No Kershaw, No Problem

I was back in California for my second time this summer.  It was my fifth trip to Los Angeles (starting in 2011), but my first trip in almost two years.  I targeted the last week in July for two reasons.  The Wednesday game was Clayton Kershaw bobblehead night and the Friday game was against the Giants and it was Friday Night Fireworks, where you get to go on the field after the game.  When I planned the trip, I didn't know that Sean would be living out there.  He joined us for the first game.

The Dodgers entered the Wednesday game on a four-game winning streak.  I had been to Clayton Kershaw bobblehead night once before.  My favorite student likes the Giants for some reason.  She just graduated this year, but I told her that when she comes to visit, I'll give her the bobblehead from this game.  It's Kershaw batting.  I like to think that it's Kershaw about to hit a home run against George Kontos on Opening Day in 2013.  Since it was Kershaw bobblehead night, his two-year-old daughter Callie threw out the first pitch and it was adorable.

This was our view from the Top Deck of Cali Kershaw throwing out the first pitch.

For the game, it was Brock Stewart against Ervin Santana.  I was on a streak of 15 games dating back to 2012 where the Dodgers won every game I went to that Kershaw started and lost every game that anybody else started (6-9 in those games).  So I was a little worried.  Stewart had not given up an earned run in limited relief innings, but this was his first start of the season.  I didn't expect him to last very long and he didn't.  He gave up five runs in three and two-thirds, but they were all unearned.  The Twins led 5-0.  Pete asked what I thought the chances of the Dodgers winning were.  I said they still had a chance to come back, but really, you shouldn't win when you're down 5-0.  Baseball-Reference's box score gave the Dodgers a 7% chance of winning when Cody Bellinger flied out for the second out of the fourth inning.  Then Joc Pederson hit a home run to make it 5-1.  And the comeback was on.  Yasiel Puig hit a home run in the fifth to make it 5-2.  Chase Utley hit a pinch hit two-run double with two outs in the 7th to make it 5-4.  The Dodgers tied it in the eighth on a weird play.  Logan Forsythe was hitting with runners on the corners and one out.  Kike Hernandez ran on the pitch and Forsythe hit a fly ball to center.  I was thinking double play because the ball was going to be caught.  Fortunately, the center fielder was thinking the same thing and didn't look at the first baseman, who was getting in position to be the cut off man.  The throw went to first with nobody there and the Dodgers tied the game.  In the ninth, the Dodgers had runners on first and second with two outs.  Justin Turner won the game with a base hit through the hole on the left side.  I was at Opening Day in 2013 (the Kershaw home run/shutout game) and in 2011 I saw Matt Kemp win a game in the 11th with a home run after the Dodgers had been down 4-0 early in that game, but this was probably one of my five favorite baseball games that I've been to.

I also managed to cross Arizona off my beer list with a Kilt Lifter Scottish Style Ale from the Four Peaks Brewing Company in Tempe.  The guy at the concession stand gave us a hard time for getting a beer from Arizona.  And that thought did go through my mind, but I was okay with it because the Dodgers weren't playing the Diamondbacks.  I had two Dodger Dogs that were good.  I feel like I don't really have a choice when it comes to food at Dodger Stadium.  At most, I'm getting to two games a year.  I have to go with the Dodger Dogs.  And that's not a bad thing.  Dodger Stadium gets credit for having real mustard (they also have terrible yellow mustard, but the real stuff is there), which can be hard to find outside of the Northeast.

The Dodgers were off on Thursday, so I just kind of hung out.  Pete had to work for most of the day.  I got Pinkberry in Santa Monica (blueberry muffin yogurt that was excellent) and I took a walk down to the beach and pier.  We went to Father's Office for dinner.  I had been there with my brothers back in 2011.  The burger was very good.  We finished the night at Santa Monica Brew Works for some local beer.  I had an Amber Waves American Red Ale and a 310 California Blonde Ale.

Southern California is the best.

