Dodger Stadium has its own delights
L.A. fans diverse, passionate, loud
Do they still call Fenway “America’s Most Beloved Ballpark”? I suspect a good portion of America, as well as a good number of lefthanded pitchers, might have a beef with that.
I last stepped into Fenway in 2010 when the Dodgers were there for a series (and got swept, thanks to a bad bullpen). I’m hoping there’s no statute of limitations — I got away with wearing shorts in the Fenway press box in violation of the posted dress code. (Hey, it was 95 and sweltering outside, and anyway it’s not Sunday Mass. It’s baseball!)
Which sort of leads into the difference between your ballpark and our ballpark. Dodger Stadium isn’t on the Register of Historical Places, like Fenway. It’s only 57 years old. But there’s history here, and heritage, and a link between generations of Angelenos who showed up to watch Koufax and Drysdale, or Garvey and Cey, or Fernando or Orel or Ramon Martinez all the way up to Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner and the current team.
(No, I didn’t forget Kirk Gibson. We claim him just as much as Detroit does, though Kershaw reminded us last week that some current Dodgers are real tired of seeing that grainy World Series video from 30 years ago.)
It is a ballpark that opened in 1962, but in style and in substance (the latter thanks in part to the millions of dollars current ownership put into renovations), Dodger Stadium feels fresh and quintessentially cool. New Englanders may scoff, but in Southern California, that matters.
Oh, and one other thing. If all of the seats aren’t filled at game time for Friday night’s Game 3, I’m guessing folks in Boston will be yapping about L.A. fans’ lack of passion. But remember: This will be a game that starts at 5 local time, in a stadium with no mass transit stop, in a city where most freeways are parking lots at that time of day, especially on a Friday.
When they arrive, they are diverse, passionate and loud. And no, they don’t leave early.