Photo Essay - A Day in My Dodger Stadium Seats

As promised when I bought that digital camera, some nifty photo essays depicting my bi-coastal world were due to come. Here's a pictorial encapsulation of a day (actually shot over a Friday night and a Sunday afternoon) spent on the Loge Level, Aisle 144, Row G, Seats 1 and 2 at Dodger Stadium. Follow me to the game.

Here's my entrance to the loge level conveniently located steps away from my reserved parking space. They've changed the parking patterns around the stadium and I now get to ease in and out of my designated lot ever so quickly. It's almost like I'm on the preferred side of the velvet rope at the Kodak Theater. They've been putting these player pictures outside the stadium for a while, but, given this year's 50th Anniversary celebration, they now use former stars of the past. That's a lot better than when they would put up current players and then be forced to remove them in July after the players are released on waivers. I can swear that, during the 2007 season, they needed to use two panels for the photo of bloated pinch hitter Olmedo Saenz.

Here are my two season seats. As I am in Shea, the aisle seats make it a lot roomier. Plus, for some reason at Dodger Stadium, you're not constantly standing up to let people out. Maybe it's because there's nobody else in the row for the first three innings. I have no idea who the guy is in the row behind me, but he refused to move despite the fact I was trying to take this picture.

A nighttime view of Diamond Vision from my seats. A nighttime view of the famous scoreboard from my seats. The Dodgers would tie the game in the ninth inning and then lose in the tenth.

Here's a nighttime view of the action from my seats.

And a daytime shot of Dodger pitcher Chad Billingsley's follow-through.

Here's a shot of the longtime usher of my section. His name is Richard and, unlike the surly ushers at Shea, I have never seen him get a tip. I have also never seen him stand alongside you with his hand out. Yet, I have seen Richard assist people up the stairs, let folks use his badge for a discount at the souvenir stand, carry food trays, hand out game notes that he gets from the camera guy (a big help for scorers like me), and always, always, always smile. Except in this picture as he is still recovering from the Lakers' loss to the Celtics. Or maybe he realized I was taking this photo.

And a glorious daytime shot of the scoreboard. Everybody is huddled in the shade because it was 95 freakin' degrees in the sun. Even I moved undercover. Thanks to the aforementioned Richard who secured some aisle seats for me in the shade. And he still wouldn't take a buck.

Dinner last night: Dried cappacollo sandwich with leftover German potato salad.