My last full day in the Los Angeles area was Friday.  Pete and I went to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.  I happen to share a birthday with Richard Nixon.  Nixon was definitely complicated.  Watergate wasn't good.  The 1970s in general weren't good and he was president for almost the first five years (although the second half of the decade was probably even worse).  But he did some good work with China.  China is definitely still in need of political reforms, but the economic changes in China since Nixon's visit have been good for both China and the US.  The museum was good.  Nixon and his wife are buried nearby.  We also saw the house where he was born.  It was definitely a small house for a big family.  And they had the helicopter that he left Washington on after resigning.  Like Air Force 1 at the Reagan Library, we got to go inside, but we couldn't take pictures inside.  As we were leaving, we saw Edward Nixon, the last surviving Nixon brother.

Outside the Nixon Library

At the desk in Nixon's Oval Office

I had seen this picture before, but I can't get enough of it.

Nixon and Zhou Enlai meeting in China in 1972

The house where Nixon was born on January 9, 1913

The helicopter Nixon took out of Washington after resigning as president

After the Nixon Library, we stopped at In-N-Out.  It's good, but the fries are definitely lackluster.  I still say that Shack Shack is the best and Five Guys is better also.  I was a little worried about making it to Dodger Stadium in time for the game.  It turns out that we could have been fine.  We drove right past Dodger Stadium before the game started.  But we had Katie's ticket.  So we met her at a coffee shop about a mile and a half from the stadium.  We got there first and we were a little worried about how long we'd have to wait for her.  It didn't take her long to get there and we left probably about a half hour before the game started.  But Los Angeles traffic was unforgiving.  By the time we parked and walked from there into the stadium, I think it was the third inning.  When we finally got in, it was 1-1.  Corey Seager and Brandon Crawford hit home runs that we heard on the radio.  The pitching matchup was Alex Wood against Matt Moore.  Alex Wood had an RBI groundout to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the fifth.  But the Giants scored three in the top of the seventh to go up 4-2.  When the Giants scored their fourth run, Baseball-Reference says the Dodgers had a 17% chance of winning.  But we're talking about the 2017 Dodgers here.  Of course, they came back.  My old friend George Kontos came in when Moore got in trouble in the bottom of the 7th.  Yasiel Puig had a pinch hit RBI groundout.  Chris Taylor tied it with an RBI double.  That brought Corey Seager up with the go ahead run on second.  The Giants made a pitching change, bringing in the lefty Josh Osich to face Seager.  While he was warming up, I put on the Corey Seager shirzey that I had bought at the game with tag still on.  Seager hit a home run to give the Dodgers the lead and it was awesome.  Brandon Morrow worked an easy 8th and Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the ninth for the save.

They just added the Jackie Robinson statue this year.  He was safe.

We were one section over from where we were the night before.

I had a Dodger Dog and a Ballast Point beer (Long Beach, California).  I don't remember which one it was.  The good news was I got the beer late and I was able to enjoy it as the Dodgers came back and finished off the win.  We hustled down to the field for the fireworks.  It was so cool being on the field.  I've been on the warning track of several stadiums (Shea Stadium for Banner Day way back in the day, New Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium in 2011 before the blog, Minute Maid Park, Target Field before Dennis's wedding but no blog post, Chase Field, Coors Field, AT&T Park), but I had never been on the grass at a Major League stadium.  It was so cool to be down there.  We sat on the grass and watched the fireworks.  I remember on the Dodger Stadium tour they told us that the outfield grass was cut shorter than the infield grass.  They want the infield grass to slow down the ball for the fielders and they want the outfielders to be able to run.  But it was amazing how short it was.  And it was also very densely packed.  The combination of a comeback win (with Seager hitting the go ahead home run) against their biggest rival and getting to go on the grass in the outfield puts this game at least in my top 10 games that I've attended.  I was going to try to figure out a top 10 list, but it's probably just these two games, at least one of the games I went to in 2011 (my first two games at Dodger Stadium, both Dodger wins), and the rest just being Kershaw starts (with Opening Day in 2013 being number 1, of course).  Maybe the game I saw in 2007 when Chien Ming Wang was five outs away from a perfect game sneaks onto the list too.  Anyway, watching the fireworks with Pete and Katie definitely made me think back to the fireworks at their wedding.  It was a great way to finish the awesome second leg of my trip.

There would be deli mustard on this excellent Dodger Dog.  I would never defile the Dodger Dog with ketchup.

Pete and me on the field after the game

The fireworks were fun.

I took this just before we left the field.

Katie found this bar that had all these bobbleheads right before we left.  This picture shows a tiny fraction of them.  They had them for all teams, not just the Dodgers.