LEWISTON – To help the Red Sox go the distance – to win the World Series title denied them for 86 years – local fans would suffer. Some would eat the right food, buy the right clothes or just take them off.

“I would go streaking for 10 hours straight,” said Dave Cunningham of Lewiston. “I’d leave my ball cap on, of course.”

Jared Lowe, a builder at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard who lives in Lewiston, would work for two months without a day off.

A victory would be worth it, Lowe said. He has waited all his life.

However, Thursday was for celebrating the American League championship.

Newspapers trumpeting the Sox victory over the Yankees sold out at local news stands. Red Sox hats, T-shirts and memorabilia began selling off store shelves.

And at Manic Designs in Lewiston, cooks prepared a batch of Red Sox chili, hot like the baseball team but not spicy enough to burn.

“Fans have already been through enough,” manager Monique Langis said.

Like so many, she spent the last two weeks staying up late to catch the marathon playoff games, first with the Anaheim Angels and then with the New York Yankees.

Late Wednesday, she was watching the game reach the bottom of the 9th inning when the picture on her TV blinked out. The same happened for Adelphia cable subscribers throughout the region. For about two minutes, the game was replaced by a message from the Emergency Alert System.

Mike Edgecomb, Adelphia’s government affairs manager, said Thursday that the interruption was initiated by the system itself, adhering to a schedule set almost a year ago.

It wasn’t the cable company’s fault.

“They do the test once a month,” Edgecomb said. “This time, it was triggered by NOAH (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.)”

Besides, Edgecomb was watching, too.

The moment the Sox won, Cunningham, watching in his home in Lewiston, tried cheering but it didn’t work.

His wife and daughters had gone to sleep. He tried not to wake them. But 11 hours later, he needed something to help him celebrate.

He joined a growing flood of people who purchased hats and T-shirts, many looking for the official championship garb worn by the players immediately after the game.

At Olympia Sports in Lewiston, the calls began at 9:30 a.m.

“After that it was steady,” manager Bill Cook said. “You wouldn’t believe it.”

By 11 a.m., when Cunningham arrived looking for one of the caps he saw worn by Johnny Damon, David Ortiz and the others, Cook began collecting names for a waiting list. He expected the hats to be delivered that afternoon.

At Republic Jewelry and Collectibles in Auburn, more than 50 regular ball caps had sold by noon, some via the store’s Web site to places such as Florida and Washington.

Along with the hats went Sox-related street signs, chess sets and baseballs, one autographed by pitcher Curt Schilling.

At Gee and Bee Sporting Goods in Auburn, hats sold at a quick pace. Sox fan Louie Collins, the store manager, hoped to get the championship gear there, too.

But his fanship is tempered, he said.

What would he do to win the Sox a world championship?

“Nothing,” he said.

“If they’re getting 13 million bucks a year, they don’t need anything from me,” Collins said.