Sunday, March 30, 2008

In Which I Fall In Love With Dodger Stadium All Over Again

In Which I Fall In Love With Dodger Stadium All Over Again

Ah spring, it’s that time of year again when it gets darker later and the weather is nicer. Love is in the air. And if you’re at Chavez Ravine you’ll know what I mean. Plain and simply, Thinking blue has never been so good.


This is the part where I show off my seats

While opening day is on Monday, I have made it a habit to go to the exhibition games for the last couple of years. Compared to opening day, the parking is actually something that wont drive you stir crazy. That and it’s an excuse to take in a long awaited Dodger Dog a couple of days early.

Add in that with the trip comes the chance to see all the changes that have happened to the stadium since last September. For months they were showing us glimpses and really, I was getting a little worried. For example, here’s some of the before and after shots.

From this


to this



to this


And from this

to


I know what you’re thinking, "Holy shit, what’s up with those Ghost?" Don’t worry, I thought the same thing. I can at least say that even with the new changes, the ghost of old players weren’t getting into fights with others because of a bad call. Then again, they haven’t had the Giants come to town yet. That’ll be the true test.

As if the pictures didn’t tell you enough, you may be asking what exactly did they add? For starters, the field section, and personally speaking the best place to sit in the stadium, has gone through a lot of changes. The old concrete look is long gone and it has a slick new shine and feel. Add in two new stadium club higher end dinning establishments as well and you got the ball rolling.

On that note, it should be mentioned that ghost get hungry. When they do, they’ll need new places to dine. Now I don’t know about your spooky old hospital ghost, but Dodger Stadium ghost are pure foodies


Add in the new food concession stands and you have yourself some amazing food to partake in while you sit and watch Joe Torre run a player into the ground. Which, by the way now has new bullpens with plenty of green. Something, I’m sure, Eric Gagne requested that they finally got around to it. Must have been why he signed to Boston.

So to run down some of the new treats, Camacho’s finally gets a spot for itself. In the years past, to get their nachos you would have to track down the one line hidden within the other stands. Now you get all the Camacho’s Nachos you can handle. Ruby’s Diner has its own stand. But since I really don’t care about that place and Angel stadium has ruined my taste for the place, I’ll just ignore it. Then you have the tried and true Gordon Biersch that has garlic fries that you would die for. There’s also a new Think Blue Bar. Which I guess it’s sort of themed. Just give me a good drink and I’ll be happy. Really, after a couple of Dodger special drinks and I really don’t know if I’ll be thinking much of anything.

Have a Hurricane and you’ll be ready to rock like one.

Finally we get to the best new addition to Dodger Stadium. Canter’s famous Jewish deli now has a concession stand. Which is great because I always felt that baseball was missing kosher food. I don’t know how many times I’ve been reading my tora while a ground rule double was in play and thought to myself "Boy is it drafty in here, what does a person have to do to get a matzo ball soup around here! Oh, don’t worry about me, I’ll just sit here and die of frost." So they answered my call. To be honest I’m glad they picked Canter’s over Jerry’s, I really don’t know how they would fit Jerry’s ten page menu into the food stand.


Oy! Canter’s in Dodger Stadium. What a world!

And last, but certainly first when it comes to food at Dodger Stadium is the classic Dodger dog. And I’ll answer this one off the bat, I do put ketchup on my dog. You no-ketchup on a hot purist can rot in hell for all I care, I like my wiener the way I like it! It should be mentioned that you should only buy the Super Dodger Dog. While I put my trust into grilled meat in tube form, I still like the taste of the Super Dog better.

mmmmm, first dodger dog of the season

And all that makes for signs of a great new season. Hell, so far I’ve gone to two games and am going to what will obviously be a cluster fuck Saturday game at the Coliseum. So all these are reasons for me to be excited. Maybe you also share the same feelings to the boys in blue. Just know that Dodger stadium keeps getting better and there’s no place I’d rather be on a warm summer night than catching a game at Dodger Stadium.

On a final note, if you are a guy and have ever pissed at Dodger Stadium, you would sure enough remember the troughs.

Horses and cattle eat from these, you.. pissed in one.

Lovely, aren’t they? Well, Good bye troughs, thanks for the awkward memories. At least in the field level area. They re-did all the bathrooms and made them pretty advanced. I’m not sure if they got to the other section bathrooms, but on the field level is where I sit whenever I come so it’s a change for me. And really, I’m going to miss those things. Nothing brought you together as a team like awkwardly pissing in the same general toilet as everyone else.

But when the baseball gods (Frank McCourt) closes a door, he opens a window. And this window is huge. They may have taken away the pissing spot for us guys but they added one piece of technology to all the restrooms. The airblade
I may just have to develop OCD so I can wash my hands and dry them in this thing 20 times in the span of a couple of innings. Simple instructions. Put your hands into it and it’ll blast both sides with blades of air. It’s like sex if you had to get wet for it and do it in the bathroom.


wait.. what did I just type?

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