Ballparks # 23 - Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

9/7/2022

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles (7 September 2022)

With the Hawaii time behind us, we settled back in Los Angeles with friends who joined my ballpark quest to add one more to the life list. My first visit to Dodger Stadium and they were playing the rival San Francisco Giants. Interesting how these two teams were rivals when they were both in New York City and continue to be now they are on the left coast. Having arranged to be there months earlier, it was fortuitous timing to have the Giants in town and that the starting pitcher for the home team would be their best hurler, Clayton Kershaw. On the other hand, what dominated the event was the stinky hot weather.

Dodger Stadium

(Photo taken from J. Goldberg, MLB Ballparks, From Oldest to Newest,

Baseball Digest, 3/31/2017)

As was noted in the California Angels story, both teams’ early years in Southern California co-mingled a bit. The Dodgers played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum until their new stadium was completed in Chavez Ravine, where the Angels played for a few years. After sixty years, that perfect ballpark that seats 56,000 has never altered its seating. Over time, every other stadium in the game has changed its capacity.

This wall painting homage to the Dodger

origins is on the upper deck concourse.

If any team has a history to rival that of the New York Yankees, it would be the Dodgers. The professional baseball club was established in 1883 in the City of Brooklyn (before it was incorporated as a borough in the City of New York). When they joined the National League in 1890, the Brooklyn Grays became the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. The ‘Dodger’ name first appeared in 1911 when the club’s name was Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers. The name was shortened to ‘Dodgers’ in 1932 and only the city’s name has changed since.

Dodger Stadium from the Parking Area (7 September 2022)

Being a Bronx kid and knowing that Brooklyn was like another country, I grew up a Yankee fan. My earliest memories of watching games on TV were World Series contests between the Dodgers and Yankees. This was a regular event at the time before baseball expanded the leagues and gave more teams a chance to work their way up through preliminary playoff rounds. When the best team in the National League (the Dodgers have won that pennant a record 24 times) played the best team in the American League in the ten-year stretch that ended in 1956, six times it was a ‘Subway Series’ with the Dodgers vs. the Yankees.

Those were the days when most World Series games were played during the day...while I was in school. It was hard to concentrate in those afternoon classes knowing the action was happening. I still remember one time peering through the locked doors to my elementary school auditorium to see that someone had a TV and was watching the game. Drat! When will three o’clock come so I can race home and catch what little was left to see on our grainy 13-inch, black and white set?

Seeking the Shade, Dodger Stadium (7 September 2022)

I remembered the Dodger games I’ve seen in recent years. The stadium was full of fans and it dawned on me the games were at night. On this day, the gametime temperature was 99°. The bleachers were practically empty. The announced attendance was 39,000, which I think overstated the fact. The fans who did show seemed to abandon seats closer to the action for blessed shade.

When I bought the tickets, there was zero thought about where the sun would be. Beck and our hosts were already sweating as we walked down the aisle toward the sun. I earned some props when we came to our seats...in the last row of shade...with the sun moving further away. I said I arranged that just for effect.

Upper Deck View of Downtown Los Angeles

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles (7 September 2022)

The stadium was carved into Chavez Ravine. The home plate/first base side is well below grade as the view back toward downtown from the top of the upper deck is close to ground level.

Behind Center Field, Dodger Stadium (7 September 2022)

A few fans preferred to sit in the shade of the scoreboard

Where they could listen to radio play-by-play

 

Jackie Robinson Mural

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles (7 September 2022)

The Dodger organization is among the most storied and successful franchises in all of sport. They have produced many MVP players, Cy Young winning pitchers and championships. They are also known for being the first team in the majors to (finally) sign and play a Black man. Although Jackie Robinson was past his prime as an athlete and baseball was his fourth-best sport (he and others believed he was better at football, basketball and track), he had a Hall of Fame career and changed America’s sport forever.

 

Monuments to Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles (7 September 2022)

Today’s ballparks are adding monuments to the team’s great players. Two of the game’s best were Dodgers. Beyond the Jackie Robinson statue in the foreground is one of Sandy Koufax. I remember Koufax when he was the best pitcher in the game. In the four-year stretch from 1963-66, his record was 97-27 and he won the Cy Young three times.

The date at the top is a link to ‘Baseball References’ page with this game’s box score and stats. The Dodger ace and future Hall of Fame pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, started the game but could not get the win. He sweated through six innings before the home team prevailed late 7-3.