Passengers just off a Northwest flight from Beijing awaiting their baggage at Los Angeles International Airport couldn't help but notice the brown cardboard boxes that kept shooting out onto the luggage carousel. One after another they skidded from the conveyer belt, 90 in all, to seven skycaps who were busy collecting the boxes like a scene out of an "I Love Lucy" episode.

	Angels fans have made their presence felt throughout the playoffs with CheerStix.

Passengers were confused but the boxes later had U.S. Customs agents smiling as they tried out Jim Lundberg's CheerStix, those inflatable plastic drumsticks gaining in popularity at sporting events around the country.

"As soon as I blew them up and started banging away, all the customs agents pulled theirs out too, blew them up and started banging away," said Lundberg, an enterpreneur who manufactures and distributes the noise-making sticks that have kept baseball fans busily banging away at Angels game during the postseason.

Lundberg accompanied last week's shipment of 90,000 CheerStix headed to Anaheim's Edison Field for two games of the American League Championship Series between the Angels and Twins. He'll be back at LAX again on Friday, this time with 100,000 CheerStix for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series between the Angels and Giants.

Since 1997, when Lundberg first brought the CheerStix to American sporting events, the popularity of the 2-foot-long sticks has grown significantly. Long a favorite among baseball fans in Korea, they first were introduced to Americans five years ago during a World Cup soccer qualifier match between the U.S. national team and Costa Rica. Less than a year later, a host of NBA playoff teams distributed them to fans seated behind the opponents' basket in hopes they would distract shooters at the free-throw line.

Just monkeying around

Angels fans go ape over Rally Monkey. The Anaheim Angels' Rally Monkey is one of the hottest pieces of Major League Baseball licensed merchandise. The demand is so high that counterfeit rally monkeys are being sold on eBay. "They are very hard to get," said Jason Rotgun of Los Angeles, who has spent his days and nights finding Rally Monkeys and reselling hundreds of them. "The ones that have the Angels shirts on them are impossible (to find)." Angels entertainment manager Peter Bull said the team sold 4,000 Rally Monkeys at the team store before, during and after Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. Bull said there are no plans to make the Rally Monkey the official team mascot. That hasn't slowed the demand, though. Small Rally Monkeys, which sell for $14 at the stadium, are going for as much as $40 on eBay. The Rally Monkey has caught on this year, but the craze began in midseason two years ago when the Angels were trailing in a game. The scoreboard flashed a monkey clip from "Ace Ventura." The fans went nuts and the team came back and won. -- Darren Rovell

After the Sonics bought 15,000 sets, word of the giveaway quickly spread to other NBA teams. "The Sonics told the Blazers, and the Blazers told the Hornets, and the Hornets told the Suns, and the Suns told the Lakers," said Lundberg, whose Chinese factory eventually made CheerStix for half of the NBA's 16 playoff teams.

It didn't take long before the sticks made their way to American baseball stadiums, and the Angels and Giants were putting them in the hands of their fans during the playoffs. During the Division Series, the Angels' and Giants' giveaways were manufactured by ThunderStix, a similar product made by Chicago-based Vonco. On Wednesday, Vonco received the contract to make ThunderStix for the Giants for World Series Games 4 and 5 and to make the inflatable sticks that will be sold on MLB.com during the World Series. The two stick-makers dominate a market that insiders estimate has only recently become a $1 million industry.

The Angels first ordered ThunderStix for a midseason, three-game series against the Mariners. The response was so positive that they ordered more for their first-round playoff series against the Yankees.

"I'm accustomed to Anaheim fans being that laid back Southern California type of baseball crowd," said Robert Alvarado, the Angels' director of marketing and promotions. "If these things could breathe this much life into the usually docile Angels fans, imagine if this gets into the hands of Yankees fans."

Lundberg's overseas production makes his product, which cost 32 cents each, slightly cheaper than the ThunderStix. These factors helped Lundberg land the Angels' business for two of the three ALCS games as the team unexpectedly advanced through the playoffs. The low cost of the promotion makes it easier to sell the idea quickly to sponsors, which pick up the majority of the cost. Aside from the sponsoring company's logo, the Angels include messages such as "The Halos Are Back" and "YES WE CAN" on the sticks.

Alvarado said the cost for the sticks is a fraction of the cost of a bobblehead or rally towel, two other popular game giveaways, but the collectible value of the sticks appears to be strong. ThunderStix and CheerStix used during the playoffs have averaged about $20 per set on eBay.

"It's not an everyday product like mugs or T-shirts," said Jim Porto, vice president of promotional products for Vonco, which aside from ThunderStix makes medical and industrial bags. "But it's good because you can't throw them on the field and it can't hurt anyone."

	The Angels gave their fans plenty to cheer about after knocking off the Yankees and Twins to reach their first World Series.

Lundberg said he believes the sticks will become a staple at sporting events.

"We are creeping into the cheering culture and this is a part of it," said Lundberg, 42, who lives in Beijing but is originally from Seattle. "This is not going to be a Pet Rock or a Hula Hoop, it's more like a pom-pom. I think it's found its niche and it's going to stay there. We've proven with the NBA that this is not a fly-by-night item that's just going to disappear."

But business isn't as booming as one would think for Lundberg. As the baseball business grows bigger, high schools have cut back on their orders and the college market suddenly looks shaky.

CheerStix made more than 200,000 sets for six Pac-10 football teams -- Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State -- but conference athletic directors voted last week to ban the noisemakers at football games.

"They think it gives the visiting team too much of a disadvantage and it's unsportsmanlike," said Lundberg. Striking International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers also have hit him in the pocket. With West Coast ports shut down during the strike, it kept his product at sea past the dates of promotional giveaways.

"All this attention is definitely exciting, but optimism is an entrepreneur's worst enemy and I definitely realize that," Lundberg said.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espnpub.com