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Savoring Every Moment

August 23, 2024 //
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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.

GAME 128 (Aug. 21): Dodgers 8-Mariners 4
MY SCORECARDS

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We Had, in Fact, Shot Our Wad

June 13, 2024 //
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Gilbert Romero always in a sombrero. He bleeds Dodger Blue! (It’s a haiku!)

Yesterday, I expressed my fear that we may have used up all the gas in our tank in the first game against the Rangers on Tuesday. Last night, that fear was realized as Texas cowed our anemic offense, 3-2. Ironically, it was beloved former Dodger shortstop Corey Seager who delivered the death blow with a 3-run homer in the 5th. The cheers his return to the Ravine was greeted with quickly turned to vicious boos.

It got exciting at the end, as Jason Heyward — with Will Smith on 2nd and Andy Pages on 1st — clobbered a 2-out double to deep right field, scoring Smith. But Pages missed a sign from Dino Ebel to hold at 3rd, and he was thrown out trying to score the tying run. Game over. Wah-wah-wah. Darn it!

I went to the game by myself, but an old friend from The Times, Carlos Lozano, showed up to keep me company. We had a great time, even though the outcome wasn’t what we wished it had been.

MY SCORECARDS
Game 69: Rangers 3-Dodgers 2

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Slammin’ & Getting Slammed

May 22, 2024 //
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Roberto at the Gold Glove Bar makes a mean Manhattan!

I spent the past two evenings at Dodger Stadium, with two very different outcomes.

Monday, my hubby’s birthday, we watched the game from a friend’s front-row Loge seats, and the Dodgers didn’t disappoint. But before the game, I persuaded my husband to come to the Gold Glove Bar with me for drinks and a pregame snack. We had Manhattans made by everybody’s favorite bartender, Roberto.

On our way up to our seats, we stood in camera range while Nomar Garciaparra, Jerry Hairston Jr. & John Hartung did the pregame show. We also toured Centerfield Plaza. It was Hawaiian Shirt Night, so there were a lot of people wearing blue-and-white Aloha-style Dodger shirts. (It was a special-ticket package, so we didn’t get one, although some dude offered to sell us his … for $500!)

Then there was the game, which boiled down to just one inning, in the long run.

In the bottom of the 3rd — with the D’Backs ahead, 1-0 — Kiké Hernández led off with a solo home run. Then Miguel Rojas and Mookie Betts each singled and Shohei Ohtani walked to load the bases with nobody out! Up to the plate steps Freddie Freeman. On a 2-1 count, he slams it over the fence just right of centerfield. It was so beautiful! Happy Birthday, Steve!

My view of the moment that won the game.

Will Smith capped the inning off with another solo dinger, and then the Dodgers managed to hold onto the lead through the rest of the game, finished ahead, 6-4.

GAME 50: Dodgers 6-Diamondbacks 4

Side note: Channeling the L.A. Blue Bum, I wrote a haiku to celebrate Steve’s birthday, which they (sort of) put on the left-field board after the 5th inning. It said, “Who woulda thunk it? Seemayer is 70 … Go Dodgers!” The last line was edited from a 5-syllable phrase that I wasn’t sure they’d use in the first place, but I had to try.

Now, last night was a completely different story. Our bats were dead, our pitching was not up to par, and when Joc Pederson put the nail in our coffin with a 3-run homer in the 7th inning, Steve got up and left. I stayed because I was keeping score, and I always hope until the last out that we will pull off a miracle. I’ve seen it happen, so I know it can be done.

GAME 51: Diamondbacks 7-Dodgers 3
MY SCORECARDS

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