#8/30: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along
Thursday, May 16, 2024
They call it “Blue Heaven on Earth”, a name coined by the great Tommy Lasorda. The man who managed the Dodgers from 1973 to 1996 may have been exaggerating a bit.
But only a bit.
Dodger Stadium is one of the most treasured ballparks in baseball. It’s been around for over 60 years. And although it’s pretty close to the Los Angeles skyline, it feels like an oasis. The shallow canyon it sits in - Chavez Ravine - along with its pavement perimeter of well over 10,000 parking spaces make you feel like it could be almost anywhere. Though Dodger Stadium is certainly not just “anywhere.”
Perhaps the only thing reminding you that you're in Los Angeles is the trip you take to get to the ballpark. Traffic there is notoriously brutal. I had a pregame tour pass which meant having to be at the gate by 4:15pm for a 7:10pm first pitch. Navigation told me the 30-mile drive from my hotel in Anaheim would take two hours to cover in mid-afternoon traffic. Google Maps must have been malfunctioning…
Turns out it didn't take two hours. It took two and a half.
Because there was one thing Google Maps didn't account for. One tiny little detail that had people converging en masse on Dodger Stadium hours before the gates were to open.
It was Shohei Ohtani bobblehead night.
That's the reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. The once-in-a-generation mega superstar Shohei Ohtani. The highest paid athlete in history (10 years, $700 million) Shohei Ohtani. He is the most exciting thing in baseball right now… except maybe for bobblehead giveaways. Put those two together and you have something absolutely unheard of, like a sighting of Halley’s Comet or the Ghostbusters crossing the streams of their particle throwers. And this was his first bobblehead as a Dodger.
I didn't consider promotions like this when I originally scheduled my 30 stops. I didn't know until a few weeks before the game when I was finalizing details for this leg. And I didn’t really care about the bobblehead, but I did care about having to stand in lines that had begun forming hours before my planned arrival. So, I resorted to the easy out in a tight situation - I threw money at the problem. You see, my 4:15pm arrival was nearly an hour before gates opened to the general public. Not only did my special ticket get me insider access to the legendary Dodger Stadium, it also allowed me to bypass the long lines and secure a bobblehead without hassle. Pretty smart, right? Not exactly…
The plan was nothing more than a waste of money if I showed up late. And by the time I could see the ballpark with my own eyes it was already past 4:15pm. I was just outside Blue Heaven, but at that point it felt more like hell. I finally got my rental car parked, hurried up to the gates and plowed through the commoner lines to try and get in. People were yelling at me - “Get in line like everyone else, pal!” I had surely missed the start of the tour, but maybe my special ticket would at least get me through the gates early. At 4:30pm I finally had found the check-in tent for tours. They greeted me with a smile and asked “Do you have a ticket for a pregame tour?” I replied “Yes, but I'm late…” and was prepared to make my plea. But before I could, the Blue Heavenly vibes kicked in.
“Oh, no problem! Here's your wristband. The aide here will escort you through the gate.”
With the biggest grin on my face, I walked past the front of the line where people had been waiting all day. They scoffed at the sight of me being handed one of the first bobbleheads of the night.
The tour had yet to start, and so naturally I asked the tour guide for an explanation. He said he'd been working at Dodger Stadium for over 20 years and seen nearly 100 postseason games (including two World Series) there. None of it compared to this. 53,527 fans. The largest attendance in the MLB so far this season, and it won't be topped. This was an over-capacity crowd, and Dodger Stadium effectively has the highest capacity of all 30 stadiums (except for the infamous Oakland Coliseum).
The biggest game of the season, and it wasn't even about the game. It was all for a silly little plastic toy. Still, I’ll always get to say “I was there.”
The tour was great, by the way. Dodger Stadium practically doubles as a museum. A place like that doesn't get to its 62nd season without having some amazing stories and accolades. And one thing was clear… whether as a fan or a player, the organization reminds you constantly of that prized history. Every day players take their private elevator down to clubhouse level and pass through this trophy hall:
46 Gold Gloves. 31 Silver Sluggers. 14 Cy Youngs. 12 MVPs. And 7 World Series titles.
Almost as impressive as the St. Louis Cardinals.
After all this pregame excitement there was still a game to be played. But first, that excitement had made me hungry. I couldn't leave Dodger Stadium without having a famous Dodger Dog. I know I'll regret sharing this pic…
Bring on the memes.
If you're the Dodgers you want to get a W when the house is packed. That should have been easy against the struggling Cincinnati Reds.
I could barely get settled into my seat before scoring began. Reds leadoff man Will Benson hit a home run that set off groans throughout Chavez Ravine. Then came the fastest player in baseball - Elly De La Cruz. He reached on a single. Shortly thereafter, he effortlessly stole 2nd base. Later in the inning he scored, giving Cincinnati a 2-0 lead.
