At the Stadium--Chavez Ravine

The Jar made the drive through Silver Lake and up the Elysian Parkway to Chavez Ravine (a.k.a Dodger Stadium or the Latrine) last night to catch the Doyers play the St. Louis Cardinals. This had the makings of a great ballgame. Two teams above 500 battling it out during Memorial Day Weekend for a better position to make the playoffs as the wild card, or by winning their respective division. Too bad the Jar's experience was cut short. Thanks Swartz. Although The Jar doesn't think he deserved the boot. To understand, I first have to tell you about one of the main traditions of fans at Dodger games (other than leaving in the 7th to beat traffic): bring an inflatible beach ball to the stadium and hit it around amongst other fans. It's a guarantee that at any Dodgers game you go to you will see at least 10 - 15 beach balls come to you or in your vicinity. It is also a guarantee that wherever there is a beach ball there will be an usher trying to chase it down to deflate and stop the fun. Fans then heckle usher. It's a given at Chavez Ravine. So 2nd inning of yesterday's game, one of the ushers who looked like the pimply-faced kid with a cracked voice in The Simpsons had just taken the beach ball and as he was walking up the aisle Swartz threw popcorn at him (The Jar wishes he had pictures or video footage of the event). Next thing I know, security takes him away and the next time I saw him, he was standing outside of the stadium. What a degenerate? Still, the Jar got to take in the Dodgers wasting a two on and one out in the first as well as 4 runs scored by St. Louis in the 3rd--which turned out to be the only runs scored in the game. Final Score: St. Lous 4 Dodgers 0. And the Dodgers and twice has many hits, they just couldn't pull through with men on...something that has plagued them for the last...oh, I dunno...2 decades or so.

One last funny thought about the game: right before security informed The Jar that General Swartzkopf was ejected from the game, a beach ball was making it's rounds through the crowdm when a Cardinals fan who was sitting right behind me stood up to catch the ball, and proceeded to deflate it. Kids were begging him not too and his wife even asked him not too, but he didn't care. (The Jar wishes Swartz was still there because he probably would have dumped the rest of his popcorn on this degenerate from St. Louis. ) And right as the ball was just about deflated, a 10 year old kid two rows in front stands up and and yells at the deflator (who was decked out in red Cards garb), "That's why St. Louis sucks!" Like Randy Newman said, "I love LA"

Here are some of the Jar's personal pics from the game:

What a beautiful ticket. Dodger legend Sandy Koufax. Thanks again Reid. And when the Jar got home from the game, The Big Lebowski was on TV right at the rant by Walter Sobchak when he says "3,000 years of beautiful history from Moses to Sandy Koufax, you're goddamn right I'm living in the past!" Kinda sums up the current sentiment felt by Dodgers fans: living in the past. There hasn't been a meaningful Dodger moment in 19 years, 226 days and counting according to dodgerblues.com.

Is this really what a Dodgers #1 fan would wear?

General Swartzkopf. This was his face before getting kicked out of the stadium. I should have known things were going to go downhill from here.

What is this? The USC Doyers? Disgraceful.

That's more like it

Bad Ass

Seeing Canter's Deli at Dodger Stadium makes the Jar smile. A couple from Texas was standing in front of us in line and had never heard of matzo ball soup.

"The Fairfax" from Canter's. Delicious. Swartz was all thumbs up when housing this delectable half corned beef/half pastrami treat. It would only get worse from here.

Albert "Winnie the" Pujols to bat. Brad "I'm only 5-5 this season" Penny pitcthing. The Jar really needs a new camera...the zoom on this one sucks...

What other stadium in the world would you find an advertisement for Las Vegas and have someone like The Jar thinking: Hey, Vegas is only a few hours away, if we leave now, we can get there by midnight

If you look at the top of the picture you can see the beach ball that the crowd below is reaching up to hit.

Unfortunately, The Jar did not get to eat a Dodger Dog on this edition of "At the Stadium" due to the early exit. There is always next time. The Jar will be sure to bring someone who doesn't eat popcorn,