Archives for posts with tag: Yasiel Puig

Dodgers TVTired of missing the games on TV? Want more than just three innings of Vin Scully’s mellifluous voice calling the plays over the radio? Hate Time Warner Cable for holding Los Angeles hostage? Let the Dodgers know it! NOW!

And I don’t mean by giving in to the blackmailers’ demands. This week, action is called for. A rally is being planned to show $tan Ka$ten and his partners how the loyal Dodger fans of Los Angeles feel. Details will be released soon, but try to keep Wednesday evening open.

Ka$ten thinks it simple enough to Tweet #ineedmydodgers or go to the ineedmydodgers.com website, but those are just tools of the criminals to force fans to join their malicious conspiracy. They want you to either succumb (and switch your provider to TWC) or to do their negotiating for them by threatening DirecTV or whatever other providers don’t want to give in to Time Warner’s ridiculous demands.

It is not our fault (or DirecTV’s for that matter) that Time Warner Cable made a bad deal (as Howie Mandel would say) and paid Ka$ten and Guggenheim WAY TOO MUCH for the channel.

Now is the time for all good Dodger fans to let Ka$ten and TWC know that we’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!

Mob scene at the Top Deck entry gate.

Mob scene at the Top Deck entry gate.

Whatever $tan Ka$ten and his brain trust have been doing to “enhance the fan experience,” I got news for them: It ain’t working.

I have waited in line to get into the stadium before, but this was RIDICULOUS! I had flashbacks to the Disneyland of old, when you stood in the hot sun waiting for a seat on the Matterhorn ride.

This is the Dodgers' "enhanced fan experience."

This is the Dodgers’ “enhanced fan experience.”

Steve and I got to Chavez Ravine two hours before the first pitch last night, only to be greeted by an hourlong wait just to get into the gate. This is no hyperbole. We got to the steps up to the Top Deck plaza and were greeted with a choice of two lines: one went down the stairway to Reserve Level and then all the way across the Reserve Level lot. The other wound around the handicap ramps from Parking Lot P up to the plaza in front of the Top of the Park gift shop.

I realize it was a giveaway night (zip-up hooded sweatshirt, score!) and they have these new ticket scanners — apparently slower then good old fashioned people. And I don’t know if this particular torture was just for poor Top Deck fans (can’t imagine hoity-toitys on Field Level abiding this kind of treatment), but this was the most miserable I have ever felt at Dodger Stadium, and that includes the time the Yankees came back from a five-run deficit in the ninth inning. Remember that, Jonathan Broxton?

I was so worn out by baking in the afternoon sun while waiting to get in, that I was too tired to stay for the whole game with the Tigers, which we won, apparently, 3-2, on a walk-off double by Carl Crawford in the 10th. Happy Birthday to me! (I would normally watch the end of a game I was at on television, but as we all know, “enhancing the fan experience” also means denying 70% of L.A. the opportunity to see the Dodgers on TV.)

As for the Team …
I love A.J. Ellis, and it breaks my heart that he is injured and having knee surgery. I hope he recuperates well and comes back to us soon.

Dee Gordon is a pistol in the leadoff spot. Holy mackerel, way to start the game with a rare and unlikely line-drive homer. Good going, little man!

Dan Haren makes a nice addition to the rotation so far. His first two starts have been pretty good, and we need the stability.

Go Dodgers!

 

 

Twelve batters came to the plate in San Francisco's half of the first inning.

Twelve batters came to the plate in San Francisco’s half of the first inning.

It was a Korean bar-b-q at Dodger Stadium today. Hyun-Jin Ryu got filleted, grilled and served on a platter as the Giants blasted out six runs in the first inning of Opening Day 2014.

They tacked on two more in the second, and eight was enough. Even though the Dodgers rallied some in the middle innings, San Francisco held on to win 8-4.

On the historic side, Vin Scully — surrounded by his grandchildren — threw the ceremonial first pitch to Sandy Koufax, backed up by all the former Dodgers who can still amble the stadium on their own two feet: Ron Cey, Tom Lasorda, Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela, Tommy Davis, Don Newcombe … I’m probably forgetting someone. It was a lovely moment before the horrors began.

Double Take
We saw the first use of instant replay in a baseball game at the Ravine, and it was horrible. A close call at second as Hanley Ramirez tried to steal was overturned when the whiny baby Bruce Bochy complained to the umps. This is not a good thing, this second-guessing bullshit. If I were a major league manager, I would refuse to ever do it, just on principle. (I’m beginning to think I might be too idealistic for this modern world of ours.)