreet NW in the District, some folks were spending money throughgritted teeth.
'I wrote them a letter saying I'd never buy tickets again,' saidGreg McBeth, just before purchasing a pair of seats for six games.'Instead, I'm just buying less than I otherwise would.'
These have been bruising months for baseball and its attendantbusinesses. Sales of clothing with Major League team logos were down$500 million, from $3 billion in 1993 to $2.5 billion last year,according to Carole Coleman, manager of public relations for BaseballProperties in New York, the league's licensing outfit. And the $1billion new card market took an enormous hit. Anticipating fanindifference -- or outright hostility -- the major card manufacturerscut their '95 season print run, some by as much as half.
Ironically, the relative scarcity of 'striker cards' will likelymake them even more valuable.
'In the long run, this will be remembered as a great year forcards,' said Roy Whitehead, marketing manager of Pinnacle BrandsInc., a Texas-based trading card maker. 'They're going to be highlycollectible simply because so few of them were made.' NeitherPinnacle nor any of the other trading card companies printed cardsfeaturing replacement players.
Though the recovery has started, what will draw fans in evengreater numbers, dealers say, are some close games, star turns or agood pennant race. Which is why you can sum up many of the hopes ofthe local baseball industry in two words: Cal Ripken. Chasing LouGehrig's record for consecutive games played is expected to be one ofthe great dramas and highlights of the Orioles season.
'Ripken is the one guy whose merchandise in the last few monthshas been strike-proof,' said Bill Huggins, co-owner of House of Cardsin Wheaton. 'I can't imagine what's going to happen as he gets closerto that record.'
Ripken may be the only modern titan who stayed in collectors' goodgraces in recent months, but the real winners have been players fromdecades past, such as Mickey Mantle and Roberto Clemente, whose cardsincreased in value by nearly 15 percent during the strike.
'A lot of the older cards have been selling better than ever,'said Theo Chen, a price guide analyst with Beckett's, the price bibleof collectors. 'If you spend $500 a year on cards, that money isgoing to go somewhere. People who were angry about today's playersjust spend their money elsewhere.'
Memorabilia auctions, for example, have been thriving. OnWednesday night at the Silver Spring Armory, a House of Cards auctiondrew 110 bidders from around the region, the second highest turnoutin four years. On the block were items as kitsch as a baseballautographed by Gerald Ford -- 'signed twice and dropped once,'quipped auctioneer Frank Russo -- which went for $100, and as prizedas a complete set of 1975 Topps cards, which went for $360.
Business has just started to boom for the Orioles, who sold 25,000seats on Monday, more than any other American League eastern divisionteam. 'We're ecstatic,' said Bill Stetka, the team's assistantdirector of public relations. 'Of course there are going to be thoseturned off, but for the most part the response by fans says they areanxious for baseball.'
Fans, it seems, are also anxious about baseball, specifically,whether the deal that has been worked out will hold or give way toanother walkout when the season starts. 'There's a cloud hanging theover game now,' said Mike Powers, of ProServ, a sports-marketing firmin Virginia.
Wall Street concurred. Trading card stocks were up in the daysbefore the strike ended -- Topps, for example, was up half a pointthe last week of March -- but once details were announced Monday,Topps and other publicly traded card companies were down on the day.'These stocks would have continued rising, but the settlement wasn'tdefinitive,' said Sean McGowan, who follows trading card stocks forGerard Klauer Mattison & Co., a New York investment bank andbrokerage.
But if further proof were needed that the Baltimore-Washingtonarea is ready to fall back in love with the game, it came this week.While such teams as the Philadelphia Phillies and San FranciscoGiants were offering special reduced-price tickets to lure backcustomers, the Orioles sold thousands of field box seats for $20each, $5 more than the team charged for the same seats last year.
