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March 30, 2008

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Boston Red Sox @ The Coliseum, 3/29/08

Yesterday, the Dodgers lost to the Boston Red Sox 7-4 in front of a historic crowd, some of whom spent all day reveling inside and outside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The game itself was marred by lackluster pitching and an odd Dodgers outfield formation of two outfielders to try and contain the cavernous center and right field of the old park that originally opened in 1923.

The outing was less a day at the ballpark and more an experience bathed in history. Sitting so far back from home plate, it was difficult to follow each pitch. The ball was a fleck of snow and we were miles away in warm weather.

Still, it might have been the most unique game I have ever attended.

Seeing Vin Scully deliver his signature, "It's time for Dodger baseball" before the game at home plate, watching Joe Torre walk with Tommy Lasorda to deliver the lineup and being a part of an event 50 years in the making with 100,000 blue-clad Angelenos made the day damn near unforgettable.

Getting to the stadium, though, was no day in the park. Coming from the mid-Wilshire area, my group took the Wilshire/Western subway to Pershing Square, where we transferred to a bus that dropped us off in front of the Coliseum.

But if it was easy and relatively quick (30 minutes) getting there, going back was a two-hour trip delayed by poor planning and thousands of fans trying to hop a ride on the MTA. We left an inning and a half early, hoping to beat the rush. At the bus stop, we found a small crowd that grew exponentially with each passing minute the bus did not come.

After 20 minutes, we walked two blocks back to try and pick it up before the crowd. Of course, this was after cabs passed us slowly in the snarled traffic. At least three groups tried to pick up one that trickled past. Two were turned away before the third, who apparently made an offer the cabbie couldn't refuse, got in.

We waited another ten minutes until a bus came. Others fans had the same idea and the 40 line to Downtown filled up quickly, which did not please the people at our former stop when the full bus did not even bother stopping.

A 35-minute bus ride was preceded by a 30-minute wait for the train that took another 20 minutes dropped us off at our cars, tired and weary from a public transportation outing in a city that still hasn't figured out how to utilize its fleet for major outings.

Why would you not run extra buses after the event or set up bus-only lanes to expedite traffic or open another lane to speed things along or run more trains for an event that commanded such planning?

For all the good will generated during the game and all the fuzz from former Dodgers introduced throughout the game - and the throngs seem to lap up the history with passionate applause - the lack of public transportation coordination was less an exclamation mark than a small period for a game that will still be remembered for years to come.

All photos by Jeremy Oberstein

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Comments (3) [rss]

agreed on the transportation remark.

we parked at chavez ravine and took the shuttle to the coliseum. we got to the lot at 4pm (3 hrs before the game) and had to wait in a snaking line for almost an hour to get on a shuttle. we didn't even make it into the coliseum until around 6.

after the game, organization was poor getting people on buses, and the area where they were loading people wasn't even lighted.

while a great experience at the park, one thing that was clear was that those in charge of planning for the game did not have much of a 'plan' for getting the 40,000 or so that parked at dodger stadium there or back with any sort of organization.

 

While there was no organization, it wasn't chaos by any stretch of the imagination. Granted my sciatica wasn't happy with me for the total of 5 hours I waited in line for the buses, but it wasn't a mob scene.

But I do agree that there should have been more buses.

 

I decided to forgo public transpo and the dodger shuttle and ended up driving to the collisuem and paying the $25 for parking. I was amazed and how little traffic there was. It took me about 20 minutes to get there and park from the South end of the 110 and it only took about 30 minutes to get home. I got there around 5pm and left at the top of the ninth. The only real trouble I had was that all the left turn lanes on flower were closed so I had a hard time getting onto the freeway.

It really is sad how this city really is made only for drivers and that public transportation is so reliably slow.

 
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