I got to my fourth baseball game of the year, but this was the one I was most excited to get to so far. For the first time in 23 months, I got to see the Dodgers play. They came to Citi Field for a weekend series with the Mets. I went with my Dad on Sunday night because that’s when tickets were most reasonable on Stubhub (this was my first Sunday night game since I saw the Dodgers in Boston two years ago). The Dodgers swept the series so any game would have had a nice outcome for me, but this one was particularly nice for two reasons. First, much like the last Dodger game I went to, their starting pitcher was a three time Cy Young Award Winner and future Hall of Famer. No, it wasn’t Clayton Kershaw, it was Max Scherzer. And unlike the first two games of the series, it wasn’t marred by the silly extra innings runner on second base. The Dodgers won easily behind two home runs for Max Muncy (he was also the inspiration for the titles of back to back blog posts in May and June of 2018) and home runs by former Met Justin Turner, Will Smith, and Matt Beatty. The Dodgers were up 6-0 after two innings and the game was never in doubt. The Dodgers’ fielding left a lot to be desired, but Max Scherzer was able to get through six innings only giving up two runs. Beatty’s home run came off of position player Brandon Drury (who was relieved by position player Kevin Pillar) and it was quite a blast. Max Scherzer (who is now 0 for 41 on the season with no walks) drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and relief pitcher Edwin Uceta had a hit in two at bats. I point these things out because I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to enjoy the beautiful game of baseball where all nine players have to hit. Attendance was 31,205, but there was only a small fraction of that by the end of the game.
Max Scherzer pitches for the Dodgers. We were in the exact same row where we sat for a doubleheader against the Braves in June.
And with Max Muncy and Max Scherzer helping lead the Dodgers to victory, it’s a good time to post this:
This was a much more normal baseball experience than my first time at Citi Field this year. It was a bigger crowd and the concessions were more normal. After a disappointing hot dog at Citi Field in June, I had a very good one. I got the foot long dog because I wanted something more substantial. But the foot long was kind of hard to find. You have all these Nathan’s concession stands that have regular hot dogs, but not the foot long. The foot long was at the pastrami sandwich concession stand. Why not have the foot long as an option at the Nathan’s stands? To drink, I had a Newburgh Brown Ale. Last time, I had a very bland pilsner. I wanted something from Brooklyn, but Citi Field’s craft beer options still leave something to be desired (they did have Brooklyn beers, but nothing that I was interested in). This beer wasn’t bland, but it’s not something I would get again. I could see people who like coffee liking it, but I don’t get why people like coffee. But at least it wasn’t bland.
In other baseball news, Major League Baseball had great success with the Field of Dreams game. I thought they should have that game on the Thursday after the All Star Break. Red Sox-Yankees was the only game scheduled that day, but why not make Yankees-White Sox at the Field of Dreams the only game and then you could use the All Star Game to promote it? As it turns out, that Red Sox-Yankees game was postponed because of coronavirus with the Yankees so it worked out not having the Field of Dreams game then. And to Major League Baseball’s credit, they had almost every other team either being off or playing afternoon games that day to avoid overlap with the Field of Dreams game (there was one game on the west coast that started at like 9:45 or something, but that was mostly not overlapping). Next year they’re having the Cubs and Reds play in the Field of Dreams game. They had the outfield dimensions set up like the old Comisky Park for Yankees-White Sox. Will they change that with the Cubs being the home team next year? I would think that they could adjust the fences and the corn and everything with a year to plan. I would just make it so that it’s proportional to the field from the movie. One of the reasons why they built a new field instead of playing on the movie field is that the movie field’s outfield dimensions are way too small. But I would take that shape and just make it bigger.
I think it remains to be determined if they will continue the Field of Dreams game after next year. They should keep it going until every team that is blacked out in Iowa plays a game there (White Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Brewers, and Twins). And then I would maintain the field and it could be used for amateur events and then do a Major League game there like once every ten years or something.
They’ve now done games at Fort Bragg, Williamsport, Omaha, and the Field of Dreams. I was thinking about other places where they could play. Cooperstown would be next on my list. Who would play there? I would have a game right around induction weekend with a northeastern team playing against a team that has somebody guaranteed to be inducted that weekend. Like when Ichiro is going to be elected to the Hall of Fame, you could schedule the Mariners and Red Sox for a game in Cooperstown. I think you schedule that game for the Thursday before induction weekend. You have Friday off (to use as a possible rain date) and then you finish the series back at Fenway Park or whoever would be the home team (that’s the schedule the Yankees and White Sox had for the Field of Dreams game and then the rest of the series). Cooperstown has Doubleday Field, but like the Field of Dreams, the dimensions aren’t big enough for a Major League game so they would have to build a field like they did at Fort Bragg and the Field of Dreams.
