My co-worker, Mike, returned from vacation. He’d repeatedly rubbed it in that he and his girlfriend were going to a Dodgers game in Los Angeles. He seemed happy and content upon his return. I was happy to see him, especially since he’d brought back a couple of gifts from the ballpark. I’d told him that I didn’t want any Dodger stuff, but he knew better. Mike brought me a Dodger baseball and a yearbook, which was even better than the program I’d meant to ask for.
The yearbook looks cool. I’ll be reading it over the next few days. Whatever Major League ballpark you go to, you probably want to find one of these for the home team. I got one for the Yankees from someone visiting New York City a couple of years ago. I was seriously impressed with it, and I hate the Yankees. There’s a great pictorial section in this yearbook celebrating Vin Scully’s final year of broadcasting. The picture above is from his last game. He was doing the game in San Francisco, and that’s a crowd of Giants fans applauding him, the Dodgers’ mortal enemies.
The first thing I asked was how did they end up at a ballgame, since neither of them are baseball fans. Last year, they were in LA at the same time and failed to find a fireworks show for the Fourth. Mike did some searching for this year and came to the conclusion that going to see a Dodger game was actually the cheapest and best option. I’m kind of doubting this, but then again, I didn’t get to see my local fireworks show from where I live this year. (The town isn’t that big.)
Mike confirmed what I’d heard that. There’s one road in and out of the stadium. It was named after Vin Scully. He said lots of stuff around there was named after Vin. The yearbook, from my quick skimming of it this morning, encouraged fans to buy their parking passes in advance. That’s probably a good idea to save whatever time you can, because nobody’s paying to see a parking lot. I might have paid to watch Mike’s girlfriend, who was driving, take out traffic cone and drag it with the car on the way to the ticket booth.
There are reportedly giant bobbleheads outside the stadium that Mike got some pictures of his girlfriend’s kid climbing on, but he didn't show me, so I'm questioning their existence. Mike did have a famous Dodger Dog, which he reported to be just a regular hot dog. For $7. How disappointing. They had to climb 10,000 steps to get up to their seats. It was also scalding hot that day. Mike fell behind. An old lady passed him and mocked him on the way up. At the top, the girlfriend and kid also laughed at him, until he nearly passed out, at which point they took better care of him.
On the Fourth, I made an effort to find out what happened during the game (7-4-17) and reported it. Clayton Kershaw took a no-hitter into the seventh, while the Dodgers scored four runs to back him up. The D-Backs rallied in the ninth for three runs, but lost 4-3. Mike added that everyone was enjoying the game until the ninth. The Dodgers went through a couple of pitchers. The final one came on for the last batter, who hit a fly ball that drove the outfielder to the wall. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Admittedly not a detailed account, but, like I said, they’re not big baseball fans.
I assume the crowd was also relieved that now the fireworks show could begin. The PA invited everyone on to the field to watch. It was rush of humanity, but Mike’s group did move down in the stands. He was impressed with the show and also with a flyover before the game. That’s some clout, a flyover for a regular season game.
I gave Mike the option of me either paying him for the souvenirs, or he could call them an early birthday present, which comes up at the end of the month. He picked the gift option, which was nice, especially since this is probably the only things I’ll be getting. I showed off the gifts to a few co-workers. One reminded me, “Don’t you hate the Dodgers?” “No! My childhood love of this team has been reignited!” “Really?” I shrugged and half-heartedly committed to jumping on the bandwagon if they win the World Series, at which point I’d a new hat (a Brooklyn Dodgers one). I gotta say, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for the game though.
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