Close to $50K Spent on LAPD Lunches at Michael Jackson Memorial Service
So Little, So Much: Jackson's Daughter Speaks at Memorial
Do Transit Oriented 'Livable Communities' Leave Out the Middle Class?
Interview: Film Critic Elvis Mitchell, Host of KCRW's 'The Treatment'
Photos: A Trip to the Glendale Farmers' Market
As over 150,000 Dodger fans spent three days showing Barry Bonds as much hate as they could muster, Sporting News saw fit to profess its love to Los Angeles.
Yesterday, in an article entitled "Best Baseball City: Los Angeles," Managing Editor Stan McNeal expounded upon why he believes this to be the best town in which to be a fan.
In running through a laundry list of well-reasoned arguments in favor of Los Angeles (and Anaheim), McNeal touches upon a vast array of items people usually pick as cons against Los Angeles and its baseball fans.
Football, for example, long a sticking point for those who think we somehow lack for sport in a city of unparalleled and generally amazing athletic success, is something McNeal tackles:
In L.A., baseball doesn't have to share headlines with the NFL.
He also takes on the long-held view that fans who leave early and come late, as some Dodger fans are wont to do (as, are some fans in every ballpark), are somehow not real fans:
You might think the best fans are the ones who stay to the end no matter what. I think the best fans are the ones smart enough to know when to leave.
McNeal then addresses the East Coast, taking dead aim at the ol' bastions of tradition, New York and Boston:
In L.A., stress is not a requirement for attending games. In N.Y., there's the subway crowds and old, dumpy ballparks. In Boston, a bank loan is needed to purchase tickets to sit in tiny, cramped seats where you may or may not have an obstructed view.
Finally, McNeal, who also addressed the cleanliness of Dodger Stadium and the success of its franchise, ends with a display of both his understanding of the local culture and his love for the city:
If you don't understand my reasoning by now, I'll say only one thing. Slip on your sandals, strap on your shades and get going, dude. L.A. baseball is awesome.
The only thing he left out, in my estimation, was a paragraph on the venerable Vin Scully, whose brilliant career as the Dodgers main announcer will be over too soon whenever it ends. Each tradition-filled baseball town has had its share of great voices that, over time, became synonymous with their team. Jack Buck in St. Louis, Bob Shepperd, the so called "Voice of God" for the Yankees and, of course, Vinny in Los Angeles. Not one announcer has squeezed such poetry and prose into a 9 inning game as Vinny has done for the past 57 years.
For Scully, and the other reasons mentioned, McNeal is right on: Los Angeles is the best baseball town.
Photo via Flickr, by kla4067
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
this is crap. i'm sorry but dodgers fans are the worst baseball fans i've ever seen. every game i go to, people are more concerned with doing the wave or whacking a beach ball around. meanwhile, there's a baseball game going on. dodgers fans have the attention span of a gnat. and as far as being a "stress free environment", the parking lot in dodger stadium is the most poorly planned, frustrating place i've ever been. these reasons and more are why i don't go there anymore.
LA, I love ya. But that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Much respect to all the real Dodger and Angel fans out there, but best baseball city? Please, its not even close.
#1 - Please. Why don't you just throw out every other hackneyed cliche about Los Angeles and its baseball fans? So the fans at the game don't know the minute details of the double-squeeze and the hit and run. Big freakin' deal. Plainly speaking, it's provincial crazies like you that have been ensuring that baseball becomes less and less popular in most locations year after year.
I go to Dodgers Stadium to enjoy a hot dog, a beer, the company of my friends, and a baseball game. So shoot me for not being a inane purist who shows up 45 minutes before the game to watch batting practice and listen to Vin Scully on headphones that were purchased sometime during the Ford administration.
The greatest aspect of Dodgers Stadium, in my mind, is the diversity of the crowd. It is not a homogenous crowd by any stretech of the imagination - attend any game in Chicago, Boston and St. Louis, and it's all the same people - affluent white folks from the suburbs. I lived in Boston for two years, and I went to plenty of Red Sox games. Don't get me wrong - it's fun, but diverse it certainly ain't. It mine as well be a giant homeowner's association meeting. There is no such problem at Chavez - it's a motley group of folks, and I love it.
Heh ... you people sound like Chicago northsiders trying to defend Wrigleyville. I'm sorry ... Dodger baseball is pretty cool for the same reason Boston baseball is cool (a nifty old stadium), but Los Angeles is as much a baseball town as Denver or Seattle or Tampa Bay. You want real baseball, go to Chicago's south side or Boston or (God help us) the Bronx. You want a good beer, go to Dodger Stadium.
Sign me a loyal Chicago Southsider. Go Sox!
I luuuuv Dodger baseball! Though I don't have much experience of watching games in other cities, the people at Dodger games are incredibly friendly and hilarious. Yes, the parking situation is a disaster, but the stadium sits atop a small mountain. There are only so many ways you're going to get off it.
So Dodger fans appear to arrive late and leave early.
EVERY FUCKING BALLPARK HAS THAT VERY SAME THING!!!!
The only difference is because of the architecture -- you can SEE the parking lot at Dodger Stadium, whereas the parking lot (if it exists at all) is safely out of view in other parks.
