TimesLeader.com

Phillies title gear a hit far from World Series

(AP)

Rich Stearns and World Vision view the World Series and the Super Bowl in a different way from most fans. Their attitude is 'Bring on the losers!'

Thousands of team championship caps, jerseys and T-shirts are produced before the World Series and Super Bowl and then rendered unusable for marketing in the United States when the other team wins the title.

So each fall and winter for the last three years, the humanitarian group has sent the items to the impoverished around the world.

In the last few weeks, Stearns has had shipments sent to disaster-stricken Indonesia with 1,300 pieces of preprinted gear featuring the words "Los Angeles Angels, World Series champions," or bearing the logo of the Dodgers, the other loser in the league championship series last month.

Now that the World Series has ended, seemingly unusable Phillies championship gear is being processed out of World Vision's distribution center in Pittsburgh _ items bound for Zambia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Romania.