(UN)Official Road Trip Stop #1: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA

Greetings to those following my trek!
This first post is more of a test post. Since Dodger Stadium is my home park and I visit regularly, this post is more of an exhaustive guide than review. I'm trying to figure out how I want to review each stop on my trip, and hopefully this gives me a starting point. Comments are welcomed and appreciated!

Dodger Stadium is my home ballpark, and is therefore the greatest place to watch a professional sporting event in the history of mankind.

OK, so that statement was full of hyperbole and bias, but it is still a pretty nice place to watch a ballgame, despite now being the third oldest venue in Major League Baseball, behind Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago. The place isn’t that old, having opened in 1962, and great care is taken to keep it looking nice. There are even plans for extensive renovations to keep it around for “the next 50 years.” There are no real calls to replace the venue, and if Los Angeles’ internal battle to figure out how to get the NFL back is any indication, it would be extremely difficult to do so.

But arguably, the best reason to not replace the Stadium is that there really is no reason to. Dodger Stadium benefits largely from the foresight of Walter O’Malley, as it is centrally located in Chavez Ravine and is easily accessed from 3 major freeways. The story of Dodger Stadium’s location is not a pretty one, and largely a result of seedy Cold War politics, but was a great business decision as the location continues to pay dividends to this day.

First of all, you have to get to Dodger Stadium by car. There really is no other way at the moment. Also, thanks to a cornered market, it costs $15 to park. Nobody likes it, we’ve all heard the same complaints, but hey, gotta pay for Manny’s contract somehow, right?

The seating bowl provides a nice backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains, which are often punctuated by a beautiful Southern California sunset at the beginning of night games. From the Top Deck and Reserve levels, the outdoor concourses provide a really cool view of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline.

There aren’t any bad seats in Dodger Stadium. I have attended many, many games at the Stadium in my 22 years, and don’t ever remember having an obstructed view of the action. The architecture is sound and functional, nothing funky or weird, no forced dimensions in the outfield, just simple, clean sightlines and fair baseball.

There are no distractions at Dodger Stadium, such as fountains, fireworks, or apes. (Looking at you, Anaheim). However, there is noticeably more advertising in the ballpark than there used to be. This is a sign of the times, as not even Wrigley is immune, but the corporate creep is still kind of annoying at times.

Something unique to Dodger Stadium is that we sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”twice during the 7^th inning stretch, accompanied by a real Roland organ. Dodger fans generally really get into it, and it is probably one of the most underrated and enthusiastic fan experiences in the game.

In recent years, the Dodgers have rolled out some weird marketing tactics in an attempt to lure more families and casual fans to the ballpark. I’ve noticed this year that they have started to do things like play “God Bless America” before EVERY seventh inning stretch and play an eclectic mix of music videos during batting practice. If you show up for BP, you have to watch and listen to Taylor Swift sing about how she’s not pretty until she takes off her glasses or Zac Efron sing about how he sucks at golf. It seems like the marketing people are trying way too hard to come up with a definite Dodger Stadium family experience, but when the team consistently draws 3,000,000 fans, win or lose, it seems so very unnecessary.

If you arrive early, there isn’t much to do other than grab food, go to your seat, and watch batting practice. It is a baseball game, after all. One cool thing you can do though, is head out toward center field where they open up the gate for all fans to try and catch home run balls or taunt the opposing ball shaggers. You CAN NOT move freely from level to level at Dodger Stadium. This seems to be a problem for fans used to other stadiums, but really, there is no reason to move about the Stadium. If you want to sit on the field level, man up and pay to sit there for the whole game. Otherwise, the view you have is probably just fine as it is. The food is the same overpriced and mediocre food on every level so again, no reason to be moving around that much.

My favorite seats in the park are on the Reserve Level behind home plate. These tickets are getting pricier, but offer a great view of the action and the mountain backdrop. Again, there are no bad seats, but some sections may get rowdier than others. If you are a fan of an opposing team, I would strongly suggest avoiding the Top Deck, Left Field Pavilion, or the Field Level as it gets closer to “Mannywood” down the left field line. Yes it may cost a bit more, but Dodger tickets are still some of the more reasonably priced in the league, and there are often discounts to desirable sections if you pay close attention to Dodgers.com.

I refuse to group certain fans together based on race, but lets just say fans that think that Fernando Valenzuela is the greatest pitcher ever (he’s not) tend to sit in these sections and tend to like to make the Dodger experience more like a Raider one, especially when they have had too much alcohol. I honestly can not remember the last time I attended a Dodger game and did not see the Left Field Pavilion rise in unison to cheer on a fan fight that involved a drunk Mexican person of Fernando Valenzuelan descent, so be warned.

Also, there will be beach balls and the wave. As much as I hate it, there is often more attention being paid to trying to hit a beach ball than a key at-bat with runners in scoring position in the bottom of the 8^th.

The stereotypes of Dodger fans arriving late and leaving early and not being very passionate are slowly fading, but fans in sections other than the aforementioned will generally leave you alone as long as you don’t make an ass of yourself in your Barry Bonds Zito jersey. You may get booed or lightly teased, but if you didn’t want that, you wouldn’t be showing up in said jersey, now would you?

No, Dodger Stadium is not perfect, and as much as I love it, I understand that it is not for everyone. I’ve been to quite a few other stadiums and will go to quite a few more, but none of them will come close to Dodger Stadium in my personal book. Dodger Stadium is where I learned about RBIs, the squeeze play, and hating the fucking Giants. I still get excited every April when I come over the hill on Academy Road and can see the light standards and multi-colored tiers of seats for the first time in 6 months. It is my baseball home, and really, is there any place like it?