Fireworks have mostly been replaced by drone shows, so the crowd was ecstatic to see and hear the old-fashioned, ecologically insensitive aerial explosions, especially after an 11th-inning walkoff!
I love extra innings, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE the “designated runner” rule. It’s so stupid, probably the worst thing that has happened to baseball in the past 100 years! It ruins the experience of wondering when a game could possibly end, and getting an extra “7th-inning stretch.”
I was at that 18-inning World Series game when Max Muncy broke a 2-2 tie with a walkoff homer. That night was something I will never forget. I walked home down a packed Sunset Boulevard with exuberant Dodger fans and sullen Red Sox fans. I made it to a bar just before last call and got home about 2 a.m. It was glorious! (This after getting to the stadium as soon as the gates opened at 4:10.)
A game like that can never ever happen again, unless Major League Baseball comes to its senses and rescinds that stupid-ass rule.
So, last night, we got a couple extra innings, and it was great fun! A good start for Gavin Stone. A perfect inning from reliever Joe Kelly. And a walkoff single by newcomer Andy Pages that scored gimme runner Will Smith. Pages also accounted for four of the Dodgers’ nine hits!
But it wasn’t magical … it wasn’t a night to remember forever!
Art, books & bobbleheads … the Wilson Seemayer collections.
For the first time since I’ve been a Season Ticket Holder, this homestand offers no gifts for “the first 40,000 people” to arrive at the games. Not one.
In another effort to screw over its most loyal fans, Dodgers management this year — while occasionally doling out bobbleheads, hoodies and jerseys — are preferring instead to offer “Ticket Packages” featuring all the good stuff, like the cute little Dodger Stadium figurine with the Millennium Falcon hovering over it that they’re giving away on Star Wars Night (Monday, May 6). Ticket Packages cost extra, you see, so Season Ticket Holders, who reliably fork over thousands of dollars every year, would have to fork over even more to buy extra tickets they don’t need in order to get the good stuff.
They must think this greedy, spiteful practice is paying off, because, while they are not rewarding the fans who come to nearly all 81 home games every year, this homestand features four “Ticket Packages,” all of which are Sold Out.
I’m actually getting tired of complaining about how abhorrently management treats Dodger fans. The team is really fun to watch. We have a great bunch of players, and I enjoy the experience of going to the games. I know that they spent a great deal of money on some of those great players, and they have to try to get some of it back. But just once, I would like to feel appreciated for my undying Dodger loyalty. Even if it’s just by printing out some paper tickets for my technologically challenged husband. I’d take that over a giveaway any day. And it would hardly cost those greedy bastards a dime.
Comedian Elayne Boosler got into it with Dodger security when she tried to attend Sunday’s game against the Mets. I have some problems with her story, but she’s right about fans being the least important factor for Dodger management at the Ravine. (Click photo to watch her tell the story.)
So I’m not the only Dodger fan feeling ill-appreciated at the stadium. I have a few things to say about Elayne Boosler‘s YouTube rant against the security people who handcuffed her and wouldn’t let her into the fabulous 10-0 blowout against the New York Mets.
First, everybody who has been to Dodger Stadium in the past 5 years knows you can’t bring any bags that aren’t see-through into the park. She is being disingenuous when she says she wasn’t aware of that hard-and-fast rule. I once put a folded up paper bag in my clear Dodger bag for use toting a bobblehead home, and they took it out and made me throw it away. It was an empty paper bag. If I were going to hide something in it, it would have to be something I got at the stadium.
Second, taking a banned bag to the car or throwing it away are never the only two options available if you happen to arrive with contraband. There are lockers outside the Centerfield Plaza, and security always offers them to people who don’t want to schlep something back to their car.
Third, although it sounds like something I myself might do if caught in a particularly bad mood, you should never drop the F bomb on security guards just trying to do their jobs. They may have “just that little bit of power,” as Boosler puts it, and they may like to exercise it like fascists, but just think of all the vaping, fighting, drunken lunkheads they have to contend with every night. I wouldn’t want to do that job.
Lastly, I can’t imagine them handcuffing her and holding her for 2 hours just for one F word. She had to have lost it completely and made a helluva scene for them to lock her up for the duration of the game. Believe me, I rail against mindless bureaucracy in much the same way, as my poor husband and infinitely patient son can attest.
But I relate to the feeling of being unappreciated. My request to get Stephen some paper tickets “is being worked on,” according to my rep. Yeah, I’m sure it’s her top priority. In the meantime, we take it one game at a time.
Now, the boys are gone for nearly 2 weeks, so it’ll be next month before we have to struggle with the question of getting Stephen into the ballpark.
I hope this road trip is more successful than the last home stand. We lost all three series for the first time since 2011. Sunday’s powerhouse pitching and awesome hitting hopefully was a shift in momentum and not just a fluke. Go Dodgers!
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 