Before August 2009 I hadn’t been to a L.A. Dodgers game since 2001 when I went on July 4th. I believe they were playing the Giants. We had seats in the loge level and after the game they let us go out onto the actual field to see the fireworks. I had also been to a game against the Padres in 2000 and a pre-season game against the Yankees in 1999. We saw Ryan Stiles at the game in 2001. For all those games I went with the young adult group from my church at the time. They were all fun but I remember it took forever to enter and leave the parking lot. That’s one reason I didn’t returned to a game for over eight years.
In June 2009 I read in the Azusa city newsletter that comes with the utility bill about the City of Azusa Los Angeles Dodgers Family Night. It seemed pretty good, only costing $15 per person. But what really sold it for me was that transportation to and from Dodgers Stadium was provided. We would save on parking and gas and we could just sit back while the shuttle bus made its way through the stadium traffic. I called the number in the newsletter and they said I could buy the tickets at the City of Azusa Parks and Rec Department. I assumed this was at the Azusa Civic Center on Foothill Blvd. at Dalton Avenue. But when I went there some employees told me I had to go to Memorial Park in western Azusa on Angeleno Avenue. It’s west of Azusa Avenue and San Gabriel Avenue and it’s a long park with soccer fields and basketball courts. The Parks and Rec Department is in the farthest south of the group of buildings on the west side of the park. I bought two tickets, choosing them near the aisle so we could easily come and go. They gave me seats in the Lower Reserve section 47, row U, seats 1 and 2. I also signed some waivers and picked up a notice saying where and when to catch the shuttle bus.
My wife posted the Dodger game as a calendar event on Multiply. Her cousin saw it and said she and her family were also going to the game. A friend of theirs who works for the city of Azusa got them tickets. They didn’t yet know where their seats were located. I gave them our seat locations and we hoped to see each other. We waited all through July and the first full week of August before game day finally arrived.
On game day, Saturday, August 8, 2009, we left home at around 4:20 pm, drove north on Citrus Avenue and turned left on Foothill Blvd. There was a blinking red light at the intersection, possibly due to construction. There was also a sign indicating where to go for Dodgers parking. We drove west on Foothill and turned right into the drive with the address on the notice I was given: 701 E. Foothill Blvd. But this just looked like a parking lot for Azusa Pacific University and not the former drive-in movie theater that was mentioned in the notice. We spotted the former drive-in and drove across some confusing driveways to get there. The parking at the former drive-in was bumpy and uneven. With care, we made our way to a spot. It was barely 4:30 pm, the beginning of the check-in time and there were already many cars parked there. We walked over to a flat area of the lot to the west where most of the people were going, many of them wearing Dodger hats and blue Dodger shirts. They had some tarps set up and some lists posted with seat numbers and names. Each list was for a bus.
There were many buses parked nearby from all different charter bus operators. Each bus was identified by the name and number of a famous historic or current Dodger. They had the paper outline of the jersey in the window on the door to each bus. There was one for Drysdale (#53), Koufax, Ramirez (as in Manny, #99), Lasorda, Scully (with a microphone icon instead of a number), Robinson (as in Jackie), Valenzuela, Garvey, Alston, Gibson, Cey, Piazza, Campanella, Wills, etc. We had trouble finding our names on the posted bus manifests. They didn’t seem to be grouped by seat number but rather by party and some parties were very large. We finally found our names on the manifest for bus number 36: Newcomb (as in Dan). I believe we were the only ones from section 47LR on that bus. There were lots of people milling around the manifests and meeting up with their parties. There was also a grill were they were serving hot dogs. After looking through two rows of buses we found Newcomb # 36. A coordinator for the bus named Dominique check off our names and gave us two tickets to get hot dogs and drinks at the grill we had seen. They had thought of everything: parking (free at the drive-in), transportation, even the food. But we had planned to eat at the stadium. There were some specific food items we wanted to try there. I did get a couple of extra bottles of water, though.
