Showing posts with label Los Angeles Dodgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles Dodgers. Show all posts

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Spring Training 2010: Dodgers at Dbacks at Tucson Electric Park




Today we went to Tucson Electric Park to see the Dodgers face the Dbacks. The weather was much better than last weekend and we did actually see part of the game, but overall it was way worse and we actually left in the 6th inning. It just is not any fun to watch spring training anymore.

It was a sold out game and they cannot handle the crowds, which makes no sense because we have been to White Sox and Cubs sold out games at TEP and never found it this ridiculously handled. Dad went to get me a pretzel and came back an inning later with nothing because there were at least sixteen people in front of him and in that time only one person was served. That was the last straw for me. I was bored with the crappy playing of the teams of mostly players I had never heard of and hungry because I had assumed even though expensive I could eat at the ballpark.

Mik actually did not want to go at first, but all he was doing was sitting there playing his PSP and not even watching the game. He finally said he was bored, too, as he was not getting to see any of his favorite Dbacks play.




The funny thing is the program talks all about it is a bittersweet thing the team is leaving and that they promise this to be a great season for the fans. Well, the only thing that did not stink was the pin giveaway when we first came in. The team shop was okay, as I did get a nice Spring Training Dbacks baseball, but overall it was pretty dismal. It was nothing like how it used to have a lot of different things to chose from and more like it was when the Sidewinders were leaving. They just do not seem to care about were the team started or the fans down here anymore despite what they say in the magazine.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Game 22: Los Angeles Dodgers 8 @ New York Mets 0



We got to Citi Field around 3:40, which was about an hour before the gates opened. It turned out to be one of the most boring parks to arrive early to. The outside is rather boring for the most part or at least looks pretty much the same on each side, so it is not worth walking around. The only interesting thing is the markers in the parking lot where the bases, pitching mound, and home plate for Shea Stadium were located less than a year ago during the park's final season last year.



The park opened around 4:40pm and it took about 10 minutes to get in. We entered through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and the large 42 there is cool, but the rest is hard to look up and see from the bottom with the maze of stairs and escalators. Our first stop in the park was the team shop and that is when this park began to come across as worthless. The team shop was not even open and did not open until almost 5pm. I do not think it is too much to expect it to open with the park, especially since their website specifically says it opens with the park.

The whole feeling like in a park opened before the staff arrived continued when we got up to the concourse level and found almost all the food places closed. Not everything is, but the worst was getting up to our seats less than two hours before the game and Dad still having to go down to the main concourse to get drinks. It seems other than the main concourse outfield concessions pretty much nothing else opens until 1.5 before the game.



Our seats were not bad and I will give then credit for feeling like a modern ballpark in this respect, however just because the accessibility is good does not mean it is a good ballpark. Up until today it has always been the accessibility experience that has caused me to dislike a ballpark (Dodger Stadium and Rogers Centre). Citi Field, though, is just plain a waste. Not just a waste to go to, but a waste to have been built.



I do not know exactly what it is, but the best way I can describe it is that there is not anything special about it. The only uniqueness is a giant apple in centerfield, but even that is only raised up a few times a game (once before the game and 7th inning stretch, I also think for Mets home runs) and very briefly. There is no history to the park and at the same time no new modern ballpark feel. Honestly it feels like a disorganized run down park, which fits with the rather dismal playing by the Mets tonight.

If the game had any excitement, such as great pitching, lots of hits, or just a home team win, then it might not have been so bad, but nothing worthwhile happened. Sadly the highlight was the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez getting ejected in the 5th inning. Sure the Dodgers got a lot of runs, but two were walked in and several others got on base with walks. Plus most of the hitting was just singles. Oh, the game went on forever just because of everyone hitting tons of foul balls. Mik seriously thought they would run out of balls.

It did not help Mik wanted to leave since the bottom of the 2nd. He is back to being a total butthead now that we have done Fenway and there is nothing left on the itinerary he wants to do except see the new Harry Potter movie on the 15th. The lack of any sort of atmosphere (i.e. interesting things on the scoreboard or even just fans cheering for the right teams, as several seemed confused when to cheer or jeer) here almost made me want to leave early, but at the same time I wanted to stay because we had already made it through 21 complete games on the trip and I really think we should see a full game at every ballpark. Thus we toughed it out as the game dragged on and did see it until the final out.

I hesitate to call it the worst because there were some decent food options and the accessibility was not too bad. However, at the same time I would never go back except maybe if the Nats were playing. Toronto and the Dodger Stadium are still worse, as they are not worth going into for a game. This one is only barely worth it if your team is playing. Sadly it stands out as such a waste to have been built. Sorry, but I also do not accept it is just the kinks of the new ballpatk being worked out. The Nats and the Yankees have already proved to me personally you do not need until July of your Inaugural Season to have such kinks as disorganization and lack of ballpark created atmosphere (i.e. not the fans, but the scoreboard and sound stuff).

Sent from my iPhone

Update July 11, 2009: I finally got the Mets photos uploaded to the gallery here and added some to this post.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Accessibility Review: Dodger Stadium



At Dodger Stadium we sat in section 162. The parking was very conveniently located right outside the entrance to the stadium and section 162 was straight ahead from the entrance, so in that respect it was convenient. However, for game enjoyability the seats were not that great. First off you have the concrete of the sections above in the line of sight, which I am not used to because we usually sit in the highest section, but they do not seem to have handicap seats in those sections at Dodger Stadium. Secondly the seats are not raised above the section below like at the other ballparks we have been to so far, so the people in front easily block the view, which is really sad for those in wheelchairs because they cannot just stand up to look over the people. This became an even bigger problem when the game went into extra innings and everyone was standing up to see the game. Lastly we could not see the scoreboard, but that is mostly just a function of the particular section.

