Home of the World Series Champions

My first trip out of the state of New York in 19 months started in Louisville, but the main event was Los Angeles.  I went to my first games at Dodger Stadium ten years ago.  Since then, I’ve gotten to at least one game at Dodger Stadium most years.  I didn’t get there in 2012 or 2016.  Of course, I didn’t get there last year in a year when the Dodgers had a .719 winning percentage in 32 games at home (sadly they only got to play two of their 18 playoff games at home).  I was supposed to go in April 2020 for two games.  I would have been there for Dollar Dodger Dog Night and Friday Night Fireworks.  This year I got to two games.  There was no Dollar Dodger Dog Night (I’ll cover the Dodger Dogs later in this post), but there was Friday Night Fireworks.  The other game I went to was Clayton Kershaw World Series Champion T-shirt Night.  It was originally supposed to be Trevor Bauer Bobblehead Night.  So it went from being something I wouldn’t have wanted even before the stories about him this summer (I never liked him) to being about as good of a giveaway as you could have.

Hopefully there will be an updated version of this with Trea Turner included next year.

The Dodger rotation was set up so that Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer were in line to pitch the two games I was going to.  They decided to give them an extra day of rest so it ended up being Corey Knebel starting a bullpen game and Walker Buehler the next night.  That was a little disappointing, but I definitely would have picked Buehler over Scherzer if I was only going to see one of them.  I had seen Scherzer the Sunday before at Citi Field and Buehler is the latest in the long line of great Dodger pitchers (Scherzer is great too, but there’s a good chance that he’s only going to be with them until the end of this season whereas Buehler will hopefully spend many years of a great career with the Dodgers).

I was staying with Sean and Catherine and Sean and I were joined by Pete for the Thursday night game against the Mets (Sean and Pete are both Mets fans).  We were sitting in section 2 of the reserve level.  Dodger Stadium has a very logical numbering system.  Section 1 is directly behind home plate on each level (for some reason it’s 101 on the loge level) and the even numbered sections are on the first base side and the odd numbered sections are on the third base side.  So the lower numbers are closer to home plate.  The reserve level is right above the press box.  My ideal seat at Dodger Stadium would be low in section 1 of the reserve level. You’re right behind home plate and right above where Vin Scully spent decades calling Dodger games.  You’re not too high and it’s a great view of the whole field and background.  But I wasn’t finding any group of three seats in section 1 on the reserve level for a reasonable price so I settled for one section over.

This was our view on Thursday night.

The game went well for me.  The Dodgers scored two runs on RBI ground outs in the second inning by former Notre Dame baseball player A.J. Pollock and Chris Taylor.  The Mets scored a run in the fourth on an RBI double by J.D. Davis.  The Dodgers scored two in the fifth with an RBI double by Billy McKinney and an RBI single by Trea Turner.  That was all the scoring for the game.  The Dodgers used seven different pitchers while the Mets only used two.  Evan Phillips pitched two and a third and gave up the run for the Dodgers, but he got the win.  He had been claimed off waivers from the Rays three days earlier.  The next day he was placed on the injured list and if I wasn’t writing this blog post, I would have already forgotten that he ever pitched for the Dodgers.  Blake Treinen got the save (he’s been outstanding this year).  The game lasted two hours and 43 minutes.  It was 73° (it can be really nice in Los Angeles or it can be really hot in August, we got really nice) and attendance was 42,133.

Sean and I were back for the second game against the Mets on Friday night.  We were joined by Pete and Lorenzo for this one.  Tickets were more expensive for the Friday night game.   I tried waiting to get some cheap tickets on the reserve level.  If I had waited longer, I might have been able to, but I didn’t want to leave Pete and Lorenzo waiting for their tickets for too long.  So I settled for section 2 of the top deck.  So we were right above where we were the night before.  It’s higher up than I would prefer to be, but it’s not a bad view at all.

This is directly behind home plate on the top deck.  Dodger Stadium is beautiful.

This was our view on Friday night.

