March 27, 2008
Beautiful Place for a Ballgame
When the Dodgers host the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, the game could break baseball's all-time attendance record with almost 115,000 fans cramming into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A lot of people are excited about the exhibition, but it's not without detractors. Congestion and dimensions are two of the biggest fears. After going on a tour of the setup this morning, I don't think you could ask for more out of this historic location. File those concerns under "be advised" but not under "big deal."
Check out photos from the stadium (below) and more on parking and the Screen Monster (after the jump).
The initial buzz was that parking and lines would be like a USC football sellout. Plus 23,000 extra people. Plus nobody is really a "season ticket holder" for this event. So will 115,000 lost fans be running in all directions on Saturday?
Hardly.
With the first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m., parking lots will open at 8:00 a.m. and fans are welcome to do something they could never get away with in Chavez Ravine -- tailgate. At noon the Dodgers will host a family festival for ticket holders and people can trickle into their seats as early as 4:10 p.m. to watch batting practice. All these measures should help ease the congestion, and if the festival is successful in spreading out arrivals it could be one of the best crowd control techniques in this city's history.
Of course there will be some long lines and tedious delays (especially leaving the game), but this is LA -- it can't be much worse than usual.
The ballpark's layout is the most obvious head-scratcher. Due to seating modifications requested many years ago by Al Davis (which is the whole reason the new attendance record is possible), there's actually less room than when the Dodgers last played in the Coliseum in 1961. The left field fence is only 200 feet from home plate, but a whopping 60+ feet high (Fenway's fabled Green Monster is a smidge over 37 feet).
It might not be ideal for a regular season game, but baseball purists and radicals should be able to agree about this setup. One of the things that makes baseball special is that every stadium is unique (that's why we have ground rules). Uniform playing surfaces like football and basketball? Feh! If you ask a purist, ballparks should be different. They'll also appreciate something so similar to the 1959-61 configuration.
For the radicals who say "this is entertainment, let's mix it up!" the fence itself will solve that. The Dodgers have built a series of truss-like towers with a stretched mesh similar to the the protective ones you see behind home plate at most ballparks. Unlike those parks, balls that hit off of the Screen Monster will be in play. There were no baseballs around so I threw a roll of duct tape at it. If a ball smacks the middle of the netting, the structure may absorb a lot of heat and mimic traditional fences and walls. But balls that hit the towers will carom at funny angles and send the left fielder scrambling. That will be fun.
Parting advice part 1: If you happen to be sitting in section 19 (or around there), don't keep score. Don't hold two beers. Don't talk on your cell phone. Don't look away from the game. You're just over 200 feet from home plate, and you may not be totally shielded by the fence.
Parting advice part 2: Click here for parking suggestions.




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My balls are tingling in anticipation!
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Adam Rose is a really shitty writer. Look up the word fabled.
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sheesh, it's clear he meant, "storied." i think it's kind of a funny slip, actually. blame his editor! (j/k)
the baseball set-up at the coliseum looks spectacular. wish i were going to the game. :(
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ps - great photos, adam.
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Dishman,
I don't need to, but you might want to:
http://mw1.m-w.com/dictionary/fabled
It's not a common usage of the word in daily life, but you'll see it in a lot in good baseball stories. If you Google "fabled green monster" you'll also see that exact phrase used by the New York Times, ESPN, and even Major League Baseball:
http://www.google.com/search?q=fabled+green+monster&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
I'll concede that I'm terrible with homonyms, though.
Hugs,
Adam
PS: Thanks, BrainyLAgirl! :-)
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HELLZYAH! The Militant is going there and will be going Metro as well.
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Soooo in.