For starters, I will tell you that I did not get my ticket to Thursday’s game to see Manny’s return to Dodger Stadium. I bought it to see the DODGERS return to Dodger Stadium after the All Star Break. And to top things off, Randy WOLF was pitching. I thought about what to do with my Wolf Hat. I figured, leave it. See if he can get the win without me wearing it. If you saw the box score, you saw what happened. Except for the three runs, Randy did okay. Three runs. The Dodgers can score more than three runs, right? Guess not on that night. Since it was a weekday game, I had to get there as soon as I got off work. I spotted Cat right away, and walked down to say hi to her. As I’m walking down, I noticed Juan (the security guy on the field) sees me walking down and smiles up at me. I can’t help but smile back at him.

It seemed like everyone was at the game that night. Roberto came down and said hi. Then I found Erika and went over and said hi to her. Her cousin won four tickets for winning a “Manny Ramirez” look a like contest. Her little cousin had his Manny wig on, and he even had a little beard drawn on. The photographers were loving it! They took his photo and had him fill out a release form. We went down by the dugout and they got in line. I made my way back to Cat. After I left them, Erika and her family got autographs from Loney, Kemp, Blake, and Hudson! Wow. Can’t believe I missed that opportunity. Anyway, the field level was pretty full. I got my food and ate it before going up to my seat. When I got up there, I thought, “I haven’t sat up here in awhile. I forgot how high it was!”

Here’s a picture of Randy taken from the field level.

Now here’s a picture of Randy taken from the top deck.

See the difference? Anyway, I got to the top, and there was someone in my seat. Turns out, they were in the wrong section. They had 4, and they were in 2. As the game progressed, the rest of the people in my row showed up. It looked like an office outing. They had two rows of seats and played musical chairs all night. And guess who did a lot of standing up/sitting down to let people pass by? Oh well. At least some of the guys were good looking. That compensated the whole standing up/sitting down. However, there was a lady across the aisle who apparently needs to brush up on her Dodger cheers. Whenever they played the “Here we go Dodgers, here we go” chant, she would yell out “Let’s go Dodgers, here we go!” Someone was a little confused. I was half-tempted to correct her. But just let her keep going. If you saw the box score, you’d know, it was a very quiet game for the Dodgers.

The most exciting thing that happened… a pigeon landed on the field just off of the third baseline. He was probably looking for sun flower seeds. Who knows. I figured, once a foul ball was hit towards it, it would fly away, right? Wrong! The ball came within inches of the pigeon. And it didn’t even move a blink. Seriously! A ball comes within feet of me, I flinch, duck, cover, or run. A ball comes within inches of a pigeon (the ball is probably half it’s size) and it doesn’t move at all. Even the person behind the DodgerVision thought it was funny enough to show on the Dodger vision.

The guy two guys down from me started talking about the YouTube video where a pitcher obliterates a pigeon. I corrected him and told him it was Randy Johnson who was pitching, and I think it was a dove. I also shared a little bit about other critters at other stadiums. I probably talked too much and gave too much information, but oh well. Towards the end of the game, a mom and her little boy was walking up the stairs. The little boy tripped, so she picked him up. The guy behind me goes, “he’s okay, he’s a little bruin! He’s a little Bruin!” The mom was wearing a USC tank top. She goes, “He’s no Bruin, he’s a Trojan!” The guy behind me says, “He’s a little Bruin! There was no Trojan involved in that one!” Or something like that. We thought it was pretty funny. I just couldn’t believe he actually said it. After the game ended, I took the elevator down to say bye to my friends. Then one of the security guards told me they were hosting Dodger Talk Live in the third baseline box club. He told me to go in. So I did, for a little bit. Talked with Josh for a little bit. I did get on Dodger Talk. I was first! I said, “Good news, Randy Wolf got a decison. Bad news, it wasn’t the one we wanted. And I even left the hat at home just as a friend asked me to.” Maybe I should’ve worn it! The Dodgers have only lost twice when I’ve worn the hat. But Randy’s gotten a No Decision in both losses!

So, yesterday, the Dodgers held a double feature at Dodger Stadium. First, they showed the Dodgers vs. Mets game at 4:00. Cari won tickets from Dodger Talk on Sunday and invited me to come along. Which worked out great. I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to play $25 for it. That’s how much it came up to after the ticket master fees. I sent an email to ask if I could purchase my ticket at Dodger Stadium to avoid the extra fees. Never got a reply. Thankfully, Cari won free tickets. I showed up around 3:30, but security told me that they couldn’t let me in yet. They weren’t allowed to let anyone in till 4. I drove around the corner and found a parking spot in the shade. I went back in a little before four. As I was getting out of my car, Cari came up and we walked in together. They had gates set up around the grass so we could go down by the dug out, walk on the warning track, and back up to the seats by the other dug out. A security guard was there to make sure everyone sat in the Field Section, section 26 and over to the right. No one was allowed to sit in the baseline box seats. But later on, there were people sitting in the last row of the baseline box seats.

