For the record, I am still a Torre supporter. He managed the Yankees to 4 World Series Championships 1996,1998,1999 and 2000. He also lead them to World Series appearances in 2001 and 2003. He is as much a part of the Yankees I grew up with as Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, Posada, O'Neil, Clemens, Mussina, and Williams. The man is 3rd on the all-time wins list for Yankee managers. How can you not support that? The man has more than earned my loyalty and my gratitude.
I was lucky enough to get to meet Joe Torre at a signing last year. He is a great guy.
Now, like most of my road trips, this story begins with me drinking. Greg and I were at a bar early in the baseball season and the subject of inter league play came up. Greg mentioned that the Yankees were playing the Dodgers in LA. We both said allowed how we wished we could go. Then it hit me, I have family in San Diego (two hours away from LA). This trip is do-able. Long story short, Greg and I flew out to California for the game. I firmly believe ½ of success is planning the other ½ is actually doing something.
Greg and I wanted to arrive at the stadium early so we could see everything and we did arrive early. In fact we arrived 40 minutes before the stadium opened. How did we kill the 40 minutes? We got lost for 25 min, parked 4 blocks away from the entrance to Dodger Stadium's parking lot, and spent the rest of the time walking to the stadium. Perfect! As we approached the stadium we, inevitably, ran into some Dodger fans. They started talking shit to us but not in a malicious way. It was more like two brothers trying to out-do each other. They would talk shit one second and help you the next. It was refreshing. They had the perfect blend of team pride and hospitality. I now have a much higher respect for Dodger fans.
Now, in lieu of a formal narrative, I 'm just going to rattle off a bunch of non sequiturs about my experience watching Yankees v Dodgers. You know I love my non sequiturs.
Greg and I were sitting next to a lot of Dodger fans during the game. They would say things like “I'm glad I'm not a Yankees fan,” “I hate Yankee fans,” etc. This occurred so many times during the game I just tuned it out. I was reviewing some of the pictures I took during one of the breaks between innings when a LA fan taps me on the shoulder, points to Mariano Rivera walking to the bullpen and says “Look there’s your boy!” He did this because I was wearing my Rivera jersey. I would have missed him walking by if the guy hadn't said anything. That was incredibly cool of him.
In LA they have a regional sports network similar to YES but it focuses on The Dodgers. This is my brief synopsis of every show. “We were doing really well till we lost to the Yankees in the World Series.” The two teams played 11 times in The Fall Classic. New York won 8 times.
LA is the only place where seeing Jackie Robinson's retired number 42 really means anything.
Once Rivera entered the game the LA fans gave up trying to drown out the “Let's go Yankees” cheers from the crowed.
If you sit on the 1st base side during a night game the sun sets in your eyes. This makes tracking fly balls really difficult.
Parking far away from the stadium easily saved us 1 hour trying to get out of the overly crowded parking lot.
As we entered the stadium we got miniature towels that read “THIS IS MY TOWN,” the motto of Dodgers fans. The towels had an MLB hologram on them. Instead of being the MLB Authentic sticker they read “World Series 2009” on them. The Dodgers lost to the Phillies in the 2009 NLDS.
Dodger Stadium is the only place I've seen sell merchandise for the opposing team?!
To get down to the lower levels you have to pass through a stair case guarded by an attendant at each door. It is not as nice as the rest of the stadium.
More pictures will be on my Facebook.