Not to be shown up on his own bobblehead night, Ohtani patiently drew a walk in his first plate appearance and then stole 2nd base as well. But, the Dodgers were unable to respond in the 1st inning with any runs.
Turns out the Dodgers didn't score any runs at all until the bottom of the 9th. It was Cincinnati's night, at least on the field. De La Cruz ended up going 4-for-4 with four stolen bases, and two of those were steals of third base. Was that Willie Mays-Hays in a Reds uniform??
The Reds scored plenty here and there while somehow keeping the Dodger bats quiet. Bullpen night seemed to work out for Cincinnati - they used seven pitchers. The bottom of the 9th got a little choppy and the Dodgers finally got on the board, but it was too little too late. Final score - Reds 7, Dodgers 2.
But wait… what about getting a ball?!
The best way to get a ball is to show up early and not have many other fans around you. This place was absolutely packed. By the time I was done with the tour tens of thousands of people were already inside any many of them wanted the same thing I did. I barely even tried during batting practice. Instead, I found the authentics store and asked if they sold game-used balls. As we've learned, many stadiums do - and this has been my fallback. But unfortunately they don't do that at Dodger Stadium. In fact, they said they didn’t have any balls from this season at all. Normally you can buy a ball used earlier that same game, but now I was worried I wouldn’t even be able to get one later from their website. That Blue Heavenly feel was wearing off, because this was shaping up to be my first stop of the season without getting a ball.
Or so I thought…
Earlier when I bought my beer, the vendor asked if she could buy my bobblehead. Yeah… her and about 50 other people. You could hear it all game long throughout the concourse. “$100 cash for your bobblehead.” Honestly, I didn't understand it. They gave out 40,000 of those toys. Almost every ticketed patron got one. And if you're a vendor like the lady at the beer cart, surely you know someone working the gates who coulda set one aside for you.
“How much for the bobblehead?” she asked as she rang up my Dodgers Blonde Ale. “Eh, not for sale.” I replied. She countered with “Free beers all night?” Whoa. Tempting, but I still declined. I had something else in mind.
“I'll trade you the bobblehead straight up if you can get me a ball.” Her eyes lit up. “Oh yeah, no problem. Meet me here when we close after the 7th inning.”
Score! Well… maybe. Does she really have those kinds of connections? Will she make a deal with some other thirsty fan before the end of her shift?
I returned to her beer cart as we had agreed, and after closing down she told me to hang tight and preceded to walk straight down to the front row. Right beside the dugout. No one stopped her. She was about to be my freaking hero!
It didn't work. She knew the security guard, but he wasn't going to have access to the dugout after the game. What a bummer.
But she wasn't giving up. “Follow me.” We headed over to the visiting team’s bullpen. She knew some security people there, too. Again she tried to pull some strings.
Eventually she gave up on asking her fellow stadium associates and started going after players. The Reds were winning by a lot and it was the final inning, so they were loose and being somewhat interactive with fans. They weren't giving away any balls though, or at least not yet.
Then the idea came to me. I was trading this high-demand bobblehead for a baseball from the field. For me, that was a steal. Same for her on the other side of the deal. But what about someone else? I panned around my area to see if there was anyone with a ball and without a bobblehead. Then I just skipped the market research and went straight to advertisements. I pulled out the toy, held it up and began shouting “Bobblehead for a ball! Bobblehead for a ball!” I got lots of smiles and laughs, but no one in the immediate area was interested. Then I thought what the heck… maybe someone in the Reds bullpen wants one. After all, it's the bobblehead of their sport’s superstar and it's not like any of them had a ticket to the game. How could they have possibly had access? They're only professional baseball players…
Sure enough, they took interest in my deal. Reds bullpen catcher Joseph Singley locked eyes with me and shook his head in excitement. He then mouthed the words “after the game”. So I chilled for the final two outs and he seemed to start laughing with his friends about our arrangement.
I also had to break the news to my beer vendor friend. She came back up from the seats and told me she had no luck anyways. Sad but not disappointed, she left and I waited a couple more minutes until game’s end. Singley then promptly walked over, tossed me up two balls, and told me to keep the bobblehead. What a guy! I really wanted to keep both balls, but in the spirit of paying it forward, I gave one to a kid next to me. I had been talking to her dad for those last few minutes and they hadn't been tossed a ball all night.
So that's how it ended. A good deed before leaving the gates of Heaven.
Blue Heaven on Earth, that is.
Next stop: May 18, Phoenix
You made a kid very happy and hopefully she will pay it forward too. ❤️
Great night at the best stadium! Glad it all worked out for you! And I need to do the Dodgers Stadium tour!!