Observer’s Notes --- Friday, 13 April 2007

It was really cool to be at the stadium to see Rafael Furcal’s first game back from injury, and cheering for him when he was announced. We were at Dodger Stadium to see Izturis’s first game back from injury last year, but Furcal is in a completely different class of shortstop.

Rafael Furcal took a lot of pitches, including many strikes. It may have cost him some outs in a few plate appearances, but twice when he did swing the result was a gap double. Juan Pierre, meanwhile, let almost no pitches go by, opting instead for contact almost every time. Once he almost got a lucky squib single, but it was caught, and on the night he ended up with nothing to show for his resolve to let no possible strike go by him.

My visit to the concession stand cost $38.25 for food and drink for myself and my wife. In change I received a dollar bill, a quarter, and half dollar. Is giving out uncommon coins in change part of the concessionaires’ efforts to speed up service? I hope I get a two-dollar bill and an Eisenhower dollar next time.

The Coke sponsored trivia question asked who the first recipient of the Rookie of the Year Award was. I was disappointed they didn’t ask the question by giving the full name of the award, the “Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award”. But I guess it wasn’t called that back when he won the first one.

There was a group of Padres fans sitting in front of us. They were not too happy with the game. In addition to the lopsided score in favor of the Dodgers, there was a jerk heckling them from somewhere behind us. At one point, when Wells had just been chased from the game, one of the Padres fans, in a moment of good humour and mock surrender, took off his Padres hat and put on the giveaway Dodger hat that every fan in attendance received. In the end, though, his loyalty to the Friars was true. When he left the game, his giveaway Dodger was on the ground underneath his seat.

The cartoon automobile race was as pointless as ever. On this night it was trucks, and the blue one won. They need to introduce a villian into the race, some real excitement. Give the fans something to engage their emotions, instead of the equivalent of a three-way coin flip. I think that in the middle of the race, an orange Hummer should appear out of nowhere and start running all the trucks off the road, ending with the blue truck. Then the Hummer stops, and a closeup of the license plate reveals the word “JUICE”. Then the driver’s door open, and Barry Bonds steps out, flexing his muscles. And that’s the end. We’d all have fun booing that.


Postscript: Posting this in the middle of the Saturday game, with the Dodgers currently trailing 6-0 in the second inning. I'm sure glad we didn't pick that one to attend. It's a real crapshoot, what kind of game you get.