Dominique gave us more waivers to sign and some raffle tickets to write our names on and return to her. The bus was large and tall with a tiny restroom inside the back. On the outside sides of the bus were images of a dove and rainbow and the words “Luxury Motor Daytours”. A few other buses looked the same but most were from different tour companies. We boarded at 5 pm, filled out our waivers and raffle tickets and returned them to Dominique. It was very warm outside, around 90 degrees, I think, and we felt it better to wait in the bus. There were other people on board, some in large family groups of 6+. More people boarded as we waited. Some seated near us were very lively. Out the window I saw the mayor of Azusa holding up the Robinson paper jersey near another bus. He wore a shiny white Dodgers shirt with a collar and short sleeves. I recognized him from another city function where I met him. I counted at least 15 other buses and with about 48 seats per bus. That meant between 700 and 800 people were participating in Azusa L.A. Dodgers Family Night.
Our bus finally started moving at 5:45 pm, 15 minutes after the departure time given on the notice. The bus driver played the hip hop radio station 97.1 FM. We heard the song “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black-Eyed Peas for what would be the first of 3 times over the weekend. The bus exited the parking lot, drove west on Foothill Blvd, and turned left to go south on San Gabriel Avenue, the one-way street that eventually becomes the south lanes of Azusa Avenue. The bus got on the 210 to go west and drove to the 605 south to the 10 west. There wasn’t much traffic on any of these freeways. We didn’t hit traffic until we got on the 101 in Downtown L.A. It looked like we were going to the 110 north but, instead, we exited at Grand Avenue, drove north and then turned left onto Cesar E. Chavez Avenue. We rode west past the massive Orsini apartment complexes. After going under the 110, Cesar E. Chavez became Sunset Boulevard. We took this until we got to Elysian Park Avenue where the bus turned right. This avenue led straight into the Dodger Stadium parking lot. On the way they called everyone’s name. There were 32 people on the bus and 4 named David or 12.5% of the total. Dominique then drew two raffle tickets: the first for a Dodger player bobblehead doll and the second for a Dodgers poster. We didn’t win either of them.
The bus approached the entrance to the stadium parking lot and we saw that it costs $15 for cars to park there. It costs $35 for buses to park there so we were getting a great deal paying only for the two $15 tickets to the game. The bus parked in section 12 of the stadium parking lot along with the other buses and buses for other parties. Some of the buses looked very retro. We arrived at 6:30 pm. As we exited the bus, Dominique handed us bags of peanuts with Dan Newcomb #36 label stickers on them to remind us of which bus to take back. We followed the crowd up the hill to the west entrance of the stadium. We queued up to enter at 6:40 pm. People were going through security and that was taking a while. A sign said “Prohibited: glass bottles, cans, alcoholic beverages, coolers, bags larger than 14 inches, signs/banners, beach balls, or weapons.” When we got to security they checked that the bottled water that we brought was sealed and had us open our bags and my binoculars case. We entered the stadium at around 6:50 pm.
On our tickets it said that the game didn’t start until 7:10 pm. We decided to get some food for dinner before sitting down. We looked around. Some vendors were selling grilled Dodger Dogs and other food right out of big coolers. We were in a non-covered part of the concourse and had to go to a covered part to get the Brooklyn Dodgers pizza. It cost $8.75 and was a large rectangular section of pizza, much larger than one or two regular slices. My wife got the kind with Italian sausage, peppers, and onions. We paid with credit card since most of the counter vendors allowed that. We then queued up to get some garlic fries at Gordon Biersch. The queue was very long and moving very slowly. It was only 6:55 pm but we could already hear a woman’s voice singing the National Anthem. I decided to just get a Dodger Dog at a smaller, less crowded vendor and get the garlic fries later. My wife was already eating her pizza. I got the $5 Dodger Dog but we still had to queue up to get to our seats. I ate some of the Dodger Dog while we waited. It tasted great as usual with a strong smoky flavor.
We got to our seats at 7:10 pm. The game had just started with the Braves batting and the Dodgers fielding. Our seats were very good in a lower section of the top deck of the stadium. We were closest to the outfield with the closest outfielder to us being Manny Ramirez. The young Clayton Kershaw was pitching for the Dodgers and I didn’t see longtime Brave Chipper Jones in their lineup. Kershaw and the defense played well, dispatching batters quickly with strikeouts, caught pop flies, and first base tags. Between the first and second inning they showed Brian Baumgartner on the jumbotron at the north end humorously giving the stadium rules. He said, “I’m going to make you pick up every peanut you drop,” and “drink responsibly” followed by a wink. The last shot was of him in actual attendance of the game. They showed lots of fun things on the jumbotron during breaks in the innings such as the Kiss Cam where they would show a couple and the fans would urge them to kiss. This segment ended with a marriage proposal. There was also footage of Michelle Wie’s visit to the clubhouse earlier that day. When batters were up they showed a photo of them on the jumbotron and their autograph on the scoreboard.
