Storm giving away jerseys

July 5, the Lake Elsinore Storm will be giving away free Storm jerseys to the first 1,500 guests to walk through the gates.

The jerseys are replicas of those worn by Storm players when they are at the batting cages, according to Dustin Griffin, the vice president of Promotional Adventures.

Griffin took part in designing the jerseys.

The biggest difference between the player’s jerseys and the free jerseys is that the free ones are unlicensed, he said.

“We can make the exact same stuff but [the Storm] would be paying a whole lot more,” he said of licensed Storm merchandise.

To resell jerseys, hats, shirts and other items a sports team needs to license them, but licenses are unnecessary for giveaway items.

The only difference in appearance between the free jerseys and the ones the players wear to batting practice is instead of the players’ numbers, the free jerseys have “’08” on the back, along with the logo of the giveaway’s sponsor, Robinson Printing.

“We’re trying to recreate the red jerseys the players wear but for fans, because you can’t buy those

jerseys,” said Mark Beskid, the senior graphics and animation designer for the Storm.

The jerseys will be made of red mesh, have short sleeves and have the Storm logo on the front. Besides the designs on the back, the only other way the free jerseys will differ from those the players wear will be the lack of a thin black strip where the sleeve meets the body.

“[The Storm aims] to give fans something and keep it real as possible. We think it’s fun to receive something like that,” Beskid said.

A baseball cap giveaway will follow the jersey giveaway on July 19.

The Diamond is at 500 Diamond Drive in Lake Elsinore. For more information visit http://www.stormbaseball.com or call (951) 245-HITS.

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Three Storm players join team of stars

Monday, the California league announced it chose three Storm players to make up the 2008 All-Star Team.

Eric Sogard, Cedric Hunter and Sam Carter will play in the California/Carolina League All-Star Game June 24 in Myrtle Beach, SC.