This game was Walker Buehler against Carlos Carrasco.  The Dodgers pounded Carrasco in the game I went to at Citi Field the week before.  This time he pitched better, but not good enough for the Mets.  The Dodgers took the lead in the first with an RBI groundout by Justin Turner.  I enjoyed watching some baseball with productive outs.  I hate this popular idea that strikeouts don’t matter for hitters (which also contradicts the popular idea that strikeouts are so important for pitchers, you can’t have both of those things be true).  Max Muncy drove in a run with an RBI double in the third and then Corey Seager drove him in with a single.  Pete Alonso hit a home run in the fourth and then drove in a run with an infield single in the eighth to make it 3-2, but the Dodgers were able to shut it down from there.  Buehler pitched seven and two-thirds and gave up two runs on six hits and no walks with eight strikeouts.  But he was taken out with two runners on base after Alonso’s RBI single.  He was ejected after being taken out of the game.  He was upset because Alonso hit the ball off of himself and it should have been a foul ball (of course, if it had been a foul ball, there’s a chance he hits a home run to give the Mets the lead on the next pitch).  Alex Vesia came in and walked the next batter to load the bases, but then he struck out J.D. Davis looking to end the inning.  Kenley Jansen easily retired all three batters he faced in the bottom of the ninth on seven pitches to get the save.  This game was only two hours and 39 minutes.  It was 72° and attendance was 48,117.

I got to three Dodger games this year.  They won all three (and have now won eight in a row with me in attendance dating back to April 2019), but there were some disappointments.  I didn’t get to see Clayton Kershaw or Mookie Betts.  Both were on the injured list.  Betts has since come back and hopefully Kershaw is coming back soon and hopefully they’ll help the Dodgers repeat as World Series Champions.  I did, however, get to see new acquisitions Max Scherzer and Trea Turner.  I already covered Scherzer in my post about the game at Citi Field.  In the three games I went to, Trea Turner was 7 for 12 with two doubles, six runs, two RBIs, and two stolen bases.  He’s a really good player.  When you watch a guy every day, you notice things that you probably wouldn’t notice otherwise. Trea Turner is the best slider I’ve seen (Yasiel Puig was the worst slider I’ve seen). I hope they end up re-signing World Series MVP Corey Seager and keeping both Seager and Turner, but I suspect that they’ll let Seager leave as a free agent after this year.  Sadly, neither game in Los Angeles had any pitchers do anything at the plate.  So if this was my goodbye to real National League Baseball, the last pitcher I saw drive in a run was Max Scherzer on a sacrifice fly (Scherzer is currently 0 for 45 with no walks this season, but he was a solid hitter for a pitcher before this season) and the last pitcher I saw get a hit was Edwin Uceta (who has 5 at bats in his career).

The National League game is so much more interesting.  Managers actually have to do some thinking during the game.  Last week the Dodgers played a game that managed to overcome the stupidity of the runner on second base in extra innings and be interesting.  It went 16 innings, but Jayce Tingler messed it up in the 10th inning for the Padres.  The bottom of the 10th started with catcher Austin Nola due to be the magical runner at second base (which would have been the winning run).  Nola was the fifth hitter in the lineup.  Tingler used utility infielder Ha-Seong Kim as a pinch runner.  With two outs and two on, the pitcher’s spot was up so Tingler used his last available hitter, Victor Caratini as a pinch hitter.  Caratini struck out to end the inning.  Every move so far was fine.  You have to pinch hit for the pitcher with two outs and a chance to win the game.  But now where do you put the pitcher?  You’d like to have him replace the guy that just ended the inning, but Caratini had to stay in to catch since they used a pinch runner for Nola.  Tingler had the pitcher replace pinch runner Ha-Seong Kim, meaning the pitcher’s spot was due up fifth in the next inning and he was out of pinch hitters.  He easily could have left Ha-Seong Kim in the game at second base (he’s played 18 games there this year) and have the pitcher take Adam Frazier’s spot in the order so that he’d be the eighth batter due up.  What happened?  The two guys now batting before the pitcher’s spot (Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth) combined for five intentional walks in six plate appearances for the rest of the game to get to the pitcher’s spot.  So bad managing pretty much took the Padres’ second and third best hitters out of the game and the Dodgers got to pitch to pitchers with the game on the line instead.  With the DH, there’s no thinking involved and that doesn’t happen.  We don’t need to make managers’ jobs easier.  The Dodgers ended up winning the game in 16.  They probably would have lost if Jayce Tingler didn’t mess up handling the pitcher’s spot in the order.

