DODGERS VS RED SOX AT THE LA COLISEUM - 3/30/08.

I guess it's not THAT special when you're one of 115,300-or-so people who were there, but it sure was awesome. I remember reading about the Dodgers playing at the Olympic Coliseum after they first moved from Brooklyn and thinking how crazy that would have been to watch. The left field situation blows my mind the most - it's only like 200' to the wall because of the width of the oval, so a 65' net (dubbed by our group as "The Mesh Monster" was erected to prevent anyone and everyone from going yard to left.

Highlights:
1) Sitting 13 rows off the field, right behind the Sox' dugout and about 100 yards from the makeshift bullpen (which was shared by both teams). We were right next to the tunnel where all the old Dodger greats were hanging as well.
2) Kareem throwing out his pitch in the 3rd or 4th inning (there were ceremonial first pitches at the start of every inning) - he bounced it in the dirt, the crowd booed, he asked for the ball back and did his famous hook-shot back to the catcher. A classic moment.
3) TAKASHI! Thank you Lord for exhibition games where my favorite current baseball player, a closer, will take the mound and pitch for 2/3 of an inning when his team is down by 6 runs.

Low points:
1) Leading my girl through the crowd, thinking I'm holding her hand only to turn around and see that the hand I'm holding in mine belongs to a 285-pound 45-year old man in a Hawaiian shirt.
2) The 3 middle-aged women in Red Sox gear sitting behind me who "weren't really feeling" the TAKASHI cheer.
3) Not as many bombs over The Mesh Monster as one would have expected.

Baiseboll has been very good to me!

Home of the USC Trojans football team:


3rd inning or so - notice where the LF plays - the outfield is so short, he's almost like a 5th infielder and just plays the gaps.


The shared bullpen.


The best reason to go to a Dodger game. The cheer WILL come to life in '08.


Bottom of the 8th from the top section of the Coliseum.