It Was Sad Day at the Big A for Rams Fans
ANAHEIM — The normally rambunctious fans in the north end zone of Anaheim Stadium had been relatively quiet for most of Saturday’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins.
But something set them off with about three minutes left, and it wasn’t just the Ram jazz band’s morbid decision to break into its rendition of “St. Louis Woman.”
The realization that this could be the last time they cheer for their beloved Rams, who are expected to announce any day that they’re moving to St. Louis, had finally set in.
All the frustration of a fifth consecutive losing season, a year’s worth of rumors that the team was leaving, and their disdain for the team’s front office seemed to come to a head in a spontaneous display of loathing directed at Rams owner Georgia Frontiere’s luxury suite.
Out came the giant banner: “Georgia is the Grinch!”
Then came the chants: “Georgia (expletive)! Georgia (expletive)!”
“St. Louis (expletive)! St. Louis (expletive)!”
“L.A. Rams! L.A. Rams!”
A few minutes later, after the Rams had lost, 24-21, and the band had finished playing “Auld Lang Syne” and the crowd of 25,705--smallest in the team’s 15-season Anaheim history and smaller than those for two recent high school games at the Big A--had filed out, a few hundred of the most loyal fans gathered outside Gate 7 for a short pep rally.
Megaphone-wielding Rob Julian of La Habra urged the team to stay.
Ron Monson of Upland cracked open a bottle of champagne to toast to the Rams.
Steve Hunter of Huntington Beach drove off in his beat-up, 1974 Volkswagen van, hoping the slogans he painted all over the vehicle--”Keep the Sheep! The Blue and Gold Should Be Sold!--would not fall on deaf ears.
Chuck Sowers of Anaheim walked out wearing his Ram jacket, Ram sweater, Ram hat, Ram socks, Ram shoelaces, Ram water bottle and, yes, Ram boxer shorts under his jeans, wondering if he’d ever have reason to wear such paraphernalia again.
The dozens of ushers, concession-stand and souvenir-shop workers and parking lot attendants went home, wondering if they would ever again work at a professional football game.
And Frontiere, who had watched the game from the second level of her two-story suite--never coming down to mingle with her guests during the game--quietly slipped out of the stadium, followed by a cargo load of boxes with her name on them, being moved from her suite to who knows where?
St. Louis?
“It’s a sad day, a very traumatic experience,” said Don Hewitt, who was finishing his 28th season as the Rams’ equipment manager. “I hate to think this is our last game in Orange County.
“It just doesn’t seem right to call us anything but the L.A. Rams. Heck, I still call the (L.A.) Raiders the Oakland Raiders, the (Indianapolis) Colts the Baltimore Colts. It’s a tough day.”
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In Frontiere’s box, Newport Beach sports agent Leigh Steinberg, who is heading the effort to keep the Rams in Orange County, waited for the owner to emerge, hoping to introduce her to his 8-year-old son, Jonathan, and pull at Georgia’s heartstrings.
“I wanted to ask her to explain to my son why this football team that he’s put his heart and soul into for his short life would be moving,” Steinberg said. “I wanted to tell her that the concept of home is critically important and that the Rams have had a home here (in Southern California) for 50 years.”
In fact, the Rams moved here from Cleveland in 1946, but alas, Steinberg never got the chance to discuss any of that with Frontiere. Twenty minutes had passed after the game and she still had not appeared. Steinberg had to go, his questions unanswered.
He wasn’t the only exasperated Ram fan Saturday.
“We feel powerless,” said John Parker, a 58-year-old season ticket-holder from Mission Viejo. “I think there has been plenty of fan support here, but management has not made an effort.
“There’s a sense among fans that we have an absentee owner, that the management has no football savvy. I can’t help but think how often I’ve seen the Dallas owner (Jerry Jones) on the sidelines, especially during the losing seasons. He was taking the heat, but we don’t have that kind of ownership here.”
Frontiere and Ram President John Shaw, who has spent much of the past year negotiating with groups from St. Louis and Baltimore interested in the team, took some heat Saturday.
Fans vented their anger and frustration at what they feel has been a concerted effort on the Rams’ part to disillusion them, thus making it easier to justify a move.
“I feel as though I’ve been lied to,” said Dave Bueche, a 20-year season-ticket holder from Irvine. “I don’t think for a minute they had any intention of staying. When the city (of Anaheim) gave the Rams an escape clause (from their stadium lease in 1990), they were gone, end of deal.”
Added Linda Comstock, 46, of Tustin: “I think Georgia not showing up for the team picture (Friday) tells it all. I don’t care if she had bronchitis. It’s very disappointing. I don’t think she’ll show up today. She’s too coward to show her face here. She put her team in Shaw’s hands, and he destroyed it.”
Comstock’s husband, Don, said he was “angry, depressed and discouraged,” and fed up with the Rams’ contention that Southern California can’t support two NFL teams, that there aren’t enough fans to warrant staying here.
“They kept talking about decreasing attendance figures,” he said. “We kept looking at the decreasing number of wins.”
Some felt Ram fans should at least bear part of the blame for the team’s financial woes--the Rams are projecting a $6-million loss this season.
“This town is too wishy-washy,” said Monson, 27. “They follow the winners but don’t support the losers.”
Added Roger Kranz of Irvine: “When a high school game can draw more than an NFL game, you’re in trouble.”
It wasn’t all gloom and doom Saturday, though. Just inside the stadium’s main entrance, Dan Robbins of Aliso Viejo was having his biggest day of the season selling game programs.
“I’m just about done selling my third box (of 120) and I usually don’t even sell two boxes,” said Robbins, 29. “A lot of people have said the program could be valuable as a collector’s item some day, and some season-ticket holders told me this is the first time they’ve bought a program all year.
“It’s good, too, because we work on commission. I usually make $140 a game, but I’ll double that today. It’s going to be a Merry Christmas.”
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Mindy Weiss, who works in the stadium’s lower-level gift shop, also said sales were brisk.
“Everyone’s trying to get that last souvenir,” she said. “We don’t have much stuff.”
Things were a lot quieter at stadium concession stands, however. With such a small crowd, there were no lines throughout the day.
“I’m gonna have my lowest take of the year,” said Harry Williams, a 69-year-old from Huntington Beach who works in the stadium deli. “A lot of my regular customers said goodby after the last game.”
In the Ram locker room, several players thanked those loyal fans in the north end zone, such as the guys who have stuck with the team every week while sticking watermelons on their heads.
“That could be the last time I go through that tunnel, “ said Ram safety Anthony Newman, who returned an interception for a touchdown in the first quarter. “My hat has to go off to those fans. They’ve been there all year, whether we win or lose, and they’re always screaming for us. I wouldn’t trade them for the world. They’re the true fans.”
If only there were more of them.
“We appreciate the fans here, and it’s unfortunate that we haven’t fielded a product that they could be happy about,” said offensive tackle Jackie Slater, who finished his 19th season with the Rams Saturday. “But when you think of a city where there’s 50,000 fans ready to embrace you, you kind of look forward to that.”
* MORE RAMS COVERAGE: C1, C8-10
