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World Series Gear Flying Off Shelves Around Bay Area

Tribune photo by KEITH MORELLI

Amy Bordeaux, of St. Petersburg, stops by the Sports Authority on West Kennedy Boulevard to pick out a couple of Tampa Bay Rays American League Champions shirts.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 20, 2008

Updated: 10/20/2008 02:23 pm

TAMPA - Amy Bordeaux has been a Tampa Bay Rays fan since their inaugural season 10 years ago. She went to that first game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, and this morning, she found herself in a Sports Authority, shuffling through shirts that proclaimed the home team: "American League Champions."

It's been a long haul for the team and its fans, including Bordeaux, who — although dead tired from last night's nail-biter in which the Rays clinched the league pennant — picked out two dark blue shirts from the rack.

She was among a steady stream of customers walking into the store on West Kennedy Boulevard, across from WestShore Plaza, snatching league championship shirts for $25 and hats for $22.

Normally, the store opens at 9 a.m., manager Calvin West said. Today, it opened at 6, and by 8:30, the medium T-shirts were sold out. More were coming, he said. The company that makes the shirts and hats were flying in new shipments this morning into the Tampa Bay area, he said.

"We're expecting a shipment within the hour," he said. "More locker room hats and roster shirts."

Business early this morning "is pretty brisk," he said.

He was in the shop at 5 a.m. getting things ready; that after staying up to watch the end of the Rays' 3-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

"I'm a little bleary-eyed here," West said, adding that it's a good feeling. "I'm a fan like most people around here."

Mark Fernandez, senior vice president of the team, said last week that the first two weeks of October have been a merchandizing boon to the team.

He said this year's sales of Rays gear may eclipse that from the 1998 inaugural season and that sales are already nearly double that of last season.

Winning, in addition to having a new uniform, colors and logo, have made the team darlings all over, and the brand is selling well across the nation, he said. Being among the last three teams playing in October helps, he added.

"It's a bit of a perfect storm," he said Friday. "I guess we picked the right year to change the brand look. It's all kind of come together for us."

Rays fans are sticking with the team in a month that they usually shift to other sports, he said.

"It's one of the dominant sports brands in the market," he says of the Rays logo, "and that's exciting and flattering."

Kelli Sheffler works for Chevrolet in Atlanta, and her company is a sponsor of the Rays. So when she found herself with tickets to the final two ALCS games in St. Petersburg, she hoped a flight down and took in both.

"I came with a bunch of guys who were Red Sox fans," she said as she picked out a couple of T-shirts at the Sports Authority.

"I'm on my way to the airport," she said. "I've got to catch a flight back to Atlanta. I have to work today."

Bordeaux, who was on her way to work in Tampa, rifled through the shirts, looking for the right size.

She was determined to leave the store with something. She had a good reason.

On Wednesday, Game 1 of the World Series between the Rays and Philadelphia Phillies is at Tropicana Field, and Bordeaux is headed to Philly to visit family.

"My mom and I will be wearing these shirts when we get off the plane," she said, holding up the "American League Champions" shirts. The trip had been planned for months, she said, made when World Series and Tampa Bay Rays seemed an unlikely coupling.

Wearing the shirt around Philadelphia, a city known for its somewhat discourteous fans, can be chancy, she admitted.

"I have an uncle who is a police officer there," Bordeaux said. "He told me, 'If you wear that, I can't protect you.' "

Across town at It's Bucs & Bulls Heaven, the big sellers typically are Tampa Bay Buccaneers and University of South Florida gear, but the Rays championship items are making a run this week.

The store, at 14823 N. Florida Ave., was expected to get a shipment of clubhouse T-shirts at noon today. Championship hats, like the ones worn by Rays players after the Game 7 victory, should be in by Tuesday, store executive director Gerry D'Angelo said.

Also available today: "Beat Philly" T-shirts, she said, along with championship novelty items such as car and house flags, pennants, lapel pins and decals.

The shirts and hats will be the big sellers, she said.

"As the stage gets bigger, more people want to get the gear," she said. "Seeing players wearing the hats and T-shirts, that's what they want."

Store manager Cindy O'Donogue said orders are being taken for those who want to reserve gear.

"We've already taken pre-orders for hats," she said.

The merchandise should move fast, she said.

"We probably won't have time to hang them up," she said.

Cheryl Kehrmeyer of Valrico, a Brewers fan originally from Milwaukee, says she is now a full-fledged Rays fan. She prowled the aisles of Dick's Sporting Goods in Brandon this morning looking for a championship hat for her father.

She ended up buying about a dozen hats, T-shirts and even a Rays tote bag.

"I've fallen in love with the Rays," she said.

Photographer Robert Burke contributed to this report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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