Remember yesterday when I was talking shit about Dodger fans? I think my exact words were, “I’m one of those who believes a city that doesn’t turn up for 162 regular season games but suddenly bleeds Dodger blue for a couple weeks in October doesn’t deserve bragging rights for a year. As much as I hate the Cardinals (I will never forget the 2006 NLCS), I kind of want them to win this series, just to shut up the city of LA.”
So last night while I was at Porn Star Karaoke for my buddy’s birthday, a friend slid into the booth next to me and asked, “Did you see what tickets to the game tomorrow are going for?” I laughed, assuming that with the Dodgers in a 3-1 hole the entire city would give up on them, and try to sell off their tickets to game five on the cheap. Isn’t it just like the worst sports city in America to jump off the bandwagon instead of rallying behind their team, like what would happen in any other major city in the country? You think of the Cubs, or Red Sox, or Yankees or Mets were down 3-1 in even a Divisional series — not even an LCS or World Series — fans would throw in the towel? I don’t think so.
“A hundred bucks a seat?” I asked, knowing very well that tickets to Sunday’s game were selling on StubHub for hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
“Seventeen dollars” came the response. “You working tomorrow? You wanna go?”
“Let me think about it,” I said. I was enjoying my fourth beer of the night, there was a celebratory feeling in the air, odds were I’d be leaving with the little lady and spending the night on the west side. “Let me think about it” was my way of saying, “Probably not.”
Fifteen minutes after the friend left the texts starting pouring in. $17 in the nosebleeds. $30 in the left field pavilion.
$31 in the right field all-you-can-eat pavilion.
OK. That’s a fucking awesome deal. Two years ago for my birthday I went to see Bryce Harper’s MLB debut (on my birthday) at Dodger Stadium when the Nationals were in town. My sister, a couple friends and I paid $35 plus tax for seats in the very last row of the all-you-can-eat seats. It was your run of the mill regular season game, and a fun one (Stephen Strasburg pitched for the nationals, Matt Kemp hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning). This was different. This was the National League Championship Series. Game Five. There’s no fucking reason these tickets should have been LESS expensive than the ones I paid for on a Saturday in April two years ago. I decided I’d go.
It was fun! I’ve never been to a post-season baseball game before, so I anticipated a crazy atmosphere and a rapid pulse throughout the stadium. That’s not quite what I got, as the crowd was very late to show up (the seats were maybe 50% full at first pitch) but once they did they started to come alive as the Dodgers pulled away. With the score 6-2 in the 8th inning the crowd finally started to feel like a rowdy playoff crowd. When closer Kenley Jansen struggled in the bottom of the 9th, the stadium started to fall quiet. A double, a single, a single, a single and suddenly it was 6-4 with the go-ahead run coming up to bat. Of course it was that guy Chambers on the Cardinals whose strikeout against Joe Henderseon cost me several hundred dollars in fantasy baseball money last month was the final batter of the game, and of course he struck out again, so the Dodgers won. The crowd was very, very happy when the final strike was called.
I still hope the Dodgers lose, but I can’t say I was sad to see them win today. It was fun! The all-you-can-eats (2 Dodger Dogs, Nachos with liquid cheese, popcorn, peanuts) were gross but filling. Sitting out in the sun on a HOT afternoon drinking some beers and watching baseball was great. The post-game feeling of grossness and sickness and tiredness isn’t great, but I’m fighting through it. Tomorrow’s another day.
Oddballs – Rockin’ In The Jungle [MP3]