Just before the top of the 3rd inning I went to try to get garlic fries again. The queue at Gordon Biersch was even longer and there were still people entering the stadium to see the game. I queued up at 7:42 pm and the queue moved very slowly. One worker at the counter took his time filling up the cups of beer for patrons. He held the cups at angles to pour out the foam and sometimes he had to start over. I noticed that people would order a lot and spend between $40-$50 for a group of 2-4. I watched the game on the monitors mounted on the counters and waited for at least two innings to get my $6.75 basket of garlic fries. About the only thing I really missed, though, was a base hit by Dodger Rafael Furcal. I made it to the counter at 8:15 pm after waiting in the queue for 33 minutes. After getting my fries I walked around looking for where they sold the ice cream in the cute blue plastic Dodgers helmets. I saw that they sold popcorn in white Dodgers helmets and other vendors sold ice cream in pellet form and bar form, but I couldn’t find the cute blue helmets. The garlic fries were worth the hassle. They were delicious and made with lots of real garlic. To my wife’s disbelief, I finished the entire basket.
We continued to watch the game. On the scoreboard they gave the names of large parties in attendance including the City of Azusa. This drew cheers from our section and the ones surrounding it. The game was scoreless through the first six innings with a few base hits for both sides. We saw the mayor of Azusa sitting in the section to the right of us in a lower row. Above us some high school ROTC students wore their full uniforms with red sashes and berets. We saw Miss Azusa walking around, greeting people, and posing for photos. She wore a white Dodgers shirt with her blue “Miss Azusa” sash, blue jeans, a shiny tiara, and these high shiny blue platform shoes with stiletto heels. On the jumbotron they showed some celebrities in attendance including Matt Lanter (?) and later they showed Tom Hanks.
Kershaw retired all the batters in the 7th inning and then it was time for the 7th inning stretch. To sing “God Bless America” they presented Daniel Noriega, an American Idol contestant who was appropriately from Azusa. He sang well, very loud and soulfully. However, he sang one line “to the oceans white with gold” rather than “to the oceans white with foam.” I guess us Azusans don’t know much about oceans. They then had the crowd sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” karaoke-style with the words on one of the many marquees and then played “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey with the words also scrolling across the marquee so everyone could sing along. In the bottom of the 7th inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases and had John Lonetta pinch hit for Kershaw. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to convert.
Around this time we saw a kid making his way toward us in our row. We recognized him as the son of our cousins who had said they were also going to the game. We spotted where they were sitting in the section to the left of ours. They came over to visit us and I also walked over to visit them. A fight broke out in the section to the right of ours and the fans around us seemed more into that than the game. They were also more excited about tossing around a beach ball that was gradually deflating. One fan/instigator in front of us got many in our section to call out “Manny!” as Manny Ramirez stood in the outfield. On hearing that he turned towards us and held up a hand in acknowledgement. We saw a little girl climbing up the steps who was wearing a Manny wig with a blue doo rag. The wig looked like her real hair.
By the 9th inning it was still 0-0. Dodger closer John Broxton retired the Braves in the top keeping them scoreless. The played the beginning of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” over the speakers between the top and bottom of the 9th. But the Dodgers also did not score any runs in the bottom of the 9th pushing the game into extra innings. Things heated up in the top of the 10th with Guillermo Mota pitching for the Dodgers. First a Brave got a base hit and then Kelly Johnson hit a 2-run homer to put the Braves up 2-0 by the time Mota retired the side. As the Braves took the field and the Dodgers got ready to bat they played “Holding out for a Hero” from the film Footloose and sung by Bonnie Tyler over the speakers. The Dodgers tried to be heroic in the bottom of the 10th. Pinch hitter Juan Pierre got on base and I believe he stole second base. Andre Ethier hit a double that brought Pierre home. Then Manny Ramirez was at bat with two outs and least one other player on base. I thought, “He could hit a home run.” The last time I saw Manny Ramirez play was in 1998 when I saw the Angels play the Indians at Edison Field. When Ramirez was at bat my friend with me said, “Manny Ramirez, he could hit a home run.” And just as he said that, Manny hit a home run. But this time in 2009 the Braves stole Manny’s chance to be a hero by intentionally walking him as the crowd booed. The next batter, Matt Kemp, struck out and that was the game.