The ones that arrive late live in far-off suburban areas like Santa Clarita, Moorpark, Fontana or even -- dare I say it -- Orange County. If the games started at 8:10 p.m. instead, you'd see a LOT more fans arrive on time, but Noooo, MLB has to cater to those watching on the (l)east coast.
Also, you East Coast and Chicago whiners never realize that your cities have baseball teams because they were required to exist there. We have baseball because we WANTED it here. And without baseball in Los Angeles, it wouldn't be the national, no, INTERNATIONAL sport it is today.
LOL at #3' "Homeowner Association meeting" quip. Just face it fools, you transplants really hate Los Angeles because of all them minorities.
wait did someone just invite us to go to the south side of chicago to watch baseball?
in a hole called The Cell?
built on a parking lot?
now if this was the '70s and you were talking about the Old Comiskey Park with Bill Veeck roaming the stands, and hard liquor being sold, and Harry singing, and Jimmy Piersall calling the players' wives sluts, and Steve Dahl blowing up disco records then MAYBE the invite would be plausible.
but in 2007?
are you high?
besides, what they do there now isn't even baseball.
no wonder you dont put your name next to your bs.
Who cares WHY we Chicago whiners have baseball, or whether it was required or whatever. (Any read of White Sox or Cubs history will tell you that's not true.) Maybe you West Coasters did want baseball enough to steal it from other cities who gave the teams far more support than Los Angelinos or San Franciscans have ever shown. That's all history. What's important is now, and now if you're a real baseball fan, you'll get a better experience in Chicago or Boston or New York, or even Detroit or Cincinnati. If you're a fan of sitting in the sun under a palm tree and drinking beer, go see the Dodgers or the Modesto Angels of Bakersfield or whatever they're called these days.
LA is a great baseball town simply because it keeps the rabid fans to a minimum. Does anyone really want to sit near a bunch of potential Chicago or Boston crazies? You can actually bring kids to an Angels game, where there still remains a sense of civility and safety.
Scary does not equal great baseball town. It equals obnoxiousness and avoidance.
For #7,
First, I don't put my name next to my BS as an ongoing protest against the Randomcity-ist registration process. I suppose I could make up a fake name if it would make you feel better, but it's really just too much trouble.
Second, all those things you mention from the days of Old Comiskey were great, but really, how much do they have to do with baseball? Yeah, I wish the Cell had more character, but I go to watch a game, not to watch a crowd. And the crowd at the Cell seems to agree with me, which is why we're running around 35,000 fans at every game despite our bland ball park and our horrible, horrible, horrible record.
Let me repeat ... IT'S ABOUT BASEBALL, NOT THE SHOW THAT GOES WITH IT. Los Angeles is a show city. Chicago is a baseball city.
As for a stadium build on a parking lot, a Dodger fan really is treading on thin water there. Mind you, I like Dodger Stadium, but I'll take my view of construction on the Dan Ryan Expressway over your palm trees and ready-to-burn mountains any day of the week.
#8 -
Who isn't a fan of sitting in the sun under a palm tree and drinking beer?
That sounds like a ringing endorsement for the Ravine to me. I know, I know, you East Coast people are big on that whole 'we need to suffer' thing. Us, not so much.
That's why we're generally more fun to be around, and you're all grumpy assholes.
LA is a great sports town. And while other cities just watch sports, LA actually PRODUCES the players.
for a guy who says he doesnt have time to put his real name next to his bullshit you sure have a lot of time to spew nonsense.
also, i grew up on Old Style in the bleachers of Wrigley. you dont have to be a Dodger fan to ridicule the Cell, Sox fans, or anonymous haters who try to suggest that AL baseball is Baseball.
Also, it would be one thing if the Dodgers did actually suck and everyone just came to sit under the sun in the most beautiful ballpark in baseball, but, heres's the thing: the Dodger franchise is one of the most successful in baseball history. We have won more World Series titles (6) than the Cubs (2) and the White Sox (3) combined and many as the Red Sox (6) over the last 100 years or so.
Now, I ain't ragging on those baseball towns. They are all great for their own reasons. But, part of the reason this article was written, I think, was to tell people that in spite of this being a "show city," we actually do love baseball.
We might show it in a different way. But go to any Dodger game and sit in the Pavilion, where the Wave is born every night, or glance down at the Dugout Club seats and see Dodger owner Frank McCourt watch the game next to the dugout. There is undeniable passion. When was the last time Steinbrenner showed his face in the stands during a regular season game?
"In N.Y., there's the subway crowds and old, dumpy ballparks."
That is seriously the dumbest fucking statement that I've read in a long time.
Because, you know, there's no traffic involved in getting in and out of Dodger Stadium. And for the record, Yankee stadium, along with Wrigley and Fenway, are classics. Yeah, they're old. THAT'S THE FUCKING POINT.
