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February 29, 2008
Dodgers Coliseum Watch: The Bigger, the Better?
On Thursday with the enlightened press in tow, Frank McCourt broke ground at the LA Memorial Coliseum to prepare for the March 29 exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox.
Although the game has been sold out, the Dodgers have added a standing room only section behind the right field fence for 25,000 more tickets. Those tickets will go on sale Saturday for $10 a piece. If that sells out that means 115,000 people for a baseball game which would break the previous record of 93,103 the Dodgers drew on a May 7, 1959 exhibition game against the New York Yankees – a fundraiser for Roy Campanella whose career ended with a car accident.
Much has been made about the dimensions of the field. Back in the day the left-field wall was 250 feet away from home plate. With all the renovations at the Coliseum over the years, the distance for next month’s game will be only 200 feet. Because of that the screen will be adjusted from 42 feet to 62 feet.
On the day of the game the Dodgers will be holding a Fan Fest at the Coliseum which will have carnie games, baseball discussions with members of the organization and autograph tables. The Fan Fest will be open to ticket holders only free of charge.
To top it off, the gates will open at 4:10 which means fans can watch batting practice. The Dodgers will probably double the amount of balls used in batting practice because of the strange dimensions. So if you do make it there early, go to the left field. You’ll be almost guaranteed to get a ball, even one hit by Slappy McPopUp.
Now if any of you have been to a USC football home game, the parking situation is something left to be desired. So the Dodgers are offering free parking and shuttles at Dodger Stadium starting at 11 am.
So that’s a whole lotta information for a little exhibition game. But as the title suggests, does the sheer size of the spectacle make for a better game? It’s too early to say, but if Matt Kemp keeps on avoiding signs and running to third base with a runner already on third this could be more like a comedy of errors.
Photo courtesy AP Files
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With LF being that tiny, Juan Pierre might be able to throw a ball to 3B without having it bouncing. OK, maybe it will still bounce once....
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this link has some good info on when it was used for baseball by the Dodgers from 1959 to 1962:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LA_Coliseum#1950s-1960s
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I bought tickets to that game. I was wondering how it was going to work, a baseball diamond in a football field. With the picture it looks like left field won't be as deep as normal.