At the 8th or 9th inning we thought about leaving. Many in the crowd were leaving but we’re glad we stayed until the end. Our section spend some of the 9th heckling someone in an Angels shirt. He only egged them on as he left, pointing at his shirt. We did leave right when the game ended and since we were near the aisle we beat most of the crowd out of the stadium. We returned to our bus that luckily still had the Dan Newcomb paper jersey in the window. Dominique checked us off. It looked like some from our bus had left early and were already there sleeping. It was 10:50 pm when we reached the bus and the remaining riders quickly followed. The driver turned off the inside lights so we could sleep and started moving at 11:01 pm. He joined the rest of the traffic leaving via Elysian Park Avenue but he turned right at Sunset Boulevard rather than left to go back the way we came. We wondered if he was going to drive to Glendale Avenue and then got on the 2. But then he turned right on Echo Park Avenue and we had no idea where he was going.
The driver also wasn’t sure where he was going. Echo Park Avenue became a steep, narrow drive lined with old, dark, quiet houses. It reminded me a bit of some scenes from Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch mystery Echo Park that I ready earlier in the year (see earlier review). The bus stopped and I think the driver was consulting a map. He then drove in reverse down the hill until he found a parking lot where he could turn around. After turning around the we went back down Echo Park Avenue and turned left on Sunset. Now we were going towards the freeways we had taken earlier. We turned right on Grand Avenue and passed the impressive new High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, also known as High School Number 9. We got onto the 101 south that turned into the 10 east.
There was more traffic on the 10. They were doing that road work I had read about in e-mails. We got through that and traffic was smooth. It looked busier going the other way. We took the 605 north to the 210 west. We exited at Citrus and returned to the APU west parking lot, the former drive-in. It was after midnight when we drove our car through the APU lots and returned home.
We had fun attending a Dodger game with many from our hometown despite the home team losing. It was nice not having to drive all the way to the stadium and park ourselves, though we had a bit of an adventure returning to the 101 freeway after the game. We probably won’t go to another game this year but may be go to another Azusa L.A. Dodgers Family Night someday. Maybe then my wife can have ice cream in the cute Dodgers helmet.
In June 2009 I read in the Azusa city newsletter that comes with the utility bill about the City of Azusa Los Angeles Dodgers Family Night. It seemed pretty good, only costing $15 per person. But what really sold it for me was that transportation to and from Dodgers Stadium was provided. We would save on parking and gas and we could just sit back while the shuttle bus made its way through the stadium traffic. I called the number in the newsletter and they said I could buy the tickets at the City of Azusa Parks and Rec Department. I assumed this was at the Azusa Civic Center on Foothill Blvd. at Dalton Avenue. But when I went there some employees told me I had to go to Memorial Park in western Azusa on Angeleno Avenue. It’s west of Azusa Avenue and San Gabriel Avenue and it’s a long park with soccer fields and basketball courts. The Parks and Rec Department is in the farthest south of the group of buildings on the west side of the park. I bought two tickets, choosing them near the aisle so we could easily come and go. They gave me seats in the Lower Reserve section 47, row U, seats 1 and 2. I also signed some waivers and picked up a notice saying where and when to catch the shuttle bus.
My wife posted the Dodger game as a calendar event on Multiply. Her cousin saw it and said she and her family were also going to the game. A friend of theirs who works for the city of Azusa got them tickets. They didn’t yet know where their seats were located. I gave them our seat locations and we hoped to see each other. We waited all through July and the first full week of August before game day finally arrived.
On game day, Saturday, August 8, 2009, we left home at around 4:20 pm, drove north on Citrus Avenue and turned left on Foothill Blvd. There was a blinking red light at the intersection, possibly due to construction. There was also a sign indicating where to go for Dodgers parking. We drove west on Foothill and turned right into the drive with the address on the notice I was given: 701 E. Foothill Blvd. But this just looked like a parking lot for Azusa Pacific University and not the former drive-in movie theater that was mentioned in the notice. We spotted the former drive-in and drove across some confusing driveways to get there. The parking at the former drive-in was bumpy and uneven. With care, we made our way to a spot. It was barely 4:30 pm, the beginning of the check-in time and there were already many cars parked there. We walked over to a flat area of the lot to the west where most of the people were going, many of them wearing Dodger hats and blue Dodger shirts. They had some tarps set up and some lists posted with seat numbers and names. Each list was for a bus.
