Sunday, April 14, 2024
It was our good fortune that our good friends, Paul and Joanne Sabolić, were off to Las Vegas today for a few days.
Because of their impending absence, they had called us earlier this week to offer us their two season tickets to today's San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium, a.k.a., "Blue Heaven on Earth."
BUT OF COURSE, GAME ON!
Now, it must be said that in the past few seasons, the Sabolićs have generously given us their tickets to other Dodgers games which we have greatly enjoyed.
The four of us even went to a game together once. Great fun indeed!
Now the interesting thing about their kind gestures over the years has been the difficult, frustrating electronic transfer of the tickets via the Major League Baseball app.
We had never been able to accomplish what should be a simple task in less than five attempts over a minimum of two days, usually three.
Much to our mutual amazement, this transfer was successful on our first attempt. Was it due to an improvement in the MLB app's design or a bad omen perhaps?
Laurie posited that our flawless ducat exchange meant that the game would be cancelled either because of rain or an earthquake.
She wasn't too far off as it turned out.
On Saturday night, the start of the game was delayed two hours and 20 minutes due to rain.
It rained hard today on our drive all the way to first San Marino to visit my sisters and then to Dodger Stadium.
UH-OH . . .
We arrived at Dodger Stadium
in a steady but gentle downpour
Thank goodness that the Sabolić's two season tickets come with a parking pass close to the entrance that leads, under cover, to our seats.
This sign caused me to think, a rare thing.
Today's crowd was announced at 49,432 which despite the weather, was fairly accurate in my opinion. A great crowd really, considering the rain and that it was not a souvenir giveaway night.
Now if our crowd all came to the game via automobile with an average of four people per vehicle, then 12,358 of the stadium's 16,000 parking spots were used today.
Throwing out the idea of Oversized Parking completely for the sake of argument, a $35 per car parking fee for 12,358 autos comes out to a Dodgers' windfall of $432,530 today.
That's almost enough to pay for a Shohei Ohtani at-bat.
The rain continued delaying the start of our game by 35 minutes.
The last time that back-to-back Dodger games had rain delayed starts was 1988 we were told.
We were part of history but not for the first time today it would turn out.
To kill some time before the first pitch, we roamed through the historic stadium checking out the souvenirs, our fellow fans and the concessions stands.
We have a few of these at our home
One area of Dodger Stadium houses hundreds of these bobbleheads highlighting many of the Dodgers greats of the past and present.
But that is not all . . .
. . . the Dodgers also display bobbleheads
from all of the MLB franchises
In the middle of the Chicago Cubs bobbleheads, I was surprised to see this one of the Chicago Bears Hall of Fame Running Back, "The Wheaton Iceman" himself, #77, Red Grange.
The inking of Grange to an NFL contract after his playing days at the University of Illinois signaled the rise of the NFL. Before this signing, pro football was considered a low class affair for ruffians, cads and bounders.
With Grange in the backfield, the Bears made an NFL career an instantly positive option for players after their college careers were over.
Back in the day, the NFL Bears and the MLB Cubs shared venerable Wrigley Field for home contests.
This Red Grange bobblehead was part of a Wrigley Field 100 year anniversary giveaway back in 2014.
Two versions of Jobu and a Carlos
Santana bobblehead were on display too
If you are a fan of the movie Major League, as we are, then you know all about Jobu's role in the pantheon of the baseball gods.
If you love classic rock music, you love Carlos Santana.
It was time to head to our seats.
It was still drizzling as you
can clearly see above our heads
No matter, it was finally "TIME FOR DODGER BASEBALL" as the legendary late, great Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully used to say just before the start of each game.
The game's first pitch . . .
. . . it had indeed stopped raining
but the skies were a tad ominous
We were seated in a row of six seats with another row capable of holding another half dozen fans directly in front of us.
This row below us had a a date couple like us in the left two seats.
A group of four fun loving, hard drinking and social media savvy ladies occupied the four seats to the right. Think The Jersey Shore.
It was just after this photo was taken that two of the Jersey Shore girls sashayed down to their seats with their arms full of nachos, beers and other tasty looking delights.
They started passing the treats down the row to their friends who were already well into their cups by this point of the game, about the fourth inning.
It didn't take long for the fourth girl seated in the row, in her own gentle, self absorbed way with the requisite inch long fake fingernails and cell phone always in hand, to spill the entire gigantic bowl of carne asada super cheesy helmet nachos valued at $15.95 onto the lady sitting next to her, the one who was definitely not part of their group.
After a cursory but decidedly not heartfelt, "I'm sorry," she wiped off the little cheese that landed on her leg and, HORRORS, on her cell phone.
She then proceeded to start texting again on her still cheese encrusted phone while the poor lady, who had at least $14 worth of those nachos on her lap, tried to clean herself off with the aid of her date who made a couple of trips to the concession stands for napkins to help the emergency reclamation project.