The game started, and as you well know, it was a great game! Randy Wolf changed his number from 21 back to his number with the phillies, 43. I was glad to see that. He finally got his first win in six weeks! His pitching was a little scary, not as good as he has been. Because we were in the field level and the game was shown on the Dodger Vision, it was difficult for us to see what inning it was or how many outs or what the ball-strike count was. In between innings, they played a little music and promoted the next Dodger homestand. Whoever was running it though would miss the beginning of the inning. For example, we would miss one or two pitches of the inning. And we missed when Orlando Hudson got hit in the knee. About the seventh or eighth inning, they had a “Guess the Attendance”. They said that the attendance of 60 was a Franchise Record for a double header featuring the Dodgers and Harry Potter. When the game ended, they rafffled off a Harry Potter 5 DVD Box set. Laurie’s ticket was called. Since she was in the bathroom, I went up and got it for her. She had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies and said I could keep it. Sweet!

Right before the movie started, I called into Dodger Talk. I said I would if Randy got the win. And I might if he got a No Decision. So, I did. I was the first caller. Since I called in so early, I was on hold for awhile. I got the usual call screener. He was funny. I told him my name, and when he asked me where I was calling from, I said, Dodger Stadium actually. He commented about the movie night. Then he asked me what I was calling about. I said, Randy Wolf finally getting the win. He laughed and said, Oh yeah! Guess he’s starting to recognize me now, too. So, I was on hold forever. Mainly because the fill ins for Dodger Talk had a really long preamble to Dodger Talk. I finally got in and I mentioned I was the movie night, and they asked me about that. I said I did as my friend asked, and left my Wolf mask at home and Randy got the win. It was funny, because then, they were like, oh yeah, Ken and Josh asked you to leave it at home yesterday or something like that.

Okay, so I missed like a month’s worth of games to post about. So I’ll
backtrack. Starting with my most recent game, against the Padres.
Before anyone says I went because of Manny’s return … you should know
… I’ve been planning/wanting to go to this game since Opening Day. I
saw the Dodgers were going to be in San Diego the weekend of the Fourth
of July and made plans to go that weekend. That was a whole month
before Manny got suspended. The plan at the time was to drive up
Friday, go to that game, stay in a hotel, then go to Saturday’s game.
The plan fell through because the person I was going to go with
couldn’t go. So I scrapped that plan and made a new one. Drive up just
for Saturday’s game. I looked at tickets one night, and found two .
When I looked again the next day, they were already sold! In the end, I
ended up buying two tickets in the same section, in the same row, but
seven seats apart

We (my cousin Jenny and I) left her apartment
around 8:45 on Saturday morning. The freeway was free and clear. We
stopped just past the Citadel for Starbucks (a frappucino for me, lemon
loaf for her) and we didn’t stop again till we hit San Clemente.
Though, just before Anaheim, a pigeon almost hit us! No joke! We were
cruising along in the fast lane, when we see this pigeon swoop down. It
came right in front and had it not changed course, we would have hit
it! Thank goodness it swerved out of our way. We stopped for lunch at
Pedro’s Tacos in San Clemente. All three times now that I have gone
down to Petco Park, I have stopped there for food. The first time, we
stopped on the way home. The second time, we stopped going up. This
time, I was hungry on the way up so we stopped.

When
we left, Jenny and I discussed that we noticed that most of the people
we saw while we stopped were all Caucasian males with similar haircuts.
And most of them were looking at us like they had never seen two Asian
girls before. Interesting. After that point, Jenny pointed out every
Asian we saw on the road. And they were usually driving mini-vans. We
got to San Diego without any incident. We parked on E and 11th, and
then walked to the park. I texted Stacey who was going to be there with
Kristin and Cari. They got here earlier than we did, and had lunch at
the Omni, where they saw Ned Colleti and his family. Jenny wanted to
get our photo taken, so we looked around for a Dodger fan to take our
photo for us. We ended up taking two, because Jenny wanted Petco to be
in the background.

Then
we went in, got our towels, and looked for Stacey, Kristin, and Cari.
While we were standing above the sand lot/bleachers, one of the Padre
photo people offered to take a picture of us. First he used my camera,
then he used his.