I’ve said that the Blue Jays should do one series or homestand per year at a CFL stadium in a different city (or build a temporary field somewhere in Canada, but you won’t lose out on attendance at a CFL stadium). Canadian football fields are bigger than American football fields so playing at an American football stadium would be tricky. Of course, lots of teams once played in football stadiums, but those stadiums were specifically built for both sports. But you’ve also had teams play in football stadiums that weren’t built for baseball. The Dodgers played at the Los Angeles Coliseum (but that was originally built for track and field, which requires a much bigger stadium than football does), the Rockies played at Mile High Stadium, and the Marlins played at Joe Robbie Stadium. I think the only current football stadiums I would consider would be the Los Angeles Coliseum or the Rose Bowl. I think renovations to the Los Angeles Coliseum might have made it less suitable for baseball. The Rose Bowl seems to have more area in the field than most football stadiums, but I’m sure it would still be a tight squeeze for baseball and you’d probably have to put up a big net to serve as the wall in left field or right field like they had in left field at the Los Angeles Coliseum. You could have the Dodgers play at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2028, 2029, 2033, or 2034 to celebrate the 70th or 75th anniversaries or their move to Los Angeles or their first championship in Los Angeles (which they won when the Los Angeles Coliseum was their home ballpark). If you were going to play at the Rose Bowl, I would have the Angels host the Tigers as like a USC-Michigan connection since they have the most Rose Bowl appearances (if only there was some way to make sure the Tigers lost that game to reflect what happens most of the time when Michigan faces USC in the Rose Bowl).
Next year is the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. A Dodgers-Mets game at Maimonides Park in Brooklyn to celebrate the anniversary would be really cool. I like the idea of playing places like Fort Bragg or the Field of Dreams where you don’t have a Major League team in the state. If you can play games in the middle of the regular season in London, why not play a game in Hawaii or Alaska? It’s one thing to open the season in Japan or Australia and then have several days off before playing your first regular season game in the US, but the Yankees and Red Sox played in London right in the middle of the season. So I’m not ruling out Hawaii (the Dodgers are probably the team that makes the most sense for a game in Hawaii) or Alaska (Mariners). You could also use minor league stadiums to have a game to honor the history of the Negro Leagues like Regions Field in Birmingham. The Red Sox could play in any New England state. We’re two and a half decades away from the 200th anniversary of the first baseball game ever. That was in New Jersey. If there’s a good spot somewhere on the Hudson River where you could build a field that faces Manhattan, they could have the Yankees or Mets play a 200th anniversary of the first baseball game there. Let’s go through other states that have never had a Major League game (New Jersey actually did host some Dodger games at the end of the Brooklyn days) and who I would have play in each one. Some aren’t really necessary or practical. Like if you live in Delaware, it’s a small state and you’re not that far from Philadelphia or Baltimore. Or if you live in Wyoming or Montana, they’re such big states with such small populations. I guess you probably could get 8,000 people (about what the Field of Dreams held) to come to a game in Cheyenne or something, though. Anyway, here we go:
Delaware- Phillies or Orioles (maybe for the 250th anniversary of Delaware being the first state to ratify the Constitution)
Virginia- Nationals
West Virginia- Reds, Pirates, Orioles, or Nationals
South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee- Braves
Louisiana- Astros
Kentucky- Reds
Indiana- Cubs or White Sox
Arkansas- Cardinals
Oklahoma- Rangers vs. Yankees (for Mickey Mantle)
Kansas- Royals
North and South Dakota- Twins vs. Rockies in the foothills of Mount Rushmore would be cool for South Dakota
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah- Rockies
New Mexico- Diamondbacks vs. Rockies (this could be the Four Corners game)
Nevada- I guess any of the California teams or maybe the Diamondbacks
Oregon- Mariners vs. A’s
Many of those states require temporary fields to be built like Fort Bragg and the Field of Dreams. There are sites in other states I would definitely consider for a game. I’m thinking of the National Mall (Nationals), Gettysburg (Phillies vs. Pirates), Niagara Falls (Blue Jays), and the Grand Canyon (Diamondbacks). I don’t know how feasible any of the places I’ve mentioned would be. Like is there a place close enough to Mount Rushmore where you could build a field with a view of Mount Rushmore beyond the outfield that is accessible to enough people to make that game worth it? If there is, I think that would be really cool. But since I’ve never been there, I don’t know the geography at all to say if that makes any sense. But if it could be done, I think the places I’ve mentioned would be really cool. If anybody else has any suggestions, leave a comment. It was nice writing about something that Major League Baseball did well, rather than writing about Rob Manfred doing something really stupid.
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