Dodger fans stay up, keep it down
Forced to cheer softly at 18-inning Game 3 win, some let it all out for Game 4 of series.
On Saturday morning, Dodger Stadium employees showed up clutching coffee cups and asking one another what time they got to bed.
The night before, they and Dodger fans all across Southern California fought sleep to watch the longest game in World Series history.
For the Dodger faithful, this World Series has been all about perseverance.
The stands stayed full for Game 3, which ended after midnight Saturday in a 3-2 Dodgers victory after 18 innings and seven hours and 20 minutes of play. They meant it when, during the 14th inning stretch, they stood for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and sang, “I don’t care if I never get back.”
Arturo Delgadillo started watching at home in Whittier on Friday night with his family. He ended it Saturday morning, sitting in the dark, drinking Tang alone, trying not to wake his wife and young daughter who went to bed during the ninth inning.
“I had to keep my emotions in check and keep my celebration to a minimal decibel level,” he said Saturday night from Dodger Stadium.
When Max Muncy homered to end it in the 18th, he stepped outside to yell, “Yeah!”
Balancing his 1-year-old daughter on his hip on the loge level, Ray Barajas said he couldn’t imagine himself being anywhere other than Dodger Stadium, even though he and his fiance, Ruby Molina, were operating on three hours of sleep.
They had attended Game 3 with their 1-year-old Rayleen, the night before. They stayed the whole time, despite the hour-and-a-halfdrive home to Moreno Valley.
For Game 4, Ruby was fueled by coffee. Ray was fueled by excitement. Rayleen, wearing a pink shirt that said “World Series Princess,” was fueled by her bottles.
“We’ll sit her down one day and watch it all,” said Ruby, pulling out a video camera she’d been toting all weekend. “She was there. The 2018 World Series.”
Sal Real, 42, of Montebello has a lot riding on the World Series: If the Dodgers win, he told his girlfriend, Michelle Santisteban, 50, he would propose to her.
The couple met three years ago in the beer line at the Dodgers’ spring training in Glendale, Ariz. They tried to watch Game 3 on Friday night together, but after a long day of work, Santisteban fell asleep in the bottom of the ninth.
Real watched the TV from the edge of the bed, trying not to wake her, hopping up and down in the dark quietly.
“I didn’t get too loud,” he said. “I kept it all inside.”
When he awoke later Saturday morning, the scent of coffee wafted from the kitchen.
Santisteban sat there with a surprise: She’d just purchased Game 4 tickets because she was so sad she’d missed the victory.
“I love it,” she said of this roller-coaster series. “We’re rocking October. I’m tired. I’m sure everybody’s tired. But we will always remember this.”
As fans filtered out after the Dodgers lost 9-6, a woman in an Andre Ethier jersey threw her hands in the air and shrugged.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, shaking her head. “Ay yi yi.”