Dodgers win in 12; Dodger Stadium; Dodger Dogs … and a $300.00 bar tab

PART TWO

LOS ANGELES – Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine, home of the L.A. Dodgers since 1962, is like a bacon-wrapped filet mignon: Perfection!

I prepared for the first stop of my 20 game baseball trip for weeks and had mapped out the route, determined where I would stop for gas and estimated the exact time it would take to reach Los Angeles … but I forgot to set my alarm clock. Fortunately my cell phone alarm clock was still set for 5a.m. from the day before or I would have missed the 1:10p.m. first pitch, and wasted a free ticket from my friend Mark (see back-story) in L.A.

The drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles is a little over 6 hours, according to the GPS unit in my car. However, with my acute sense of where the State Police congregate on the highways and my lead foot, I figured it would take me somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 hours and change. (And I was correct)

The entire way to Dodger Stadium all I could think about was the perfect game Sandy Koufax threw there in 1965, the only Dodger (Brooklyn or L.A.) ever to accomplish that feat. Fernandomania and his sensational rookie year of eight straight wins, five by shutout, and his improbable Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards consumed me for hours. And the only at-bat by an injured Kirk Gibson in the ’88 Fall Classic, a walk-off homer to beat the A’s and Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley, replayed over and over in my head.

I was also thinking about how fun it was going to be exchanging crazy high school stories with Mark, who I haven’t seen in over twenty years. Surely our days of tomfoolery are over. After all, we are 40, disciplined and two decades removed from wearing fake mustaches to look older so we could buy beer. Long gone are the days when we would, as a joke, sit on each leg of the Easter Bunny for a photo. There is zero chance we would have a few too many cocktails and become inadvertently obnoxious. Nope, unlike the AAA Tucson Toro games we used to go to while in high school in the 80’s, this would be controlled and subdued, just like adults should act.

When I arrived in Los Angeles, the sky was gloomy, and the thought of a rainout, which rarely occurs at Dodger Stadium, had me worried since my schedule allowed one day visiting the now third-oldest stadium in the Big Leagues. As Mark and I drank Bloody Marys and spoke of the good old days, the menacing clouds seemed to evaporate as quickly as our drinks. By the time we polished off our second cocktail, and just as Mark’s girlfriend Ivette informed us it was noon and time to head to the stadium, the sun filled the Southern California sky as if to say “play ball!” Stories about terrorizing classmates and which teachers we hated wouldn’t end, they just moved to a more fitting setting: Dodger Stadium.

In addition to me and Mark, Ivette and her friend Anna came with us, which came in handy because Anna became our designated driver. To be honest, I really didn’t care anymore about the game as much as seeing the old ballpark and chasing the fun times of yesterday, but the game was not disappointing …it ended in dramatic fashion, much like our “free” bar tab that cost $300.00.

Dodger Stadium is as clean and well kept as any stadium I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of new stadiums of all varieties. According to the Dodgers website the park gets a new paint job every year, and a lot of money and time is spent on preventative maintenance. They love their Dodgers in Southern California and that is undeniable.

We found our seats and settled in for about a minute until we realized our tickets permitted us entry to the Dodger Stadium Club, a restaurant with a full bar overlooking the field, and according to Mark, “free everything!” So off we went to Mecca for free Dodger Dogs, scotch, wine and whatever else we could find.

Somewhere along the corridor to the Dodger Stadium club we stumbled across the famous Dodger-mobile, a very large baseball helmet on wheels for kids to have their picture taken. As luck would have it, Mark and I, like the 18 year old knuckleheads we used to be, found ourselves in the Dodger-mobile having our photos taken while fans walked by shaking their heads in disgust.

The Dodger Stadium Club was fantastic; the service top rate; the high-end buffet delicious, the three bottles of wine and glass of scotch fantastic, and the four free Dodger Dogs to die for. The only problem: Nothing in the Dodger Stadium Club was free, at least not for us. Our “free” lunch went from being awesome to $300.00 worth of overrated food.

The game finished when Andre Ethier smacked a Chad Durbin fastball over the center-field wall in the 12th to seal his second consecutive walk-off hit in as many against the Phillies. More important, the night ended with two more bottles of wine, a cigar and more stories of our glory days.

NEXT STOP: Petco Park (June, 7, 2009)