Last night was my trip to Dodger Stadium for a game with the Cubs.
I went with Ken & Robert. (Remember them, Fritz?)
The high temperature yesterday was mild for the end of June, 80°. To give you an idea, last year on this date it was 94°. In 1990 it was 112°.
And even though it was only 80° I was still feeling too hot for awhile. (Does one get affected different by heat when you get older?)
We decided to take the bus and walk up the hill. It was all pretty smooth sailing, little traffic, non-crowded bus. So we arrived in plenty of
time to stand in security lines and concession lines. It turns out last night was a promotion night and they were giving away Kike Hernandez
bobbleheads to each ticket holder, to celebrate his fantastic game against the Cubs in the play-off last year. So we got a prize upon entering.
On the way to our seats, Ken had to go to the restroom, so Robert and I stood of to the side of the nearest section where a young man with a
small dufflebag of sorts was standing there and he turned and asked Robert & I if we wanted to trade our Kike H. bobbleheads for a different one.
I guess he was trying to get the new ones to sell and had some older ones that weren't or something. (There were many guys in and around the
stadium wanting us to give them or sell them our bobbleheads. In any case, Robert asked me if I wanted to? I said I did not, I wanted to keep the
Kike one, but RObert said he and Ken didn't need two of those and he asked if he traded one I could have whatever it was. The guy with the dufflebag
mentioned one he had and showed us. I don't at all recall what that one was because then he said he had a Vin Scully one and showed it to me.
I had really wanted one of those when they gave it out either in 2016 or 2017 and so I was thrilled and we traded for it. The young man told me it
had never been out of the box! I said, "I wouldn't have cared if it was!" So I got two bobbleheads last night! Love it! Thanks, Robert!
Since I haven't been to a game in so long I was quite astonished at the prices of some concessions! Robert got beers for himself and Ken and those
alone I think were over $40 for two beers! (I don't care for beer and I don't like drinking wine or mixed drinks out of plastic.) Dodger Dogs were $6.50
and I wanted two of them. (They were, however, 1/3 bigger than the ones I used to remember getting.) I had looked on the Dodger Stadium info
site where they sold Dodger veggie dogs, because that's what they wanted and when we got there discovered they didn't. The clerk said they did last
year and they must not have updated the website. She directed us to the other location which was a bit far, but when we got there NO LINES, so
that was good.
Our seats were in the front row of one of the reserve sections. I had never sat there before and it was really nice. One of the first foul balls hit came
within two feet of Ken before it dipped below the section. We sat near a handsome young Latino guy named Ricardo celebrating his 23rd birthday with
his girlfriend of five years. The three of us sang "Happy Birthday" out loud to him and some other people sitting nearby joined in! We also sat next to two
Cubs fans on our right and several 20-30 something girls out for the evening. It was such a pleasant atmosphere with a cool breeze and clear skies.
The game was quite good through the first 5-6 innings. We scored a run, 1-0. The Cubs tied it, 1-1. We scored another 2-1, the Cubs tied it 2-2.
The Cubs got a home run, 2-3. It was a tough go all that time with the Dodgers only having 1 hit, while the Cubs had 7. But after they took
out our pitcher in the 6th inning all hell broke loose. Yasiel Puig misplayed a ball he should've caught which allowed a base runner and then
the Cubs got the bases loaded. Our nemesis from the Cubs series last week came up and--Grand Slam. 2-7. Ouch. Earlier, Puig had gotten
a hit to first base, while another runner tried scoring home. While that was happening Puig overran the base and wasn't paying too much
heed of the ball being thrown back to first and he was called out. That should not have happened, either,prompting this L.A. Times headline
this morning: "Yasiel Puig’s Play is Not a Pretty Picture in Dodgers' 9-4 Loss to Cubs."
Also, net the only reason, but ONE of the reasons we lost the WS last fall was because of two poor starts by a pitcher we traded for
that was supposed to aid in those situations, which he did in the play-offs, but the WS. Yu Darvish. This year he is on the Cubs, team,
and circumstance or not, he probably is not going to pitch her this week as he's on the disabled list, but he is here. If anyone is interested
in this human element of sport, here's an article about that today:
"Yu Darvish Returns to Dodger Stadium Carrying a Lot of Baggage."http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-darvish-hernandez-20180627-story.htmlOf course, the trip to a game is always better if you win, but we had a really enjoyable time!
And I read this in an article this morning:
Dodgers announced that Tuesday night's attendance of 53,904 is the largest for a regular-season MLB game since Aug. 30, 2012,
which was also played at Dodger Stadium.We were part of a record! The article also said that:
This is newsworthy – not only because Dodger fans are turning out in droves – but because of a recent report of a league wide attendance drop.
MLB attendance has dropped to its lowest average in 15 years, down 6.6% from this time last year and 8.6% overall, according to Stats LLC.
The league could see its first season since 2003 with average attendance below 30,000. The reasons for this are not clear at the present time.
But things are hopping in Southern California and their Dodger fans.