Anyway, back to my trip to Los Angeles.  When one of my flights along the way landed, I took my phone off of airplane mode to see texts from Pete with the unveiling of the Dodgers’ City Connect uniforms for Nike.  I knew these were coming in August, but I was hoping it would be after my trip.  The good news is that I got to go to the game on Thursday night with the Dodgers wearing their real uniforms.  But then they wore these silly uniforms on Friday night.  They were all blue and they said “Los Dodgers” on the jerseys and hats.  There was also like a spray painty effect in black on the edge of the sleeves (which was barely noticeable on a blue jersey).  They were supposed to be inspired by the 40th anniversary of Fernandomania and Los Angeles street murals.  The hats and the blue pants looked really silly.  I can live with a blue jersey and fortunately they kept the Dodgers’ traditional fonts and colors, but the two things they did were kind of silly.  As I said, you pretty much wouldn’t notice the spray painty thing on the sleeves unless somebody pointed it out.  And honoring Fernandomania is cool, but all they did was put the word “Los” on the jersey and hat.  Do teams in Spanish speaking countries put “Los” on their uniforms?  We definitely don’t put “The” on the uniforms here.  It would make more sense if the Dodgers had a name that could be translated into Spanish (like the Giants have worn uniforms that said “Gigantes”).  I saw some people on Twitter saying that the uniforms should have said “Doyers” since that’s what a lot of Spanish-speaking people call the Dodgers.  That would have made more sense.  I also would have greatly preferred the Dodgers wearing those uniforms on the road because their home uniforms are perfect.  But in general, I hate the influence Nike has on sports.  This is absolutely Nike, not the teams, deciding how teams are going to dress.  If you want to dress up the Rockies or the Mariners or the Clippers in some silly uniforms, go right ahead.  Who cares?  But you’re just not going to do better than what the Dodgers, Cardinals, Yankees, Celtics, or Lakers already have.  Why can’t we just leave those teams’ uniforms alone?  Sell whatever jerseys and hats you want, but let them wear their beautiful classic uniforms in their games.

On a more positive note, it was a great time being back at Dodger Stadium.  The Dodgers are now 8-4 in the games I’ve been to at Dodger Stadium. Since I was there in 2019, they built a center field plaza and put a gate out there which is meant to be the front door to Dodger Stadium.  Dodger Stadium never really had a front door.  Citi Field has the Jackie Robinson Rotunda as the front door.  But with the way Dodger Stadium was built into a hill, you had gates on every level of the stadium and you just kind of used the one that was most convenient.  It seemed like the center field gate might not be the one that’s most commonly used (for both games we parked out in left field and it seemed like the line at the center field gate was much shorter than the line at the left field gate), but the whole center field plaza area was hopping before the game.  There are some food and drink options out there and there are new spots where you can stand and look at the field.  And there are new elevators and escalators that make getting around Dodger Stadium easier.  They did a really nice job with the renovation. Before these improvements, I compared Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park and said it was too close to call between them. Now Dodger Stadium has improved, but I’ll still say it’s too close to call. There are still improvements that could be made to Dodger Stadium that I’m about to cover that could be made so easily.

The food and beverage program was good, but they can be improved.  This year they changed from Farmer John to Papa Cantella’s. As the provider of the Dodger Dog.  So I had to check that out.  In my two games, I sampled the regular Dodger Dog, the Super Dodger Dog, and carne asada tacos.  If we compare Papa Cantella’s to Farmer John, I think they did taste a little different, but if I didn’t know that there was a difference, I probably wouldn’t have realized it.  I’ve heard mixed reviews comparing the two, but I definitely wouldn’t say that one was clearly better than the other.  I was satisfied with Papa Cantella’s as the new Dodger Dog provider.  The Super Dodger Dog is bigger than the regular one and it’s all beef.  It costs a dollar more, but you’re getting a more substantial hot dog and a little different taste.  I would say that I actually liked the taste of the regular one better than the Super Dodger Dog.  If we’re comparing a Nathan’s hot dog to a Dodger Dog, a Nathan’s hot dog done right is probably better (I had one bad one and one good one at Citi Field this year).  But a Dodger Dog is a nice change of pace and if you’re only getting to Dodger Stadium once or twice a year, you have to have a Dodger Dog.  Dodger Dogs can vary in quality (Sean said he had one where the bun was warmer than the dog), but the ones I had were very good. My only complaint is that they only had yellow mustard.  Dodger Stadium has definitely had real mustard in the past.  They were giving out packets, but then it seemed like there were fixings stations with dispensers on every level except for the top deck.  So I’m hoping that’s just a pandemic thing and they’ll get back to normal and have real mustard again in the future.  Pete and I both had the carne asada tacos.  I wanted to try something besides the Dodger Dog and the tacos were good.  They were fairly spicy and any more spicy probably would have been too spicy, but I enjoyed them.

