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.
Holy cow! I just hope the Dodgers didn’t use up all their homestand home runs in one game!
What a slugfest that was last night. It was hard to believe it was even happening, there were so many homers and important hits, like Mookie Betts‘ 3-run double that tore the game open in the 4th. In the 6th inning, 10 Dodgers batted, scoring 7 runs on 6 hits (4 of them round-trippers)!
Not exactly the pitching duel I like to watch. In fact, in the 7th, the Rangers (reigning World Series Champions) had their backup catcher, Andrew Knizner, come out with bases loaded and a 14-2 deficit to do their dirty work on the mound. But to tell you the truth, he turned out to be more effective than their real pitchers. He lobbed the ball like it was batting practice, but only gave up a sac fly and one walk. And he had a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th.
The real batting practice came off Grant Anderson in the 6th, when the Dodgers were ahead, 7-1, with one out and Mookie walked. Shohei Ohtani blasted a home run to right field, and Freddie Freeman (who went 3-for-4 by the way) followed with another homer. Will Smith hit a single before Teoscar Hernández did what he does best: he clobbered the ball over the left field wall.
But a 12-1 advantage wasn’t enough for these greedy boys. After a lineout to left by Gavin Lux, Andy Pages smoked a single down the 3rd-base line, and Jason Heyward sent Anderson’s last pitch into the visitors’ dugout. Hey ya!!!
I just hope they still have some in the tank for tonight!
Side note: Whoever posts the pitch counts on the scoreboard kept counting the fourth ball in a walk as a strike, and there were a lot of walks (10 altogether). So the pitch counts were completely wrong throughout the game. What a numbskull!
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 