September 2010
Moving on Up
Like promised, I’ll start off part three of the Stadium Tour with a picture of the next Dodger player we saw.
Can you figure out who this mystery Dodger is?
I spotted him walking out while Josh was giving us a tour of the area behind the bullpen. He told us a story about last year when Charlie Manuel was holding some sort of press conference I think. There’s a curtain that divides the area. On one side is the area where players and personnel can walk by. The other side are the fans from the Left Field Pavilion. Josh told us how there were drunk rowdy fans on the other side of the curtain while Manuel was there.
Still haven’t figured out who the mystery Dodger is? Chad Billingsley, the starter from the night before, was out running sprints while we were touring the bullpen. It was very interesting to see how small the room was. And not only that, but that there were some writing up on the wall.
Here they have the months listed and the player names listed. Not quite sure I understand it. But it’s just funny to see it up there.
Here is our fearless leader, Josh He’s explaining an interesting tidbit about the clay dirt. He told us about how it used to clog up the draining system at first. They had to change the combination of the clay dirt so that when it rains (rain? what’s that?) that it doesn’t get clogged up.
Another look at the recently installed ball park cam for MLB Network.
Another interesting tidbit … some of the seats behind home plate are actually closer to home plate than the pitching mound is!
Coming next … like Wendell would say … here comes the High Life.
Batting Cages (the tour continued)
After we got a glimpse of the club house, we moved on.
First we stopped at the batting cage where Kirk Gibson took his swings before his infamous 1988 walk-off home run against the Athletics’ closer Dennis Eckersley. Josh explained that this poster (tarp) was put up recently, as in this season. During the Arizona series when Gibson was still just a coach, Josh happened to walk by when Gibson initially saw it. It was a cool experience. Can you imagine?
Here’s the actual cage. Did you know the bat boy who Gibson sent to tell manager Tommy Lasorda that he was ready to hit is now the Dodger Clubhouse manager? None other than Mitch Poole. Can you image where some of our bat boys will be in 20 years?
Next up was the weight room. Before we went in, Josh checked with the trainer if it was okay for him to bring a group in. The trainer (Nick) scampered into another room to hide from us while we were in there.
Next we headed to the batting cages right before the bullpen. We met up with Manny Mota again. He subbed in for Josh while Josh went looking for some of our members from the tour group. I shot a short video of Mota talking to the group, just before Josh returned. I hope you can catch what he was saying. It was a very warm afternoon and there is a big fan going on in the background. A fan as in the kind that blows air at you. Not a person, the thing.
Josh came back and noticed something interesting in Manny Mota’s shopping cart. It was a golf club! He picked it and pretended to swing it at Manny. He asked him about it. Sorry guys, I forgot what the answer was.
We got a surprise visitor! Well, not really a visitor because he just walked on by.
Hong Chi Kuo!! He looked a little overwhelmed by all these people in the batting cages. He’s probably not used to seeing so many people around.
Tune in for the next part of the Dodger Stadium tour! I’ll give you a little clue… we saw another Dodger player while on our tour.
Inside the Dodgers takes us inside the Dodgers Stadium
I had heard about the Inside the
Dodgers stadium tour a while back and was interested in doing it this
year. My friend Cat went on it last year. A few of my friends have
been the Stadium tour before. When I talked to Josh Rawitch, the VP
of Communications, at the stadium about it, he said it was going to
be a small group probably and he would most likely lead it. I didn’t
sign up for the tour till just a few days before Saturday.
A group of more than nine people were
waiting at the Top Deck when I got there on Saturday. The group was
scheduled to meet at noon. I left my house around 11:44 and got there
about ten till noon. This time, I looked at my odometer to see how
far I traveled. Just a little over a mile and half 
I was
pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face in the group. Cat was
there. She had taken the tour last year and was back again for this
year.