Begrudgingly, I did put yellow mustard on my Dodger Dog after taking this picture.  Yellow mustard is only marginally better than putting nothing on a hot dog.  Of course, I did not put ketchup on it because that would have made it worse.

What Dodger Stadium could improve would be to have some local food options.  Like there should be a Philippe’s French Dip sandwich stand in the stadium.  They have Shake Shack now and that’s cool, but I would prefer In-N-Out for Dodger Stadium (even though I like Shake Shack better than In-N-Out).  Apparently In-N-Out doesn’t do stadiums, but something like that is what they should have.  Another option would be Tommy’s.  Catherine’s brothers had mentioned Tommy’s to me and then I saw it on Burgers, Brew, & ‘Que.  It’s a fast food burger place, but they put chili on their burgers.  Sean and I checked it out on my last day out there.  It was something different.  The fries were better than In-N-Out, but I would go back to In-N-Out the next time I’m out there.  But yeah, the Dodger Stadium food could use more of a local personality.

There was a pretty good craft beer selection, but there are a few ways they could improve.  First, it was $17.50 for a craft beer.  They were big.  I’m not sure how many ounces we’re talking about, but it was much bigger than a pint.  Give me a small option.  Make a pint like $12 and then the big option could be $17.50.  If I went to ten games a year at Dodger Stadium (which I definitely would if I lived out there), I would not get a beer at every game for $17.50.  But if there was a smaller option for $12, I probably would get that at each game.  Craft beer should also be more widely available.  We walked around the stadium a decent amount and there were a few stands that had craft beer in cans, but there was only one I saw with craft beer on tap.  If I didn’t remember it from a previous trip to Dodger Stadium, I probably wouldn’t have found it.  It was way down the left field line on the loge level.  There might have been other spots that I didn’t find, but it should be more widely available throughout the stadium.  And the other thing I would do would be to have more local craft beer.  There was a lot of California craft beer, but it seemed like a lot of it came from Northern California or San Diego.  Get more stuff from the Los Angeles area.  I wasn’t paying too much attention to what they had in cans so maybe it was a more local selection with the cans, but I only saw one on tap that was from a place closer to Los Angeles than San Francisco or San Diego.

That might have seemed critical of the craft beer selection, but I was quite happy with the two beers I had.  There was one beer that I knew Dodger Stadium had that I needed to try.  Buzzrock Brewing from Torrence partnered with Clayton Kershaw on a beer called Kershaw’s Wicked Curve.  It’s a wheat ale with grapefruit.  I was a little skeptical of the grapefruit aspect of the beer, but I had to try it based on the name alone.  They had it in cans so I had it out of a can on Thursday night.  It was really good.  I would absolutely drink it again, but I wanted to try something on tap the next night.  I tried the Made West Pale Ale from Ventura.  It was also very good.  Of all the beers I had at baseball games this year, those were my two favorites.

The picture didn’t turn out great, but the beer quality matched its name.

They should have had a bigger World Series Champions thing on the cup, but this was an excellent beer.

And being at Dodger Stadium on a Friday is always fun.  They let fans on the outfield grass to watch the fireworks.  All four of us at the game on Friday night had been out of the grass for the fireworks before, but this time we stayed in our seats (I kind of wanted to see what it was like watching them from up high).  They put on a good show.

Good times were had by all … except the Mets.

Getting back home was looking a little questionable.  Hurricane Henri was threatening Long Island.  I was supposed to land on Sunday morning at 6:30 and bad weather already started Saturday night.  Ten years ago during my first trip to Los Angeles, Hurricane Irene forced me to spend a couple extra days in Los Angeles.  On my last trip to Los Angeles before this one, I spent an extra day in Los Angeles because I had a layover in Chicago and there was a snowstorm (this was in the middle of April).  As I was checking the forecast on Friday, it seemed to get worse each time I checked it.  Then when I was checking it on Saturday, it seemed to get better each time I checked it.  As it turned out, my flight made it in on time.  The storm was pretty much a dud for the western half of Long Island.  It rained a lot and there was some decent wind, but I doubt it ever was even at tropical storm strength where I was.  So fortunately the storm was pretty much a non-factor.

These were probably my last two baseball games of the season, but I’ve got plenty more baseball to watch on TV.  Hopefully the baseball season will end the way baseball with Jim in attendance ended, with the Dodgers winning the last few games.  And college football is back.  Hopefully Notre Dame won’t have any games cancelled and it will be a good year.  Go Irish!