Saturday, April 14, 2007

Take Me Out To...Dodger Stadium

Dodgers StadiumThere's nothing like watching a baseball game at the stadium. Prior to last night, it had been years since I had attended one. But it's an experience that I know I ought to partake in more often because I love baseball and I love watching the game unfold right before my eyes in midst of a crowd of fans in an open air stadium (while I'm at it, can college football season start up again?!).

The LA-area is home to two baseball teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I'll be honest in my picking of sides: Los Angeles Dodgers all the way.

A fixture in the Los Angeles landscape is Dodger Stadium, situated just north of the Downtown landscape, and its where my friends Jason and Jessie managed to get some great tickets to the Dodgers vs. Padres game. My friend Jay and I managed to come along for the unexpected Friday night out.

How great were the tickets? The picture accompanying this post is without zoom. I was that close to the action out on the field. We were in foul ball catching territory. In fact, during the game someone caught one a few rows in front of us (and man, did we wish one of us had been in reach). It was perhaps the closest I have ever sat at a baseball game (usually I'm in those nosebleed seats), so that definitely contributed to the excitement of my first baseball game in ages.

I'm not sure I can really describe that sense of feeling of being at a baseball game - it seems to be something that either people understand thoroughly or not at all. There's just this rush of feeling being surrounded by so many fans young and old decked out in team colors and memorabilia as vendors make their way on narrow stair aisles selling Crackerjacks, ice cream, and peanuts (and, believe it or not, CPK pizza - not sure about that one...). There's nothing like having a hot dog - the "no contest in how good it is" Dodger dog - piled high with tangy red ketchup, golden mustard, the sweet and sour taste of relish, and chopped white onion, accompanied with a plate of crispy garlic fries. There's nothing like hearing the roar of the crowd through nine innings as the players run across home base, as the batter cracks that ball with his bat and a stadium-full of people follow in anticipation of a cheer or a necessary chorus of 'boos'. There's nothing like mutual disdain about umpire calls, because the they're always wrong when you don't like them, even when they're right.

There has to be something about that game - whether it be baseball or football, whatever it is that fills that stadium. Why else then would people run through the hectic swirl of traffic to and from the venue, bring their kids in tow with blankets on cold nights where even then they'll ask for ice cream, get caught up in making sure they wear the right colors in shirts and hats and pins, so sure that their team is the "right" team...

Yes, there's nothing like experiencing a baseball game in a stadium.

-Charity Tran, ExperienceLA Web Coordinator

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just love going to dodger staduim it sure does have to be the best baseball park to go to. Los Angeles i am glad stays in tradition and is a classic city. I am also looking forward to the dodgers season they sure do look promising this year.