ALL ABOARD; L.A. FANS JOIN PADRES WAGON.Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer World Series fever struck Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. on Friday. Never mind that the October Classic will be played in - shudder - San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , starting today. Amtrak Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run , the passenger train service, is considering adding extra coaches to accommodate all the fans who want to ride the 10 daily San Diegan The San Diegan was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and a "workhorse" of the railroad. Its 126-mile (203-kilometer) route ran from Los Angeles, California south to San Diego. It was assigned train Nos. 70–79 (Nos. trains to the coastal city to our south. Professional ticket brokers can't answer phones fast enough from fans hungry to see championship-caliber baseball. And amateurs like Tony Gold of Sherman Oaks are cashing in on the act, hoping to sell tickets they bought earlier this week for as much as $400 a piece. Gold usually answers his phone with a simple ``Hello,'' but Friday it was all business: ``World Series hotline!'' Gold gathered credit cards from his mother and a friend, set his phone on speed-dial and ended up with 54 tickets. Friday, he turned his apartment into a sales shop to resell the ducats. Hopefuls called all day, willing to beg, borrow or barter their way to one of his precious tickets. After all, the prices were relatively cheap. Scalpers in New York were asking $2,500, though authorities said they will prosecute all scalpers. Gold, an aspiring actor, said some of the offers he heard were better than money. ``One said she'd set me up in the Playboy mansion for two nights. ``Another offered me two days and three nights on his yacht,'' he said. ``You've got the Padres and the Angels and the Dodgers,'' Gold said. ``When's the last time one of them has been in the World Series? ``It's supply and demand.'' Indeed, the Los Angeles Dodgers "Dodgers" and "Brooklyn Dodgers" redirect here. For the American football team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (football). For the Eastern Basketball Association team, see Brooklyn Dodgers (basketball). have the pieces of a contender, but year after year they can't make them fit together to win a National League pennant. The Anaheim Angels this season again came oh-so-close to the American League American League (AL) One of the two associations of professional baseball teams in the U.S. and Canada designated as major leagues; the other is the National League (NL). playoffs before swooning swoon intr.v. swooned, swoon·ing, swoons 1. To faint. 2. To be overwhelmed by ecstatic joy. n. 1. A fainting spell; syncope. See Synonyms at blackout. 2. in September. So the Series hasn't graced a professional baseball diamond in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, since 1988, when the Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics in five games. In the decade since the Dodgers last won the series, their star hitter Kirk Gibson has become a broadcaster in Detroit, their star pitcher Orel Hershiser moved on to pitch for the arch-rival San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California that currently play in the National League West Division. New York Giants history Early days and the John McGraw era and fans have become increasingly pessimistic about the prospect of future championships ever coming back to Southern California. ``It's not like we're going to have another World Series in Southern California any time soon,'' said Ron Epstein, a Woodland Hills resident and Dodgers fan who plans to drive to San Diego for Game Three. After the Series opens with games in New York today and Sunday, it moves to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday; Game Five will be played there Friday if one team doesn't sweep. After that, the Series will shift back to New York. The San Diego Chamber of Commerce, which estimates that region could make $100 million from three games in the area, is welcoming disgruntled dis·grun·tle tr.v. dis·grun·tled, dis·grun·tling, dis·grun·tles To make discontented. [dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen; see Los Angeles fans with open arms. ``As soon as we clinched, the phones started ringing,'' said Sue Mason, a San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau manager. ``Our indication is that most of them are coming from Los Angeles and Orange County, with calls from Arizona and New York as well.'' While hotel rooms throughout San Diego were still available Friday, conventions previously scheduled for next week have already sucked up empty beds, said Chamber of Commerce Research Manager Kelly Cunningham. ``October is already a busy time for us,'' Cunningham said. ``Accommodations are going to be very tight.'' Los Angeles residents with tickets are planning to leave as early as 9 a.m., anticipating six hours in traffic for what should be a two-hour drive. It's only three hours on the train, though they have been getting fuller. ``The Padres do have a strong base in Los Angeles because the teams there haven't been so great lately,'' Amtrak spokesman Dominic Albano said. ``We've seen ridership increases as the Padres have kept doing better and made their way though the playoffs.'' Local ticket brokers were advertising World Series ticket sales in enormous classified ad headlines, with the PAC-10 showdown between UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX and Oregon and the Kiss Halloween concert - events actually taking place in Los Angeles - getting second billing. One busy operator at VIP Tickets put it best Friday morning. ``We're swamped, absolutely swamped.'' Gold took 55 calls in three hours - 45 were from New York Yankees  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. fans. Gold is a Padres fan, but he'll be saving a ticket each day for himself so he can root for Yankees ace David Wells - they played Little League together a hop up the coast in Oceanside. ``It's really special to be able to see him live, and even make a little profit off it.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Tony Gold has 54 tickets to World Series games in San Diego, the result of borrowed credit cards and eight hours on the speed-dial. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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