DODGER STADIUM

Dodger Stadium has been the home of the L.A. Dodgers since 1962, four years after they moved to the city. This ballpark has seen a lot of history, but these days it is a bit out-of-date in more ways than one. 

The stadium is located just northwest of downtown, about 10 minutes away along US101. You will notice the large number of parking lots, each numbered in some random order than I couldn't determine. We used the Sunset Blvd entrance which is not as crowded and allows you to park in Lot 7 - as you walk up the ramps to the stadium, you will see a relatively nice view of downtown through the haze. Parking is $7 by the way.

As you approach the stadium, you will notice that it is built on a hillside, and in order to walk around the outside, you will have to climb or descend several staircases. There are large player posters around the outside of the ballpark, which adds some color. Take a few minutes to walk around, the exercise will be good for you. Note the palm trees and the batters eye that is set up outside the stadium.

Player posters outside the stadium

The main problem with Dodger Stadium is that your access to other sections is limited depending on your ticket. For example, if you have a pavilion (outfield bleacher) ticket, you must enter through the pavilion door, and once in, you will not be leaving - thus you can't see the whole stadium. For those of you in the upper deck, don't bother trying to go down to the field for some pictures - you will be turned back. Each entrance is also limited to that level - only field level tickets are allowed into the field level entrance. This archaic security system means that once you are on your assigned seating level, you are there for the game. Of course, you can always go up to any level, but unless you have a field level ticket, exploring the entire stadium is very difficult.

As a side note, we did find a way to go down - we mentioned to guest relations that we wanted to take some pictures for our website and they gave out a temporary field level ticket. Of course, once on the field level, you can sit in any empty seat and enjoy the game.

There are six levels of seating at Dodger Stadium, 5 are in the main part of the park - dugout (blue seats), field (yellow), loge (orange), reserved (blue), and upper (red). Avoid the upper seats, they are far away. Dugout seats are great if you can get them, but probably cost over $100. There were no good field level seats available either - you can get them way down the line for $17, but they are far from home plate. The loge seats are pretty good, but still expensive ($32) if you are behind home plate, but only $13 down the line. Surprisingly, the reserved section behind the plate is $15, but these are probably the best value if you can sit down low. The upper seats are only $6 and give you great views of the surrounding hills but not a great view of the action. The sixth seating option is the pavilion at $6, but we are not sure if these are good seats as we were unable to gain access. 

The four colours of the different levels

If you buy your tickets at the box office on game day, don't be dissuaded by the sign that indicates that no infield seats are available at the loge or field level - just ask, there are usually a few hanging around.

Wandering around the inside of the park, there are more pictures of the players on the cement posts behind each aisle. In Dodger Stadium, there are no sections, just aisles.  Odd numbered aisles are along the third base line, and even numbered along first. Aisles on all levels begin at 1 behind home plate, except for the loge level which begins at 101. This is a bit confusing initially, but once you understand the system, you can determine where any seat is just by its aisle number.

Rows are as normal, except in the loge section, where each row letter is used on two actual rows - Row A is actually the first two rows on the left side of the aisle, while Row B comprises the first two rows on the right side of the aisle. Seats 1-4 are in the first row while 5-8 are in the second row. Confused? It really doesn't make much difference, but remember that Row A may not necessarily be the first row. A big plus is the 8 seats per row which means that you don't have to worry about people getting up during the game if you are in the aisle seat. 

There is one scoreboard in right field, containing the numbered lineups and the linescore; the jumbotron in left is just above a smaller scoreboard that displays the pitch count after each half inning. The retired numbers are shown on the fences along with a headshot of the player. The Dodgers have a great history that is illustrated by the names on the fence, which include Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Jackie Robison, Duke Snider, and Tommy Lasorda.

Look beyond the left field fence to see a tribute to the Hollywood sign - on a hill overlooking the field you can see blue letters asking you to "THINK BLUE" - a nice touch that has been recently added.

Think Blue and the video screen

The Dodger Dog may be world-famous, but it isn't that good. The Picante dog is spicy for those of you who want your hot dog to bite back. Most of the food in the stadium is part of national food chains such as Carvel, Domino's, Carl's Jr. or Subway - all of these seemed acceptable if somewhat bland.

One of the problems of this park is the few number of toilets available. Don't be drinking lots of beer or you might be spending a couple of innings in a line up. Another thing I found a bit silly were the lights at the top of the pavilion and the stadium that flicker when the Dodgers' starting lineup is announced and when a home run is hit. Fireworks are OK, but these lights are pretty lame. Another humorous indication of the parks age is a sign on the reserved level that reads "Betting or Soliciting Bets Prohibited".

Overall, Dodger Stadium is now just an average place to watch a game. The way of thinking is just a bit outdated, the parking can be difficult, and the good tickets are a bit pricey. But there has been a lot of history here, and the Dodgers this year are one of baseball's more exciting teams, so it is still worth your time to check out a game here.