Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

I don't care much for sports. As anyone who knows me or reads this blog could tell you, I'm a nerd, and we all know nerds don't like sports.

Of course, not being a sports fan shouldn't preclude me from attending a game once in awhile. Last night my employer, the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning, hosted a "game night" event in which me and about 25 co-workers saw the L.A. Dodgers end the Philadelphia Phillies' winning streak with a 5-1 victory. Friends were allowed too, so of course I invited Bill and Michael to come along. Everyone paid $10 for $3 tickets, with the proceeds going to charity. Good fun for a good cause.

An aerial photograph of Dodger Stadium and its environs, snagged from Google Earth

Although I've been a denizen of this burg for 8 years, this was only my second trip to Dodger Stadium. It occupies some of the best real estate in Los Angeles - the hills of Elysian Park, adjacent to downtown. The story of how this real estate, which once held the community of Chavez Ravine, became home to Dodger Stadium is L.A.'s greatest shame. Rather than tell you the story here, I advise you to watch "The Chavez Ravine Story," a series of excellent Flash comics. As you can see in the aerial photograph, it is designed for automobiles more than for people, in keeping with the city's lifestyle. Michael remarked that the parking lot seems bigger than Disneyland's; he's probably right.

When Boston developer Frank McCourt bought the Dodgers from News Corp. (Fox) last year, many people speculated he would push for a new stadium in downtown and redevelop the huge property the team owns in Chavez Ravine. According to Bill, Mr. McCourt has publicly pledged to keep Dodger Stadium intact for at least 25 years but admitted that he is looking into building parking structures and developing some of the stadium's sprawling parking lots.

This photo, which is pretty crappy (like the others in this post) because I took it with my cell phone camera, shows the view of downtown from the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.

Bill, who attends a lot of Dodger games, led us to our seats, or at least what he thought were our seats. Turned out we were about 8 rows further down than we were supposed to be. It was quite embarassing to have to move in plain sight of my co-workers, who must be convinced I don't know how to read an admission ticket. Our assigned seats were a couple rows further up from the rest of my co-workers, so my friends weren't forced into mingling with my co-workers and vice versa.

The photo above shows the view from my seat. The cool dude on the left wearing a cowboy hat and holding a camera is Steven, one of my fellow Zoning Enforcement Officers serving South Los Angeles and also one of the organizers of the event. Here's a close up of the infield:

No game is complete without a Dodger Dog and a few grossly overpriced beers:

This is a crappy photo of Bill finishing off a Corona. Note the hipster glasses.

This is a crappy (and also blurry) photo of Michael doing the same. Note that Michael is sporting the shirt he bought at the game - less than 2 weeks in L.A. and he's already fallen in love.

We stayed until the end, and a Dodger victory meant they played Randy Newman's classic song "I Love L.A." In my inebriated state, I felt compelled to sing along.

After the game, a small group of co-workers wanted to keep things rolling by going to Koreatown and engaging in a little karaoke. Since I try to be a "team player" outside the office as well as inside it, I went along. Bill and Michael weren't interested and instead they went to Tommy's for some of their famous chili burgers and chili fries.

Michael had left his iPod at my apartment, and as I sobered up I realized maybe karaoke wasn't such a great idea, so the guys picked me up from Koreatown. But not before one of my co-workers insisted I do a rendition to Guns and Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine" that he labeled as "horrible." I am glad Bill and Michael extricated me before I could inflict further indignities to myself.

I suppose the moral of this story is that I can't sing. I can't sing "I Love L.A." and I can't sing "Sweet Child of Mine" or anything else, for that matter.

Baseball games are fun, even if you don't like sports.