Oh. That explains it, Mr. Pierce ... if you are, in fact, Mr. Pierce. (A name written at the end of a post is as likely to be as real as anything I could make up.) You started out a Cubs fan. You've probably never seen an actual game, so I'll try not to talk over your head. Next time you're at that pretty blue building with all the chairs on top of that hill, though, you might take a break in the middle of doing the wave to check out the guys standing out in the grass. It's actually pretty interesting, once you get into it.
but I'll take my view of construction on the Dan Ryan Expressway over your palm trees and ready-to-burn mountains any day of the week.
That's nice. So then MOVE BACK, MOTHERFUCKER!
Man, why are Cubs fans such assholes? Oh yeah, that's right, because only 18 Americans were alive when they won their last World Series, and the Cardinals won theirs just last year. And maybe also because Wrigley Field is nothing more than a tourist attraction where real fans are VASTLY outnumbered by tourists. Oh well, sucks to be you. Even the much-hated Giants franchise won a title (albeit in NYC) more recently.
Baseball purists? Ha. There are 30 MLB teams and only 1 has a winning percentage over .600 (Boston at .611). So the other 29 teams can't win six out of ten games. You'd better have a side-show or two, who can sit and watch this crap for 3.5 hours straight?
And steroids? There should be two Halls of Fame, one where you pissed in the cup and one were you didn't. I'll never forget ESPN chasing Mark McGuire all over the country and breaking every time he was at bat to bring it to us live and practically giving him a blow job on live TV with every pitch. Then, we turned on him like the rabid dogs we are.
Remember: this great country of ours was built on two principals: marketing and hypocrisy. Baseball fits right in.
Pete Rose said it best: "Waddaya got on da Mets-Phillies tonight?"
Militant,
the coward who refuses to even put an interesting fake name next to his bullshit is referring to the south side of chicago where something resembling cricket happens with fat guys constantly ending up on the DL who bat for the pitchers when theyre not washing sand out of their vaginas.
cub fans are rarely assholes unless you confuse us with sox fans or if you dare confuse wrigley field with anything less than the preview of Heaven that it is.
signed,
Tony Pierce
Editor, LAist
author of tonypierce.com
who has nothing to hide because theres nothing to be ashamed of when your not full of shit
i was the first "guest" to comment on this. i've since registered, Tony, because I too have nothing to hide.
First of all, are you seriously in any place to dis on the White Sox? Sounds to me, Tony, that you are an old school cubs fan and you hold a grudge because we won the world series. Here's why I'll never take anything Cubs fans say seriously. They'e too busy getting wasted in the bleachers and giving girls the date rape drug across the street at chotch ass bars like John Barleycorn's to care that their team has been a fucking disaster for about a hundred years. But I guess this is an argument that should be carried out at Chicagoist.
As for the Dodgers fans. I forgot another big point about going to games at Dodger Stadium. I have never once been to a game there where I didn't observe at least one brawl BETWEEN DODGER FANS. Wtf is this? I know that Dodger Stadium is a perfect model for a term paper on class struggle, and i've never actually sat in the expensive "white people" seats, nor have I ever been invited to Ron Howard's private skybox, but if there's going to be a fight, shouldn't it be with the other team's fans?
Being from Chicago's south side, I have no stake at all in any California Baseball clubs (or national league teams for that matter) but if I had to pick one I'd go with the Giants. Nicer park, and the fans actually pay attention to the game. No, you don't have to be wearing headphones and filling out a scorecard and shushing every kid around you. You just have to pay attention once in a while, something it seems to me is impossible for Dodgers fans.
btw, Tony, love yr site, seriously. No offense intended.
no offense taken dusted
and yes im old school
but no im not jealous. even though it hurt me to see the white sox and the red sox break their droughts before the cubbies did, i was happy for the poor saps who follow the junior circuit.
as for dodger fans fighting themselves, i think thats an LA thing because that happened at a lot of raider games when they played down here too.
as for the giants. i worked at the old 'Stick in 97. i was at every game selling food and beer and wine and crap to those people. frisco fans who went to Candlestick are very different fans than who are going to the new Balco Field. the old fans were truer fans if you ask me, but small in number.
in '97 the Giants were in first place from pretty much the beginning of the season until the end and during that whole season there were just two sellouts - opening day and once when the Dodgers were in town.
that, to me, loses all credibility when determining a baseball town.
"the junior circuit"
good one.
Why is it that people in L.A., according to a part of the population of the USA, are just retarded? We don't know baseball and we're more concerned with doing the wave? Yes, of course, because it's only in Chicago and NYC and Boston where you're taught how to keep score.
Then if it comes to bars or clubs, we just don't have the ambiance you have elsewhere, right? Why? Not really sure but someone will say the traffic.
The museums. Not significant enough. Why? Probably because of the traffic.
Make any sense? Of course not. I just love being hated on because you know you have something other people want and can't have.
Come on everyone. The truth is that the Dodgers are a storied franchise and have some of the best fans in baseball. The problem is that all those fans are back in Brooklyn and not in LA.
Interesting take Guest 25. If all the fans are in Brooklyn, I wonder who keeps coming out to Dodger Stadium. Since 2004, we've had the highest attendance in Major League Baseball. This year, the Dodgers are averaging 47,268 fans. I wonder how many frequent flyer miles those Brookly-ites get from flying 81 times to every Dodger home game.