On a rare rainy Sunday in Los Angeles, Craig and I took an insider’s tour of Dodger Stadium. It was an exciting event organized by the UCLA Bruin Alumni and the timing was perfect. We were all licking our wounds from Saturday’s butt-kicking by USC.
It is never a happy day when my Bruins lose a football game to our cross town rivals, but the Trojans certainly and expectedly, outplayed our team. That’s enough of football, so let us switch over to America’s favorite sport, baseball.
Recently, I have written about the Dodgers and our meeting with our beloved Vin Scully, but today we were privileged to receive a fabulous behind the scenes tour of Dodger Stadium. The tour guides enthusiastically showed us all over the stadium, the dugout, the field, the bull pen, the Clubhouse (no photos please) the weight room, the media room, Vin Scully’s Press Box, a luxury suite and we finished by eating a Dodger Dog from the Top Deck. Simply amazing. Two hours of Dodger statistics, trophies and memorabilia was most certainly a little bit of heaven on earth for Craig and I.
Here is what we saw on our tour of Dodger Stadium ~
My personal favorite of the tour was our visit to the dugout. To me, this is where it all happens. The former UCLA Bruin, 2016 Manager of the Year, Dave Roberts (yes I am boasting) talks intimately with the players during each game, right in this space. It feels personal and special, yet not fancy at all. Just like a guy’s hangout with wood benches, lots of earthy-clay baseball dirt, and everything painted blue.
Blue is the favored color of the Dodgers and it is painted on just about everything and it feels good, you know exactly which team lives here!
Fun Fact:
When Walter O’Malley was creating Dodger Stadium, he wanted the seats to be more than just one color. Typically, all stadiums were built with seats painted all the same color. Because he was so enamored with Los Angeles, each of the levels represented something beautiful about the city.
The yellow seats represented the bright Southern California sunshine and the orange/tan color represented the beach and the sand. The teal color represent the lush vegetation and the lovely light blue was to represent the Los Angeles sky.
A few more fun facts about Dodger Stadium
- It is the largest of the MLB stadiums and can hold 56,000 fans
- It is the third oldest park and opened in 1967 (Fenway 1912 and Wrigley 1914)
- It is carved into the hillside of Chavez Ravine and offers gorgeous views of downtown Los Angeles
- The parking lot can hold 16,000 cars!
- The Pope led a Catholic service on the field in 1987 and the Dodgers went on to win the World Series in 1988! (Divine intervention?)
Did you grab that baseball? I definitely would have. I love baseball stadium tours but have not been on one in years. I went to a few Dodger games when I was a student at—you better sit down for this—the mighty USC (Fight On!).
Charles, I wish I could have taken the ball, but I liked it in the photo!I I still like you even if you are one of “them”.
Very fun tour, Suzanne. Thx so much for sharing. My husband would absolutely love to take that tour of the Dodger Stadium.
If you ever come to So Cal, it is easy to set up Doreen.
Looks like fun Suzanne and it’s easy to see that you’re a die-hard fan! I remember going to a few Dodger games when I was a kid but I must have been too young because the charm of the game was lost on me! 🙂 However, your mention of a Dodger Dog got my mouth watering… Sounded great!
Thank you Anita! We had fun and it was certainly a unique experience.
What a fun opportunity! Thanks for sharing every vantage point (except the locker room, perhaps:-). You two have the neatest experiences and do such a great job of sharing them with your readers!
Thank you Irene! I love to share my adventures and love to hear about yours too!