First trip to Dodger Stadium

Last week, I was in LA for work. Usually while I'm there, it's all business, but I was able to sneak out Wednesday night for a Dodgers-D'Backs game. It was my first trip to Dodgers Stadium.

Like a true LA-er, I left too late (I was driving from Santa Monica), and didn't step foot in the park until the top of the 3rd. I felt like that was part of the true Dodger game experience. The crowd, overall, was pretty sparse. I'm sure it's because the Dodgers are up 10+ games in the division, so there's no real sense of urgency until the playoffs. The weather was perfect, as usual, and I was excited to find my seats.

Little did I know my tickets were down in the "yellow" club seats with free food and soda. My buddy from work hooked up the seats, so I was very surprised. The whole section was very, very spacious. Lots of legroom. I was also surprised at how freely one could move around the seating sections of the stadium. I barely saw an usher and walked to my seats without even being checked. At Yankee Stadium or Citi Field, you can't even get in to the 300-section without being frisked.

Our seats were in the sixth row, right past the visitors dugout. I got to stare at Steve Sax's ass all game. I settled in and noticed that the D-Backs had already gone up 3-0. Sadly, that's as close as the Dodgers would get. Ryu didn't pitch horribly, but he wasn't fooling Arizona at all.

I ordered my first Dodger Dog, as well as some peanuts and a cold one. The Dodger Dog was fine. I found it to be a bit bland. I was honestly expecting better. I think it's something you have to first have when you're young so that you build up an image of it and convince yourself it's the greatest thing ever. Lots of foods are like that.

Aside from the Dodgers losing, we saw some good baseball. Nick Punto made some fantastic plays, and I saw two great catches in right field...one by Puig, and one by Parra. And for the second time this year, I was in attendance for a Puig HR. The guy is a special player.

It was the seventh MLB park I've now been to (Old Yankee Stadium, New Yankee Stadium, Shea, Citi, Minute Maid Park, Camden Yards), and I felt very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see a Dodger game that close.

Yasiel Puig sketch card

I'm about to do a new painted sketch card as part of a trade with another blogger. I haven't done much artwork recently, so I wanted to sharpen up a bit and practice. I decided to draw baseball's current most interesting player, Yasiel Puig. I found a photo I liked, and start drawing.

Overall, it came out ok. There are several things I could have done differently, but not bad for 30 minutes worth of work. His signature is pretty basic, and was an easy add to take up some dead space.

Now, what to do with it? Just set is aside in my collection? I checked eBay, and far nicer sketch cards of Puig go between $10-$20. Much, much nicer ones. Maybe I could get $5 or so for this one. Is it worth listing and see what happens?

Pictures of Puig

To update yesterday’s post, here are a few pictures of the Yankees-Dodgers game I attended last night. I went to see Puig, and he didn’t disappoint. While my tickets said “row 10”, it turns out that row 10 is actually the first row along the right field wall, so I was just feet from Puig. Very cool! He's the opposite of small. Just a thickly built dude.

He was definitely taunted a bit in both English and Spanish, but didn't really acknowledge the crowd. Only once did he throw a ball into the stands after pre-inning warm ups.

In his first AB, he singled and promptly stole second. He followed that with a strikeout and a HBP. In his fourth AB, his HR went directly above my head, but was probably six or seven rows behind me. I was able to see myself on the highlight.

The Yanks sucked, as expected, but it was a fantastic night for a game. Perfect conditions to enjoy a game, have a few beers, eat some nachos, and relax.

 

Off to see Puig!

Tonight, I’ll be hitting up Yankee Stadium. I definitely wanted to make it to one of the Yankees-Dodgers games to see Yasiel Puig. Maybe he’ll hit a HR and I can sell my ticket stub on eBay for $300. That’s what his Bowman mini refractors are going for these days, right? I’m sitting 10 rows up in right field, so I’ll probably catch the Puig oppo-field homer. It’s my only chance since I don’t expect the Yankees to hit any HRs, or score any runs for that matter.

It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to go to a Yankees game to see an opposing player. I think the last time I did that was toward the end of Ken Griffey Jr’s career.

There are some good storylines too. Donnie Baseball’s return to the Bronx, as well as Hiroki Kuroda facing his old team. I wish I was there this afternoon for Mattingly’s “official” return, but I’m sure he’ll still get a warm welcome tonight.