There were many buses parked nearby from all different charter bus operators. Each bus was identified by the name and number of a famous historic or current Dodger. They had the paper outline of the jersey in the window on the door to each bus. There was one for Drysdale (#53), Koufax, Ramirez (as in Manny, #99), Lasorda, Scully (with a microphone icon instead of a number), Robinson (as in Jackie), Valenzuela, Garvey, Alston, Gibson, Cey, Piazza, Campanella, Wills, etc. We had trouble finding our names on the posted bus manifests. They didn’t seem to be grouped by seat number but rather by party and some parties were very large. We finally found our names on the manifest for bus number 36: Newcomb (as in Dan). I believe we were the only ones from section 47LR on that bus. There were lots of people milling around the manifests and meeting up with their parties. There was also a grill were they were serving hot dogs. After looking through two rows of buses we found Newcomb # 36. A coordinator for the bus named Dominique check off our names and gave us two tickets to get hot dogs and drinks at the grill we had seen. They had thought of everything: parking (free at the drive-in), transportation, even the food. But we had planned to eat at the stadium. There were some specific food items we wanted to try there. I did get a couple of extra bottles of water, though.
Dominique gave us more waivers to sign and some raffle tickets to write our names on and return to her. The bus was large and tall with a tiny restroom inside the back. On the outside sides of the bus were images of a dove and rainbow and the words “Luxury Motor Daytours”. A few other buses looked the same but most were from different tour companies. We boarded at 5 pm, filled out our waivers and raffle tickets and returned them to Dominique. It was very warm outside, around 90 degrees, I think, and we felt it better to wait in the bus. There were other people on board, some in large family groups of 6+. More people boarded as we waited. Some seated near us were very lively. Out the window I saw the mayor of Azusa holding up the Robinson paper jersey near another bus. He wore a shiny white Dodgers shirt with a collar and short sleeves. I recognized him from another city function where I met him. I counted at least 15 other buses and with about 48 seats per bus. That meant between 700 and 800 people were participating in Azusa L.A. Dodgers Family Night.
Our bus finally started moving at 5:45 pm, 15 minutes after the departure time given on the notice. The bus driver played the hip hop radio station 97.1 FM. We heard the song “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black-Eyed Peas for what would be the first of 3 times over the weekend. The bus exited the parking lot, drove west on Foothill Blvd, and turned left to go south on San Gabriel Avenue, the one-way street that eventually becomes the south lanes of Azusa Avenue. The bus got on the 210 to go west and drove to the 605 south to the 10 west. There wasn’t much traffic on any of these freeways. We didn’t hit traffic until we got on the 101 in Downtown L.A. It looked like we were going to the 110 north but, instead, we exited at Grand Avenue, drove north and then turned left onto Cesar E. Chavez Avenue. We rode west past the massive Orsini apartment complexes. After going under the 110, Cesar E. Chavez became Sunset Boulevard. We took this until we got to Elysian Park Avenue where the bus turned right. This avenue led straight into the Dodger Stadium parking lot. On the way they called everyone’s name. There were 32 people on the bus and 4 named David or 12.5% of the total. Dominique then drew two raffle tickets: the first for a Dodger player bobblehead doll and the second for a Dodgers poster. We didn’t win either of them.
The bus approached the entrance to the stadium parking lot and we saw that it costs $15 for cars to park there. It costs $35 for buses to park there so we were getting a great deal paying only for the two $15 tickets to the game. The bus parked in section 12 of the stadium parking lot along with the other buses and buses for other parties. Some of the buses looked very retro. We arrived at 6:30 pm. As we exited the bus, Dominique handed us bags of peanuts with Dan Newcomb #36 label stickers on them to remind us of which bus to take back. We followed the crowd up the hill to the west entrance of the stadium. We queued up to enter at 6:40 pm. People were going through security and that was taking a while. A sign said “Prohibited: glass bottles, cans, alcoholic beverages, coolers, bags larger than 14 inches, signs/banners, beach balls, or weapons.” When we got to security they checked that the bottled water that we brought was sealed and had us open our bags and my binoculars case. We entered the stadium at around 6:50 pm.
