CEO won’t prevent Dodgers from celebrating
LOS ANGELES — The saga of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chase Field pool might finally have hit its end, regardless of the outcome of this week’s NL Division Series.
Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said on Friday that if the Dodgers win the series in either Game 3 or Game 4 at Chase Field, there is no protocol in place to stop them from celebrating by jumping in the right-field pool.
“No,” Hall said. “The rivalry was strong and thriving then which is a good thing. I think looking back it’s all in good fun. And it’s a completely different group of guys here on the other side as well.”
In 2013, the Dodgers clinched the NL West with a September win over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field. They infamously celebrated by going for a swim in the stadium pool, a tradition the Diamondbacks began when they clinched the division themselves in 2011.
“I could call it disrespectful and classless,” Hall said at the time. “But they don’t have a beautiful pool at their old park and must have really wanted to see what one was like.”
In the ensuing years, the Diamondbacks made every effort to prevent the
Dodgers from doing so again, even as their rivals have won the NL West in 10 of 11 years. In 2017, the club stationed police officers on horseback on the warning track to prevent a repeat attempt when the Dodgers beat them in the NLDS. And just last year, a group of sheriffs protected the pool when the Dodgers again clinched the division at Chase Field.
Of course, no one has stopped the Diamondbacks from taking a swim. Last week, they celebrated their first playoff berth in six years with a lengthy pool party after the typical champagne-and-beer affair in the clubhouse.
If they take care of the Dodgers on home turf, a repeat could be in order. But if it goes the other way, don’t expect any officers on horseback this go around.
“They have the right to celebrate however they want, wherever they want,” Hall said. “They’ve certainly earned that opportunity.”
That is, if the Dodgers want to celebrate that way. Ahead of last year’s clincher, their manager, Dave Roberts, indicated that was unlikely.
“I think that’s in the past,” Roberts said then. “I just don’t think that’s who this team is. I don’t really expect us or see us jumping in a pool in right-center field.”