Dodger Stadium prepares to host All-Star spotlight
LOS ANGELES — The tour starts at Section 1. At the top of Dodger Stadium. Where the mountainous backdrop, picturesque playing surface and 56,000 seats all come into view.
Before thousands of fans file into the ballpark every night, groups of about a dozen each walk the grounds on guided tours every afternoon.
They go from the top deck to the field-level seats. From the historic hallway that leads to the clubhouse, where World Series trophies and a century’s worth of awards adorn the walls, to the baseball diamond the Dodgers have called home for the last 60 years.
They don’t come for modern amenities. They don’t see many cutting-edge features. They aren’t dazzled by architectural advancements.
This place offers something different. A portal to the past. A connection to the present.
And, even after all this time, a sporting and cultural touchstone destined to last well into the future.
“It’s kind of like baseball’s cathedral,” longtime Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said.
Indeed, while many venues could be called one of baseball’s spiritual homes, Dodger Stadium is near the top of the list.
And this week, it will be under the sport’s biggest spotlight once again.
For the first time since 1980, Dodger Stadium will host Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. And though such big names as Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout might headline, it’s the 60-year-old stadium that, as much as anything else, will take center stage.
“When you get deep down to it as a player,” Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw said, “I don’t think there’s anything better.”
“It’s long overdue,” Turner added. “That energy and that buzz and that atmosphere that is created here, which has a lot to do with our fan base, makes it an exciting place to play.”
It’s not just that Dodger Stadium has baseball’s largest seating capacity.
Or that it’s the majors’ third-oldest active venue, after only Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.
Or that, of MLB’s 30 current stadiums, few mimic its style, match its history or offer an equally distinct feel.
“Dodger Stadium sitting up there alone — sort of literally and figuratively — in this cavernous parkland surrounded by Chavez Ravine is just so unique and special,” said Janet Marie Smith, a longtime stadium architect who serves as the Dodgers’ executive vice president of planning and development.
“I’m sorry to keep using the word ‘unique,’” she added during a recent interview, “but it’s hard to think of a better word.”
More than a decade ago, Peter O’Malley found the sketch folded up in his father’s old files.
Now it hangs framed on a wall in his high-rise downtown L.A. office, a hand-drawn vision of Dodger Stadium that outdates the ballpark itself.
The story of Walter O’Malley’s decision to move the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles is nothing new.
A native New Yorker, Walter spent the better part of a decade trying to build a new home for the franchise in Brooklyn. When he couldn’t strike a land deal with the city, he considered relocation.
Officials from Los Angeles courted him to move west. Then, during a helicopter ride in 1957, Walter flew over Chavez Ravine. Dreams of a grand new stadium began dancing in his head.
Roughly two years before Dodger Stadium opened in 1962, Walter and a team of stadium architects completed the now-framed sketch, detailing everything from the layout of the concrete beams to the arrangement of each level of seating to the palm trees and plant life dotting the perimeter.
In the corner, Walter’s handwriting lists the rough capacity for each of the stadium’s four decks.
“There was never any doubt in my dad’s mind how it would look,” said Peter, who was 24 years old when the stadium opened and still vividly remembers the years-long process during which it came to fruition. “Yes, he had people helping him. Great staff. But they knew what he wanted and what he didn’t want. It was a proud moment when it opened.”