On our tickets it said that the game didn’t start until 7:10 pm. We decided to get some food for dinner before sitting down. We looked around. Some vendors were selling grilled Dodger Dogs and other food right out of big coolers. We were in a non-covered part of the concourse and had to go to a covered part to get the Brooklyn Dodgers pizza. It cost $8.75 and was a large rectangular section of pizza, much larger than one or two regular slices. My wife got the kind with Italian sausage, peppers, and onions. We paid with credit card since most of the counter vendors allowed that. We then queued up to get some garlic fries at Gordon Biersch. The queue was very long and moving very slowly. It was only 6:55 pm but we could already hear a woman’s voice singing the National Anthem. I decided to just get a Dodger Dog at a smaller, less crowded vendor and get the garlic fries later. My wife was already eating her pizza. I got the $5 Dodger Dog but we still had to queue up to get to our seats. I ate some of the Dodger Dog while we waited. It tasted great as usual with a strong smoky flavor.
We got to our seats at 7:10 pm. The game had just started with the Braves batting and the Dodgers fielding. Our seats were very good in a lower section of the top deck of the stadium. We were closest to the outfield with the closest outfielder to us being Manny Ramirez. The young Clayton Kershaw was pitching for the Dodgers and I didn’t see longtime Brave Chipper Jones in their lineup. Kershaw and the defense played well, dispatching batters quickly with strikeouts, caught pop flies, and first base tags. Between the first and second inning they showed Brian Baumgartner on the jumbotron at the north end humorously giving the stadium rules. He said, “I’m going to make you pick up every peanut you drop,” and “drink responsibly” followed by a wink. The last shot was of him in actual attendance of the game. They showed lots of fun things on the jumbotron during breaks in the innings such as the Kiss Cam where they would show a couple and the fans would urge them to kiss. This segment ended with a marriage proposal. There was also footage of Michelle Wie’s visit to the clubhouse earlier that day. When batters were up they showed a photo of them on the jumbotron and their autograph on the scoreboard.
Just before the top of the 3rd inning I went to try to get garlic fries again. The queue at Gordon Biersch was even longer and there were still people entering the stadium to see the game. I queued up at 7:42 pm and the queue moved very slowly. One worker at the counter took his time filling up the cups of beer for patrons. He held the cups at angles to pour out the foam and sometimes he had to start over. I noticed that people would order a lot and spend between $40-$50 for a group of 2-4. I watched the game on the monitors mounted on the counters and waited for at least two innings to get my $6.75 basket of garlic fries. About the only thing I really missed, though, was a base hit by Dodger Rafael Furcal. I made it to the counter at 8:15 pm after waiting in the queue for 33 minutes. After getting my fries I walked around looking for where they sold the ice cream in the cute blue plastic Dodgers helmets. I saw that they sold popcorn in white Dodgers helmets and other vendors sold ice cream in pellet form and bar form, but I couldn’t find the cute blue helmets. The garlic fries were worth the hassle. They were delicious and made with lots of real garlic. To my wife’s disbelief, I finished the entire basket.
We continued to watch the game. On the scoreboard they gave the names of large parties in attendance including the City of Azusa. This drew cheers from our section and the ones surrounding it. The game was scoreless through the first six innings with a few base hits for both sides. We saw the mayor of Azusa sitting in the section to the right of us in a lower row. Above us some high school ROTC students wore their full uniforms with red sashes and berets. We saw Miss Azusa walking around, greeting people, and posing for photos. She wore a white Dodgers shirt with her blue “Miss Azusa” sash, blue jeans, a shiny tiara, and these high shiny blue platform shoes with stiletto heels. On the jumbotron they showed some celebrities in attendance including Matt Lanter (?) and later they showed Tom Hanks.
Kershaw retired all the batters in the 7th inning and then it was time for the 7th inning stretch. To sing “God Bless America” they presented Daniel Noriega, an American Idol contestant who was appropriately from Azusa. He sang well, very loud and soulfully. However, he sang one line “to the oceans white with gold” rather than “to the oceans white with foam.” I guess us Azusans don’t know much about oceans. They then had the crowd sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” karaoke-style with the words on one of the many marquees and then played “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey with the words also scrolling across the marquee so everyone could sing along. In the bottom of the 7th inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases and had John Lonetta pinch hit for Kershaw. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to convert.
