I spent the last two nights cheering on my Buccos at Dodger Stadium, surviving the taunts of the rowdy L.A. crowd and witnessing one great ballgame (Monday night’s 6-4 comeback win) and one terrible one (tonight’s 11-2 shelling). A few random thoughts:
1) If Bay is healthy, as he seems to be (and indeed a healthy Bay = the old Jason Bay we all know and love), and if McLouth continues his Mighty Mouse ways, and if Nady can stay off the DL, we really do have an outfield most teams would be happy to swap for. As much as I wanted to see Steve Pearce starting this year with the big club, the hot starts of these guys has me pretty excited. Certainly Nady and McLouth won’t keep up the pace they’re at now, but I can’t remember the last time we had three outfielders who could genuinely hit. It’s funny what a centerfielder can do for a team.
2) As bad as Evan Meek looked tonight, Tyler Yates looked that good last night. Kudos to Neil Huntington for taking the Braves on this one. If we can make it to the back end of our bullpen (where Yates joins Capps, Grabow and Marte), I certainly like our chances.
3) Also, as good as our outfield looks right now, our infield looks that bad. Gomez at first tonight? Luis Rivas anywhere? Get well soon, Jack.
4) Dodger Stadium. It’s a good, 40-year old park. Doesn’t have quite the nostalgia of a Wrigley or Fenway, and certainly not the amenities or view of PNC, but I could see it easily making it into somebody’s top ten list. A big stadium surrounded by bigger parking lots, but nestled in the middle of a park not far from downtown L.A. You’d have the PNC skyline view if the stadium faced the opposite direction, but instead just hills and palm trees–which is actually nice considering the freeways and smog that fill so much of L.A. Inside the crowd is as rowdy and diverse as you’d expect from the City of Angels. The Hispanic kid next to me wearing a Derek Lowe t-shirt was quite the whistler. I asked him where he picked up that skill, and he looked at me from under his black Dodgers cap and said, “Mejico.” There were “Giants Suck” chants, beach balls and quite a few successful waves, and fights and fans kicked out. The crowd didn’t top 40,000 either night, which for Dodger Stadium meant it was still rather empty, but they let Andruw Jones know he was overpaid and Russell Martin know he is appreciated. And Dodger closer Takashi Saito had a great entry, spoiled of course by an even greater Nate McLouth.
My full list of stadiums attended now looks like this:
Three Rivers Stadium (Pittsburgh)
PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
Jacobs Field (Cleveland)
Great American Ballpark (Cincinatti)
Shea Stadium (New York)
Yankee Stadium (New York)
Fenway Park (Boston)
1 inning in the Sky Dome (Toronto)
Wrigley Field (Chicago)
Coors Field (Denver)
The Kingdome (Seattle)
Dodger Stadium (L.A.)
Angels Stadium will happen maybe as soon as this weekend, and I’d love to cross Petco Park in San Diego off the list while I’m here, too. I think I need to check when the Bucs play the Padres… I have a few pictures to upload, as well, and I’ll let you know when I do that.
Filed under: Uncategorized , baseball, Buccos, dodger stadium