We offered the towel we had brought to the game to wipe off the wet seats but she opted for the napkins instead.
Our perpetrator did nothing to help out whatsoever and just kept texting.
Once our victim had cleaned off most of herself and her seat, she and her mate went up to the restroom to further clean themselves up.
While they were in the restroom, the four Jersey Shore girls opted to watch the rest of the game in another section of the ballpark far, far away.
Good move.
Eventually, the skies turned to
DODGER BLUE!
The game proceeded with the temperature
steadily at a chilly 56°F but no more rain
The nightly 50-50 raffle built up
to a handsome amount of $54,000
Half of the jackpot, $27,000, would go to the Dodgers Charity Foundation.
Is that the Ohtani contract again that we're talking about?
The other $27,000 would go to the lucky ticket holder.
Laurie bought five tickets and, wouldn't you know it, none of her numbers was the winner.
I'll be damned, I didn't see that one coming at all.
Late in the game, the crowd was
thinning and the vista was near perfect
DAMN!
The Padres Manny Machado, who is hated at Dodger Stadium, contributed 2 hits including a solo home run and scored twice to set the tone for the San Diego crew.
The real problem tonight was the Dodgers' pitchers inability to find the strike zone.
Now for reference, in their first 17 regular season game of 2024, the Blue Crew's pitchers had combined for an average of exactly three walks per game.
Tonight they issued a whopping 14 of these free passes to the Padres. YIKES!
The Padres pitchers only walked three Dodgers tonight.
Again we had witnessed history. It was the most walks given up by a Dodgers pitching staff since 1962, the year that Dodger Stadium opened for the first time! The Dodgers pitchers walked 16 New York Mets in that game 62 years ago.
THANK YOU Paul and Joanne,
we had a great time as always!
Next weekend's EuroBall games started to be ballyhooed today, here are a few of them . . .
The Varese Skorpions (4-0) travel
to play the Legnano Frogs (2-2)
This is an intense Derby, rivalry game on Saturday that the Frogs won last year.
Also on Saturday, a Central European
Football League tournament playoff
game in Florence, Italy
The Belgrade SBB Vukovi (2-1 in Serbian League play) will take on the home team Firenze Guelfi (3-1 in Italian League games) .
The British American Football Association
(BAFA) kicked of this weekend at the
Adult, U19 and U16 levels
I am not at all familiar with the BAFA scene but was amazed to see how extensive it is at the start of the campaign.
At BAFA's Adult level there are a total of 58 teams in total broken down into three levels. The best 12 clubs are in the two Premiership Conferences. The next best 29 teams grouped into six DI Conferences. Finally, 17 BAFA Adult teams compete in the four DII Conferences.
BAFA's U19 division has 26 clubs enlisted overall, 19 in four DI Conferences and seven in one DII Conference.
As for the BAFA U16 group, there are 24 teams enrolled that will vie in six Conferences.
I must admit that I loved reading some of the BAFA team's choices for mascot names, to wit here are my 16 favorites:
Berkshire Renegades
Bristol Apaches
Bristol Aztecs
Chester Romans
Renegades is a good nickname.
Apaches and Aztecs both in Bristol? Film at 11:00!
Chester is well aware of long standing Roman Conquest history in the British Isles.
Hertfordshire Cheetahs
Inverclyde Goliaths
Kent Exiles
London Blitz
Cheetahs are fast, is the Hertfordshire squad?
I don't know which I like better, Inverclyde or Goliaths?
Is Kent where King Richard the Lionheart banished Prince John after that whole Robin Hood affair?
London's WWII and football defensive tactic references are both solid with me.
Nottingham Caesars
Portsmouth Dreadnaughts
Scunthorpe Alphas
Shropshire Revolution
Nottingham opts for more links to Roman Conquest history.
Dreadnaughts is an awesome nickname, especially if Portmouth is a Double Wing team.
American football is all about the Alpha males.
Shropshire Revolution, well it is American football after all.
Solent Thrashers
Somerset Wyverns
South East Legion
South London Renegades
Thrashers works for me.
Ok, what the deuce is a Wyvern?
Legion, another nod to the UK's Roman history.
We end our list where we started it with another Renegade team and I still like it.
Blast from the past . . .
Jack Snow, WR
St. Anthony's H.S., Long Beach, CA
University of Notre Dame All-American
Los Angeles Rams (1965-1975)
A fast and reliable Ram receiver from the glory days in Los Angeles before the exile to St. Louis.
Finally . . .
A Wyvern is a mythical, two winged
and two legged dragon
Mythical, I should say not!
Only two legs as opposed to the usual four legged dragons you constantly see roaming the English countryside.
The Wyvern definitely gives off a speedy, sporty, Chevy Corvette-like vibe.
Its sharp, pointed tongue and tail plus those killer talons all make this dragon way more cool and dangerous. GREAT nickname Somerset!
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