Red Sox goods in high demand on Yawkey Way Official team store faces crush

BOSTON – Call it a fans’ fashion feeding frenzy of epic proportions.

The employees at Yawkey Way Store, the Boston Red Sox’s official team store, thought they had a good idea how high demand would be for Red Sox championship merchandise after Boston’s improbable rally against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Turns out, they really had no idea.

Literally thousands of fans have been surging through the shop located across the street from Fenway Park the last several days, forcing long lines of people waiting just to get into the store.

“It’s 86 years of pent-up frustration,” said Yawkey Way Store vice president Steven D’Angelo. “I think the subway series between the Yankees and Mets was maybe the biggest in terms of merchandise sales, but I think this will become the biggest world champ merchandise business baseball has ever seen.”

Lest you think the 32-year employee (he started working here when he was 8) is exaggerating just a bit, consider that the store attracts – on average – about 800 buyers a day on non-game days. Now consider that the store has been swamped by about 12,000 buyers – daily – since the Red Sox completed a World Series sweep of St. Louis.

“Anything that has world champions on it is going like crazy,” D’Angelo said. “We had to shut the Internet site down for two days because we couldn’t handle the business. It is running today, though.”

Even with a full complement of store employees, and reinforcements from Fenway Park personnel swelling the number to 45 staff members, fans had to wait about 70 minutes just to get into the store and purchase World Series merchandise. The line leading out from the entrance ran all the way down Lansdowne Street Friday.

“In 1986, it was kind of the beginning of the boom for licensed products,” said D’Angelo, referring to the only other time the store was anywhere close to this busy. “But the Boston Red Sox, as a culture, have just taken over the last couple of years. It’s fashion. It’s part of our being. It’s kind of a perfect storm because everything is hitting all at once and it’s a perfect time for this to happen.”

So whether it’s a $2 bumper sticker or a $400 leather jacket (the store’s most expensive item) with the World Series champions logo on it, if you’re willing to wait, you can get it.

Fans like Milford’s Katie Mabie and younger sister Jennifer, two of six siblings who are huge Sox fans along with their father, will wait for the crowds to die down a bit, but they’ll be buying some stuff soon.

“My boyfriend and I paid $500 a ticket and went to game three in the Yankees series,” said Katie, a receptionist for the Mass. State House ways and means committee. “It was the 19-8 game. We sat six rows up down where right field and first base meet. We had great seats, but it wasn’t a good game.”

Sister Jennifer is a bit more frugal.

“I went to six games this year and they won all six. I didn’t go to a playoff game, but I didn’t pay no $500,” she said, smirking at her sister.

It’s a good bet Jennifer will be waiting for the demand to slacken a bit before she heads on over to Lansdowne Street.

“I hate those groupies who become fans once the team starts winning,” she said. “They’re probably all buying Red Sox stuff for the first time right now.”