We
then went to the Left Field section to look for Stacey (and a
bathroom). Fortunately, the bathroom was right by Stacey’s seats! We
found them easily and hung out with them during batting practice. I was
quite surprised that the Padres were taking batting practice. Chris
Young came out to the bullpen to do a little exercise with who I would
assume was Darren Balsley. He had a towel in his hand and would wind up
and hit Balsley’s glove with it. The only reason I would think it
wasn’t Balsley is, he had Peavy’s glove on and I’m pretty sure Balsley
is a lefty. Maybe he had Peavy’s glove on because Young is a righty. I
don’t know. Anyway, a Padre fan asked him for an autograph and I
figured, hey, this is my chance to get an autograph from him too (even
though he’s not a Dodger). So, don’t shoot me, but I asked him for his
autograph. I am a Dodger fan first, but I still would like to collect
autographs from other players. And out of the Padres… there’s
probably only three maybe four players I would ask.

Batting
practice ended and I was talking to Stacey when the usher came and
asked us to see our tickets. Stacey told them they had their tickets,
and I said I was just visiting with them. Before I left, we got a group
picture together.

Jenny and I went to our seats. We also had Stacey take our picture before we left.

When
we got to our seats, there was already someone sitting in one of our
seats. It happened to be a young family of four. They didn’t mind
moving down one seat, since it meant they got to be right by the aisle.
Then next to them was a mother and two kids. They didn’t mind moving
down one either. However, the mother told us that if the person who had
the seat she was in showed up, that we would have to move. I guess she
didn’t get it that they already did show up because they took our seat
and everyone was just shifting down one. It worked out fine anyway. I
was relieved.

Onto the game … Wolfie started out great. It was
the third inning that was tough for him. And wouldn’t you know it …
Manny hit his first post-suspension home run in the first inning! I
didn’t have my camera ready because Jenny was trying to take a picture
of the two of us with my phone. The picture comes out funny because I’m
watching the game and not looking at the viewfinder. After our bullpen
came out, Jenny asked me about the safety and decision about having the
visiting bullpen on the field. She was like, what happens if the ball
comes that way? Couldn’t someone get hurt? She mentioned to guy who was
stampeded to death at Wal-Mart last year.

There
were probably just as many Dodger fans out, if not more! This fan tore
his “Beat L.A.” towel so he only had the L.A. part and he was waving it
around. Another fan behind me kept yelling out “Last Place!” Ummm guess
he didn’t know that Arizona is in last right now. Or maybe he was
talking about last year. Who knows? But I figured, hey, if the Padre
fans are ignorant enough to let him keep yelling that, fine by me. I
won’t correct him.

Oh yeah, back to the game. Let’s just say it
wasn’t pretty. Sure, when Randy left the game in the seventh inning, he
had a one run lead. Belisario comes in … bye bye lead and hello
No-Decision-Number-Twelve. I don’t quite understand why Torre left him
in so long … but hey, he’s the manager. Two errors later, I was
starting to think we were at another Mets game. Three errors. Sigh.

When
we were leaving the stadium, a Padre fan got in my face and told me “Go
Home, L.A.” I didn’t say anything but I was thinking, of course I’m
going home. Where else would I go? Why would I stay in SD? Anyway, it
just irritated me that he got in my face. And he was hanging out with a
crowd of Dodger fans too. Go figure. We get to the car and I try
calling into Dodger talk. The phone just rang and rang. I tried several
times before I got through. By then, we were out of the city limits.
And then my call got dropped. So I called back and they put me back in
line. I forgot to mention the rude usher, but Cari called the next day
and gave them more details since they had to deal with him throughout
the whole game. Oh yeah, and halfway home, I almost got sideswiped! No
joke. I was driving along in the second or third lane, and this car
swerves in and out of my lane, almost hitting me! Either they had a
little too much to drink too early … or just bad driving. We stopped
in Buena Park to go to WalMart (Jenny’s idea) and we passed a
Fuddrucker’s and decided that’s where we wanted to have dinner. After
getting yelled at by a homeless person, we went to Fuddrucker’s and
found out they were closing in half an hour. So we went to a nearly
empty In and Out instead. Overall all, quite an interesting day.

Oh yeah, and I forgot. Not only did I have my Wolf hat and shirt … I painted my nails blue. On my left hand, my nails spelled R-A-N-D-Y. Then on my right, it spelled 21-W-O-L-F. My toes were blue too, but I just put a L on my left big toe and an A on my right big toe. I had some temporary Dodger tattoos that I put on my ankle. On my left, it was the LA logo. On my right, it was the Dodgers logo … but that came off when I put sunblock on