The Sunday Memory Drawer - Dodger Stadium Opening Weekend 2011

Apparently, nine years ago, I chronicled the first weekend of the baseball season.   Sadly, I couldn't do the same this year, what with the pandemic and all.

So I have decided to include it here as a bit of a wistful time capsule.   I know the 2020 baseball season will have an opening day eventually.   For now, I take you back to....2011.  And I had forgotten some of the unfortunate news that circulated around that opening weekend at Dodger Stadium.   I get to it at the end of the post.   

The Dodgers took three of four games (I was at all three wins) versus the world champion San Francisco Giants and that is always a good thing regardless of the time of year.  But, to do so in the very first home series, this is indeed Christmas in April.  Well, actually, thanks to ESPN, late March/early April.

Opening Day began at my home.  As the photo shows, it's all about selecting the proper attire from my vast Dodger wardrobe.  Clayton Kershaw was starting, so, of course, his jersey is worn.  But, to honor the then-new manager's first game ever, a Mattingly T-shirt was worn underneath.  Yes, I can be that strange.

It's hard to tell from this parking lot snapshot, but there's snow on them thar mountains in the distance.  This is likely the first time I've gone to an opening day with visible white stuff around.  Okay, that would be the first time it's happened to me on the WEST COAST.

Of course, it ain't a baseball party unless the Goodyear Blimp is overhead.

The view from my season seats is still one of the best in the house.

That's Placido Domingo getting set to sing the National Anthem on Opening Day.  The very next night, it was American Idol's Jordin Sparks.  Talk about a wildly swinging pendulum.  From this distance, Placido looks like your typical singing barber.

Gave proof through the night that there was some smoke there...

The requisite stealth bomber fly-over.  Something you don't see every day.  Unless, of course, you're stationed in Libya or Afghanistan.

On Friday night, it was time to eat with the fancy napkins.  My first pre-game Stadium Club buffet of the year.  The best dining experience in Los Angeles.

You can eat outside and watch some Giant pitcher do his bullpen session down below.  It gets a little bright out there and you end up squinting at your meal.

Do what I do and eat inside.  They had the Mets-Marlins opener on the big screen.  Ideal for this bi-coastal baseball fan.

There are fireworks every Friday night this season.  They always remind me of the opening credits from "The Honeymooners."

"...Audrey Meadows.....and Joyce Randolph."

Looks like fun, heh?  So, you might be asking, how is it that all I heard over the weekend was how dangerous a dump Dodger Stadium can be?

Lots of media attention was devoted to a rather horrific act that took place in the parking lot after Thursday's opener.  Two barbaric Dodger fans apparently beat some Giants fan senseless.  Okay, the obvious joke there is an oxymoron, but this is not a laughable situation.  Violence of any shape or form at a baseball stadium or its environs is detestable.  Catch those bastards and string 'em up.  Immediately.

That said, once the press and, most notably, the Los Angeles Times sports staff got hold of this story, it branched off in all the wrong directions.  Dodger Stadium is unsafe.  Everyone that goes to a game there is scared for their lives.  Then-Owner Frank McCourt was so cheap that there were only two security guards available to police 56,000 fans.  One pile-on after another.  These days, the only way the Dodgers can get a break with the Los Angeles Times is if the team is purchased by Barack Obama.

You put all those people in one place where alcohol is available and I guarantee you that shit will happen.  Regardless of whether it is Dodger Stadium, Yankee Stadium, or Citi Field.  Let's also not forget the "kill or die trying" sports mentality that is infused in our youth from almost Day One.  Drummed into their minds by whom?  The media.  And the fact that, from what everyone has learned, the culprits were a couple of Mexican gangbangers.  A fact largely ignored by the numbskulls at the Los Angeles Times. 

You might to insure that a ballpark is fan-friendly?  Stop selling beer.  Oh, wait, nobody can do that.  After all, the Budweiser logo is emblazoned on so many scoreboards.  You can stop discounting tickets so low that the price of a hot dog costs more than the chair you're sitting in.  Oh, wait, nobody can do that.  After all, everybody, regardless of the income level, is entitled to enjoy America's favorite pastime.

Bullshit. 

You can't have it both ways, folks. 

I can tell you that I have never ever felt unsafe at Dodger Stadium.  But, look at where I sit.  Look at who I am with.  And I can tell you unequivocably that the only drink I've ever enjoyed there (save for maybe a smart cocktail at the Stadium Club) is a Diet Coke.

Those photos that you see in this blog?  Does that look like a dungeon to you?

Some may see a mental institution.  Me?  I see a wonderful home.

And, now in 2020, it's still a home.   That we are all, unfortunately, away from for now.

Dinner last night: Pepperoni pizza from Maria's.