Now those are just minimal things that potentially you deal with in regular seats, too, and I could deal with the seats if that was it, but it was not the only problems. One of the major things Mik pointed out as discriminatory was that the handicap seats have no cup holders. Sure some ballparks do not have cup holders in any of the seats, but here they do except for those in the handicap row (see below for seats in front of us that had them and then the seats right in front of us have none). The other issue is the area we sat in is basically treated like a standing room area. It is totally annoying to have people crowded all around you as if standing to view a parade or something.



Basically it was a horrible seating experience, especially since we paid more for these tickets than the great All You Can Eat ones at the Padres. If they had been cheap section tickets I can see dealing with it also being a standing room area, but these were not the cheap seats at all. I do not think they were officially standing room, but the fans treated it that way and there were no ushers anywhere near by to shoo them away.

Mik's Food Scrapbook: Dodger Stadium



Since we could not locate what at least used to be the trademark food at Dodger Stadium according to the 2004 guidebook Mik just settled for a Dodger Dog. It turned out to not be that good and while it looks long and big it really is just a thin stretched out hot dog.



After his hot dog he enjoyed the fried in a helmet. The mini helmet the fries are in is about twice as big as the ice cream ones. He declared the fries delicious and since they were unique in being the first time we have seen them in a helmet it is the trademark food as far as he is concerned. At first he was not going to share, but there were a lot and they were filling, so I got to finish them up and I agree they were good fries.



Mik did not have the parfait, but it seemed worth mentioning in the food review post for Dodger Stadium because it is not often you see this kind of thing at ballparks and it was not like it was a simple small one like McDonalds does. This one had strawberries, granola that included sunflower seeds and other stuff, and dried cranberries. It was overall really good, but with all the stuff in it it really could have used more yogurt, as in the end there really was not much yogurt around the strawberries on the bottom.

Smashed Pennies: Dodger Stadium



At the Dodger game I sent Dad in search of the Smashed Penny machines since they were on the level above our seating. The one I had wanted was the Dodger Stadium one, but the machine with that one was out of order. At least the other machine was working and Mik and I each have a Dodger smashed penny. Mik chose the one that says LA Established 1958 leaving the Dodger shooting baseball logo one for me.

Car Stickers Update: Los Angeles Dodgers



We got the sticker for the car before the Dodger game and Dad even put it on the car before the game since we were parked right outside the team shop. I forgot to photograph it until we were on the way to Disneyland yesterday morning, though. I did, however, finally take a picture of the back of the car. We are going to put stickers from other places we go if we find any on the back. We were disappointed to find none at Disneyland yesterday expect plain Mickey characters that did not even say Disneyland.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Flaming Dodgers




My ball from the Dodgers is not all that interesting to me, but Mik for once was the one that cool thing in my opinion. He got a Dodger logo bat with a flame design on it. They also had a cool gold colored mini bat, but he said the logo on it was bad (I did not get a close look at it, but perhaps it was the LA logo). The flame one had the good logo in his opinion plus the cool colors of the flame.

Kj's Baseball Collection: Dodger Stadium



Yesterday at Dodger Stadium I got a ball that has a partial view of the field at the stadium. It also has the Dodgers logo with a baseball with stripes coming from behind it to show movement. It is better than no ball and in fact I do kind of like it, but it is not all that special and certainly would have entirely passed on all the Dodgers balls except this one is sort of of the stadium. The photo is just a rather odd view of just the outfield.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Game 3: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 4 @ Los Angeles Dodgers 5

We are just now leaving the massive parking lot from the game at Dodgers Stadium. The game was not too bad, but we certainly were not impressed with the park due to our seats. I did not mind overall, as the seats were right were we entered the park and the handicap parking was literally right in front of the entrance to the area we sat in.

The main issue, though, was it being a cross town game and the crowd being louder and more over the top than usual, which really pissed Mik off. He is barely into this trip in the first place, so it really does not take much to make him throw a fit about us staying until the game is over. It certainly did not help the game did not end with 9 innings. At least it was only 10 innings, but it was kind of a pathetic ending with them winning with a walk bringing in the winning run.

Despite the less than dramatic actual end to the game it was a good game. The Dodgers took an early 1-0 lead in the first. The Angels later tied it up with a home run in the fourth. They then scored three in the fifth to lead 4-1. The Dodgers quickly closed to gap to 1 with 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth. They then tied it up in the bottom of the 8th.

Mik might have hated the extra inning of the game and well actually kind of hated the last three innings once he stopped playing his DS and let the noise get to him. I on the other hand liked seeing an extra inning game, but would rather have seen the Angels win. Mik would have liked that, too, since the Dodgers in the lead in the division his Dbacks are in, but he was just relieved to have the game over in the end. At least borrowing my phone learning his Dbacks won while the 10th inning was going on got him to behave the last few at bats of the game.

Tomorrow should be a good day for him with no baseball. Of course, I love Disneyland, too, but I am also loving the baseball games despite the poor handicap seats at Dodger Stadium.

Update May 24, 2009: I now have the photos from the game uploaded here.