It’s like the team is trying to convince me to stay a Season Ticket Holder. Last night’s walk-off grand slam victory that made history in more ways than one was the epitome of why I go to Dodger games in the first place. It was way up there with the bobblehead homer to Mannywood, the 18th-inning World Series walkoff and the night my beloved Eric Karros become the L.A. home run king.
EK told us all at that Member Luncheon that he didn’t expect to stay on the throne for long, and Shohei Ohtani is doing his best to make that come true. He stole his 40th base. (Record for a DH was 22.) And he hit his 40th HR. (Just the 6th player to hit 40-40, and the 1st Dodger.) But it wasn’t just any home run, it was a first-pitch walkoff grand slam. How could so much magic fit into one brief moment?
First time I ever took score from the Loge level (a friend’s seats). We swept the Mariners with an 8-4 victory.
As you all perhaps know, I’m a Top Deck girl, through and through. I like the view, it’s cooler up there on hot August nights, and that’s where my season tickets have been for the past … actually I’m not sure how many years. Top row of the Top Deck, where the real fans sit.
Unfortunately, due to the Dodgers’ recent purchases of insanely expensive talent, the price of those season tickets will be rising nearly 25% next year. I am not willing to allow Dodgers management, who don’t really care about the Top Deck all that much, to gouge me for their bad decisions.
It all started with the TV fiasco a few years ago. Before that, Dodger Stadium was packed a lot more of the time. But “out of sight, out of mind,” and 70% of fans who for years could not watch the games on DirecTV because of Guggenheim Partners’ greed lost interest. Since that débâcle, even bobblehead nights are often sparsely attended. Plus, shorter games (as mandated by MLB’s ridiculous new rules) mean less time to buy beer and hot dogs, so concessions are also less lucrative.
The Dodgers have been winning in the regular season more than ever before, and some nights, the empty seats outnumber the ones with butts in them. (I admit, the pandemic didn’t help, and that wasn’t $tan Ka$ten‘s fault.)
Now, in a Hail Mary to start filling up those seats, they’ve spent bajillions of dollars on Shohei Ohtani and his countrymate, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but still the nights that should be crazy crowded have plenty of vacancies in the stands. (Unless they’re giving away Ohtani swag or Hello Kitty! is in the house.)
Dodgers management have already sold their souls to some cosmetic company to advertise on the scoreboard instead of giving player information. So making Season Ticket Holders pay 25% more for their seats next year is the least of their karmic worries.
Look, if Dodgers management had been even a little willing to bend on the paper ticket problem for my Luddite husband, or if they had installed hot water in the Top Deck bathrooms, or if once in a while they invited a nosebleed-seat Season Ticket Holder to be “Member of the Game,” I wouldn’t feel so disrespected and resentful.
This is all to say, I’m not going to renew my season tickets for next year. I will just watch on TV, or buy discount seats on StubHub if I want to go to a game. I’ll miss it, but I’m sure Dodgers management won’t miss me in the least.
The 2nd night of a Supermoon Blue Moon coming up over a 6-3 Dodger win against the Mariners.
It was a beautiful sight at Dodger Stadium last night. We not only won after an 8th-inning 3-run bomb by pinch hitter Jason Heyward, but there were friends all around. Our Top Deck pals were there: Gilberto, Arlene, Liz and Darwin. I got to visit our Loge amigo Michael with his sister and her family. And my old Times buddy Carlos climbed up to the top row of the Top Deck to say hey. Not only that, but we got a great Teoscar Hernández Bobblehead to boot!
The only thing that bugged me was that the scoreboard operator is still an idiot. At the last game I went to (Aug. 10), I stopped by the Press Box to let someone know that whoever posts the pitch counts on the Right Field scoreboard has been getting it wrong the whole season. This “scorekeeper” counts the 4th ball of a walk as a strike. So, let’s say Evan Phillips walks the first batter he sees, his pitch count on the Right Field scoreboard will read “Total Pitches: 4 – Strikes: 1 – Balls: 3.” It doesn’t seem all that important, but when there are 4, 5, 6, even 8 walks in a game, the pitch count is completely out of whack!
For instance, last night, Walker Buehler allowed 3 walks, so when he left after the 4th inning, his pitch count in the stadium said “Total Pitches: 82 – Strikes: 53 – Balls 29,” when in actual fact, his stats were “Total Pitches: 82 – Strikes: 50 – Balls 32.” I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but accuracy is essential in baseball. For players, for pitchers, for broadcasters and for fanatical OCD fan scorekeepers, like me.
Anyway, at that Aug. 10 game, after I told some woman going into the press box about the problem, the pitch counts were accurate. I thought I had fixed the problem. But alas! The stupid scorekeeper must just have had the night off.
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 