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The Great Ballpark Chase: It’s Time for Dodger Baseball

timothynrussell
The views from upstairs at Dodger Stadium can be stunning.

For some ballpark chasers, they enjoy planning the entire trip. For others, it’s easier to sit back and let others do the organizing and sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Some people have tried it both ways and determined they prefer the easier way. That’s where the baseball bus tour companies come in. Having used Coast 2 Coast Sports Tours the last two years, I tend to agree.

So do Steve and Kim from Pennsylvania, who I met on this year’s West Coast Swing tour with Coast 2 Coast. The couple, who live in suburban Philadelphia are Phillies fans, hit the Midwest parks last year, including Minnesota, Milwaukee, and both Chicago parks.

And who can blame them for liking the charter bus better.

There’s a reason that Dodger fans arrive in the second and third innings and leave in the seventh. It’s one way to try to beat the traffic.

Just getting into the stadium can be a chore, as the driveways wind up to the parking areas. That also doesn’t help the curb appeal for the ballpark. With most stadiums, you usually get a glimpse of the park as you approach. With Dodger Stadium, you see the side of a hill.

The difficulties are to be expected, I suppose. Los Angeles is the second largest populated city in the United States. The park is also one of the oldest in the Major League Baseball.

Former manager, Tommy Lasorda, coined the phrase “Blue Heaven on Earth” and it is featured at an entrance to Dodger Stadium.

Dodger Stadium is the third oldest stadium overall, behind Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field. It was built in 1962 and is the largest baseball stadium in the world, by seat capacity.

The stadium is often referred to as a pitcher’s ballpark, having seen 13 no-hitters and two perfect games. Dodger fans affectionately call it “Blue Heaven on Earth,” a phrase coined by former Dodger manager great Tommy Lasorda.

The entrance to the ballpark may be a big highlight, especially if you enter on the home plate side and the Top Deck entrance. You enter at the very top of the stadium, opening to an incredible view of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Even if you enter at the outfield entrance, it’s worth a trip to the top to enjoy the view.

Fans entering through the centerfield entrance are able to see lifesize bobbleheads as well as statues of Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson.

The center field entrance offers plenty to do as well, including statues of Dodger greats Sandy Koufax and Jackie Robinson. The center field plaza also features lifesize bobbleheads, the Legends of Dodger baseball display along with a sports bar and beer garden.

Two of the stadium’s most distinctive features are the wavy roof on top of each outfield pavilion. Each pavilion has a scoreboard. There is also the top of a 10-story elevator shaft that has the Dodger logo, sitting directly behind home plate.

Given its history, the Dodgers have a lot of retired numbers: Don Drysdale (53), Koufax (32), Don Sutton (20), Pee Wee Reese (1), Robinson (42), Duke Snider (4), Lasorda (2), Walter Alston (24), Roy Campanella (39), Jim Gilliam (19), Gil Hodges (14), and the most recent player Fernando Valenzuela (34). Also honored in left field are announcers Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin.

The stadium is the last in the National League that has symmetrical dimensions. In left an right field, it is 330 feet. In medium left-center and right-center, it is 360 feet. True left-center and right-center is 375 feet. Center field is 395 feet while true center field is 400 feet.

Built in 1962, Dodger Stadium is the third oldest MLB stadium, trailing only Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.

Here is an explanation of that: The distance of center field has been marked as 395 feet since1973, but it is actually still 400 feet. The two 395-foot signs are to the left and right of dead center, but the curvature of the fence between the posted signs is not exactly radial from home plate, meaning true center field is five feet further.

Obviously, the signature food item is the Dodger Dog, which is just a hot dog with a fancy name. Nothing else really stood out in terms of edibles. It was your basic ballpark cuisine.

Anyone for a Dodger Dog?

As far as the game, we did get to see a little bit of history. Dodger catcher Will Smith smashed a two-run home run in the first inning. It was his fourth homer in four consecutive at bats, tying him for the MLB record. He was the first Dodger to accomplish the feat since first baseman Adrian Gonzalez did it back in April 2015. He is just the third MLB catcher to do it, along with Johnny Bench (1973) and Benito Santiago (1996).

The Dodger ended up beating Milwaukee, 5-3.

After Milwaukee tied the game, 3-3, after home runs by Rhys Hoskins and Christian Yelich in the fourth and eighth innings, respectively. Miguel Vargas and Shohei Ohtani both hit homers to put the Dodgers ahead for good,

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