Around this time we saw a kid making his way toward us in our row. We recognized him as the son of our cousins who had said they were also going to the game. We spotted where they were sitting in the section to the left of ours. They came over to visit us and I also walked over to visit them. A fight broke out in the section to the right of ours and the fans around us seemed more into that than the game. They were also more excited about tossing around a beach ball that was gradually deflating. One fan/instigator in front of us got many in our section to call out “Manny!” as Manny Ramirez stood in the outfield. On hearing that he turned towards us and held up a hand in acknowledgement. We saw a little girl climbing up the steps who was wearing a Manny wig with a blue doo rag. The wig looked like her real hair.
By the 9th inning it was still 0-0. Dodger closer John Broxton retired the Braves in the top keeping them scoreless. The played the beginning of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” over the speakers between the top and bottom of the 9th. But the Dodgers also did not score any runs in the bottom of the 9th pushing the game into extra innings. Things heated up in the top of the 10th with Guillermo Mota pitching for the Dodgers. First a Brave got a base hit and then Kelly Johnson hit a 2-run homer to put the Braves up 2-0 by the time Mota retired the side. As the Braves took the field and the Dodgers got ready to bat they played “Holding out for a Hero” from the film Footloose and sung by Bonnie Tyler over the speakers. The Dodgers tried to be heroic in the bottom of the 10th. Pinch hitter Juan Pierre got on base and I believe he stole second base. Andre Ethier hit a double that brought Pierre home. Then Manny Ramirez was at bat with two outs and least one other player on base. I thought, “He could hit a home run.” The last time I saw Manny Ramirez play was in 1998 when I saw the Angels play the Indians at Edison Field. When Ramirez was at bat my friend with me said, “Manny Ramirez, he could hit a home run.” And just as he said that, Manny hit a home run. But this time in 2009 the Braves stole Manny’s chance to be a hero by intentionally walking him as the crowd booed. The next batter, Matt Kemp, struck out and that was the game.
At the 8th or 9th inning we thought about leaving. Many in the crowd were leaving but we’re glad we stayed until the end. Our section spend some of the 9th heckling someone in an Angels shirt. He only egged them on as he left, pointing at his shirt. We did leave right when the game ended and since we were near the aisle we beat most of the crowd out of the stadium. We returned to our bus that luckily still had the Dan Newcomb paper jersey in the window. Dominique checked us off. It looked like some from our bus had left early and were already there sleeping. It was 10:50 pm when we reached the bus and the remaining riders quickly followed. The driver turned off the inside lights so we could sleep and started moving at 11:01 pm. He joined the rest of the traffic leaving via Elysian Park Avenue but he turned right at Sunset Boulevard rather than left to go back the way we came. We wondered if he was going to drive to Glendale Avenue and then got on the 2. But then he turned right on Echo Park Avenue and we had no idea where he was going.
The driver also wasn’t sure where he was going. Echo Park Avenue became a steep, narrow drive lined with old, dark, quiet houses. It reminded me a bit of some scenes from Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch mystery Echo Park that I ready earlier in the year (see earlier review). The bus stopped and I think the driver was consulting a map. He then drove in reverse down the hill until he found a parking lot where he could turn around. After turning around the we went back down Echo Park Avenue and turned left on Sunset. Now we were going towards the freeways we had taken earlier. We turned right on Grand Avenue and passed the impressive new High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, also known as High School Number 9. We got onto the 101 south that turned into the 10 east.
There was more traffic on the 10. They were doing that road work I had read about in e-mails. We got through that and traffic was smooth. It looked busier going the other way. We took the 605 north to the 210 west. We exited at Citrus and returned to the APU west parking lot, the former drive-in. It was after midnight when we drove our car through the APU lots and returned home.
We had fun attending a Dodger game with many from our hometown despite the home team losing. It was nice not having to drive all the way to the stadium and park ourselves, though we had a bit of an adventure returning to the 101 freeway after the game. We probably won’t go to another game this year but may be go to another Azusa L.A. Dodgers Family Night someday. Maybe then my wife can have ice cream in the cute Dodgers helmet.
RSS Feed