The tour started at the Top Deck and
then we crammed into an elevator to go down to the field level. We
went all the way down and started at the field. We got to see where
they locked up the Umpires before the game.
We got to go in the Dug Out. The first
thing I noticed in the dug out was the bat rack. There’s a huge chunk
of the rack missing and I can probably guess who the culprit is. No,
not termites or a hungry beaver.
This was taken back in June when the
Dodgers faced the Angels. Andre had just flied out to right field I
think. He moved Martin over to third base, but he still wasn’t
satisfied with his at-bat. Funny because he struck out in his next
at-bat with the bases loaded and he had much more calmer reaction. Well, that’s my guess. Whether or not I’m right, who knows.
Josh was great and gracious tour
leader. He pointed out the new MLB Ballpark Cam situated in the Dug
Out. I remember when MLB Network mentioned that they just installed
new cameras at Dodger Stadium.
Then we headed towards the Club House.
We stopped in the hallway first. We to see the lovely bathroom that’s
right by the Player’s Entrance.
There were several bags lined up
against the wall. At least two of them had Ausmus’ name on them.
We didn’t get to go into the Club
House, but we got to see the entrance to it.
Manny Mota was hanging outside, getting
ready for his day. He said hello…
And then came and took photos with
several people!
I’m posting a lot of pictures, so I guess I’ll have to split this up!
Dodgers lose but at least I won … (9/1/10)
Free tickets that is! All season, I’ve been hearing about how you can
win free baseline box tickets on the Peter Tilden show during the
weekdays. However, his show is at 6 AM. I am hardly ever up at that time
in the morning. I was up on Friday a few weeks ago for an autograph
signing. So, I tuned into the show while I was driving out to Glendora.
An hour later, I called in and won the tickets. The tickets were for
today’s game, which I had top deck tickets for already. So I found
someone else to take those. At first, I thought they were going to give
me four tickets … the radio advertisement never said how many you got.
Just said you’d get box tickets. I picked them up and there were only
two.
Trip one to the Baseline Box Club…
Since I was on the Dodger side, I got my ticket scanned and my wrist stamped at the Third Base side Baseline Box Club. I filled my plate with penne pasta (on the right), a few meatballs (bottom left corner), and potatoes (top left). I didn’t care for the potatoes, to be honest. But the meatballs and pasta were delicious. I was bummed they didn’t have Caesar salad today. I love their Caesar salad. Looking at some of Cat’s old posts, I should’ve given the spinach salad a chance. Oh well.
On my second trip, we went to the First Base Side Baseline Box Club. There was a line of people waiting to get scanned and stamped, but we already had our stamps so we went in. JoAnna ran into a friend of hers. I only got ice cream and coke on this trip. Figured you guys didn’t need a picture of my chocolate ice cream with toffee topping. Right when we got in the Baseline Club, we saw on TV that a foul ball landed a few boxes over from ours.
I knew they stopped serving food after the 7th inning, so before the 7th I made on more trip. It was either the 5th or 6th inning. Since I already knew what they were serving, I knew what I was getting.
However, last trip, I forgot to go by the carving station. This time I made sure in addition to the penne pasta and meatballs, I got some pork and gnocchi. the gnocchi was delicious! It made up for the potato fiasco I had earlier.
The Dodgers offense had disappeared again. But I was consoling myself with plenty of food. Well, actually, I was just taking advantage of the free tickets I had won. And look who showed up to the game today. Jameson Moss, Mr. Don’t Stop Believing Guy. Oh, and if you were watching the game when it aired … JoAnna got a text in the top of the 9th inning after a Placido Polanco foul ball landed in the box next to ours. Unfortunately, it rolled towards the Phillies fans instead of towards us. Had it rolled towards us, we would’ve gotten it. At least we got two seconds of TV time.
