30 Stadiums Tour: Father's Day At The Stadium, Dodger Stadium

Father's Day At The Stadium, Dodger Stadium

View From Our Seats

After seeing the Angels the next stop was only back up I-5 about 30-45 minutes depending on traffic. Dad and I were headed to our last stop before he flew home to our family and work.

As this was a Sunday there was no Batting practice so we arrived about an hour early. I had been checking tickets online the night before and all morning and it seemed like there were plenty of tickets available for the game even though it was a Sunday afternoon and it was Father's Day. Dodger games very rarely sell out. The stadium is so large and so almost anyone who wants to can get a ticket to that day's game in one of the 5 decks. Dad and I got stuck in traffic on the way to the game as you would expect in LA. we got to the stadium and there was a traffic jam getting into the parking lot. As I was driving through the gate I saw a sign saying "Game Sold Out." This was not good because we didn't have tickets yet. I was going to be heart broken if we couldn't get into the game on Father's Day. I would feel absolutely terrible, especially since dad had been saying we should get tickets ahead of time.

We parked and started walking up the steep hills of Chavez Ravine where on top lays Dodger Stadium. As we were walking I was praying "Lord please let us get tickets to this game." over and over again. We got to the ticketing window and I asked if there were any tickets and he said yes all I have is reserved which was completely fine by me so we got our tickets and entered the stadium. "YES! We got tickets I was thinking!"

The Traffic coming into the Stadium in the 5th inning

The Stadium

It was very cool to see the classic and historic Dodger Stadium. However that's about all I can say about it. It was a very simple ballpark. No bells and Whistles nothing to really draw the people in except baseball, which I actually did like. However I quickly discovered that you couldn't move from one level to another. Once you were on the level where your seats were you were stuck there. This felt very restricting and unfriendly. I don't see any harm in being able to roam all over the park. There were concessions all throughout our level however they were all the same thing. There were extremely limited concession options. I was ok with this on this day because of course I had to try a famous "Dodger Dog."

Dodger Dog

Pregame

There were many pregame festivities with it being Father's day. All the Dodger's players who had kids each went onto the field and had each of their kids throw them a first pitch. This was pretty cool to watch. There was also a soldier from the Marine Corps who had returned from a tour overseas and saved many of his comrades through his brave actions threw out the ceremonial first pitch. There was a slight pause as he was at the mound waiting for a catcher, the catcher game jogging all dressed in Dodgers catcher's equipment and uniform from head to toe. The pitch was thrown and the catcher walked out to the soldier to give him the ball as is custom and he took his mask off to reveal that he was the soldier's dad! They shared a long embrace and tears because they hadn't been together on Father's Day in 7 yrs.

The Game

The game was a low scoring affair as many are at Dodger Stadium. The White Sox scratched a run across in the 5th. In the 6th the Dodgers appeared to tie the game. A sacrifice fly was hit and the run on 3rd tagged and scored. However the White Sox appealed the play and the umpire ruled out. This made the Dodgers manager Don Mattingly furious. He came and yelled at the 3rd base umpire who made the call. The home plate umpire walked up the line to 3rd base and Mattingly then yelled at him. The home plate umpire then walked back and Mattingly followed him all the way back down yelling at him the whole time. This lasted for at least 3 minutes which is a long time for an argument. Needless to say Mattingly was ejected. The Dodgers pitcher Chris Capuano had 12 Strikeouts during the game which is a lot. The White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana pitched 8 scoreless innings. He was removed in the 9th and gave up a single to Bobby Abreu then another one that Abreu moved to 3rd on because he was stealing on the pitch. He then scored on a sacrifice fly and the game went to extra innings. The White Sox didn't do anything in to top of the 10th. The Dodgers Tony Gynn jr. hit a triple and then Lee Gordon drove him in with a single and then game was over. Gordon was mobbed but tried to run away from the mob and almost succeed because he is blazing fast. after he got out of the mob he kept running all the way into the dugout. Both Gynn and Gordon had father's who also played in the Big Leagues (Tony Gynn and Dwight "Doc" Gooden) which is kinda cool that they won the game the way they did on Father's Day.