I love day games … (9/1/10)
We got into the stadium, and the first players we saw were Carlos Monasterios, Chad Billingsley, and Ramon Troncoso. I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chad sign before a day game. So, I was surprised when I asked him if he would sign that he came over. Not only did he sign my scrapbook, but he found a spot on my team ball to sign. He asked me if I wanted him to sign on the picture, and I said yeah. It’s funny how the players have been asking, “do you want me to sign on the picture or here?” Here, being a blank space on the page. Ted Lilly signed down by the foul pole, but I didn’t want to run over there. So, I stayed behind while my friends went. It took awhile before other players came out. Several pitchers would walk by, but say they had to go to the bullpen. Jeff Weaver came out to play catch with Belisario. He was right in front of us. I asked him to sign but he said something and went to play catch.
I have been trying for over a year to get Weaver to sign my scrapbook from 2009. It’s the article when he and his brother faced each other last year. Today, I brought my 2010 book that’s a Work in Progress. I figured I’d try to get a few of the players while they were still with the team. I’ve gotten a lot of players in my 2009 book already. Fortunately, there’s a great picture from the LA Times from when Jeff Weaver pitched to Jered Weaver when the Angels played at Dodger Stadium. I was surprised that when I asked Jeff to sign, he actually came over to sign!
And I also finally got a picture with him! I don’t remember who I got next, but I’ll go with Kuo. He was playing catch with Kenley Jansen, who I also asked to come sign but he said he had to go. So, Kuo came and I had a magazine I needed him to sign for my friend’s boyfriend. It’s the Dodger Magazine with the four All Stars. I got Ethier earlier in the week and Angelikna got Broxton at the signing. So, we just needed Kuo. There’s no way we’d ever get Furcal unless we catch him down in the Minors doing a Rehab assignment. So, as Kuo is signing our things, he had two baseballs in his glove. My friend asks Kuo for one of his balls and Kuo gave him a look and my friend said, “not that kind!” It was hilarious. I wish I had captured it on camera.
Ryan Theriot came out with Stan Conte (the trainer). Guess he was testing to see how his knee felt after getting knocked over in Monday’s game. We’ve been trying to get Theriot to sign and he finally came over today. He almost didn’t sign for me. When I asked him for a quick picture, he said he didn’t have time.
Sure. He didn’t have time. I don’t mind if they say no. I rather have them just straight out tell me they don’t want to or can’t. Casey Blake tells fans all the time he won’t take pictures. Andre was telling fans the same thing last year. If they say no, they say no. No big deal. Anyway, I’m letting go and moving on.
The players started coming out to warm up. Jamey Carroll came over to sign once he finished getting ready. Since I had my book, I thought I might as well ask him. These ladies wanted a picture with him. Not sure if they remembered to ask him, because he started to walk away. Since they had their back to him, getting ready for the picture, I spoke up for them and asked if he had time for a quick picture. He put his hand on one and was trying to position himself between the two. The other lady didn’t see what he was doing and she was blocking Jamey. It worked out and they got their picture. He signed my book. He did the same thing Chad did, and asked me where did I want him to sign. I let him choose. There was plenty of white space for him to sign on the page if he wanted to, which is where he signed.
When Andre came out to warm up, I went over with my friend’s bobblehead to get that signed. I haven’t asked Andre for an autograph for myself yet this year… at the game. It gets too crazy to go over there consistently. And I don’t want to go all the time. I think I’ve gone over there like twice this year, and both times were to get autographs for friends. As soon as I got my friend’s bobblehead signed, I got out of dodger so other people could get their things signed. I even heard one person behind me say, “get out of the way so we can get something signed” or something like that. Fortunately, I was able to get out of there. Sometimes it’s not possible!
Frank Kramer from the Frosty, Heidi, and Frank show on KABC was supposed to be up at the Loge Terrace. By the time I finished down the in field level, I was hungry and didn’t feel like going up to the Loge Terrace. So I went to get food! I’ll try to get that post up tomorrow! This post turned out a lot longer than I expected.
fallingleaves02
Recent Comments