I went to see my Dodgers play in Milwaukee, in an attempt to see them play in all 30 baseball stadiums in the country. Miller Park is awesome. There is a sausage race. They have cheese fries in a helmet. There is tailgating with beanbag toss games. There are more brats and sausages and beer than one can possibly consume. It is amazing.
Dedicated to a Kindred Spirit:
I have popped a number of beach balls in my time. My first was in 2003. My record is 4 in one game on August 16, 2004. And no, despite the pleadings of those around me, I will not stop.
1) The beach balls are a distraction from the game. If you don’t want to watch the game, don’t come. Go to the park. Or the beach. I can tell you need some exercise.
2) Beach balls are not allowed at Dodger Stadium for a reason. Playing keep-away from the ushers is juvenile. If you can get Dodger Stadium to allow them and condone their existence in the ballpark, I promise I will stop popping them. I follow the rules at Dodger Stadium because I respect it. Hitting around a beach ball is a sign of disrespect to me, the players, and the game.
3) No, I don’t like the wave. This is because in the past two seasons, in a total of 73 games, I have not ONCE seen the Dodgers score during the wave. So I consider it unlucky and I won’t participate in it. However never in my life have I prevented anyone from doing the wave so your mature and creative visual of me stabbing people for standing up are funny but untrue.
4) I don’t give a fuck if your kid likes hitting them. That’s probably because you aren’t doing a good enough job getting them interested in the game. And clearly you aren’t teaching your kid to respect the game, respect the stadium rules, or respect Vin Scully. Bring the kid a transformer if he’s so fucking bored.
5) Balls end up on the field. It’s dangerous, it’s distracting, it’s annoying. It causes a delay of game. It breaks up the flow. Outfielders could trip on them. It’s embarrassing.
6) Vin Scully hates them too. Need I say more?
From PetCo Park in San Diego, July 3, 2009. Yeah, I forgot to post them earlier. Whatever. This is why I will never be able to have a blogging career. I’m too slow and lazy.
Anyway, onto Manny’s first game back.
Andre Ethier at BP.
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Matt Kemp.
Russell Martin tries to catch a fly out.
Manny came back but didn’t get a hit.
Loney and Martin collide. Vin blamed Loney.
So after all these years, I was told yesterday that my Nikon D80 with my 80-200mm lens is not allowed in Dodger Stadium anymore. Security dude said it’s not permitted. I told him that was very strange, since I’d brought that camera and lens to a total of 100 games over the past 3 years and never once had I been told that it was not allowed.
He said, “that’s our policy. This is private property, we can make whatever rules we like.”
I told him I understand that, but that I would like to know when it changed, since I brought this camera into the stadium less than 24 hours ago without any problem.
He replied with, “this is private property. No lenses over four inches allowed.”
I said, “that is not in your written policy. You only mention tripods and monopods.”
He said, “yes it is.”
Oh thank you sir. That is very specific and informative. I appreciate your help and your fan-friendly atmosphere.
I checked the website when I got home.
Cameras and Camcorders…
Still and video cameras are permitted in Dodger Stadium provided that they are for personal use only. Taking photos or video taping any game action is prohibited. Fans may not block aisles or obstruct the view of others and professional photographic tools (such as tripods, telephoto lenses, etc.) are not permitted in the stadium.
Apparently you are not allowed to take photos of “game action.” Period.
Way to get all fascist on us, Dodgers.
And how do you define a telephoto lens? Some people consider anything over than 85mm to be telephoto. That’s odd, since there were people in my section with 70-300mm lenses, 18-135mm lenses, and 35-70mm lenses. Aren’t those also, by definition, telephoto?
I’d like to know how taking this photo and posting it on Flickr costs them a single cent. If anything, isn’t it good Dodger publicity? Doesn’t it get people thinking about baseball? How the hell does this hurt you, Frank McCourt? I’m sitting in the reserve level. Your photographer’s photos are 100 times nicer than mine. Do you think I could possibly profit off of this?
Angel Stadium used to be the only one with a “no professional equipment” rule, which they defined as 4 inch lenses: Still photography and hand-held video cameras for personal use are allowed in the ballpark. Per MLB restrictions game action cannot be recorded. Professional photography equipment, cameras with lenses larger than four inches and camera support pods are not permitted. Please be courteous to those around you when taking pictures. Please do not stand at the bottom of an aisle to take pictures. They’re still the only ballpark in the MLB to limit you to 4 inches.
I checked a few of the other ballparks, just for fun.
Petco Park: CAMERAS AND CAMCORDERS Guests are welcome to bring still cameras and video cameras in to PETCO Park for their personal use. Guests must avoid obstructing the views of others when using video or photography equipment.
Yankee Stadium: Cameras and video equipment Single-frame flash photography is permitted. Tripods, extended length zoom lenses, other professional camera equipment, movie cameras and any other video or audio recording equipment are not permitted in Yankee Stadium. Guests are not permitted to transmit or aid in transmitting any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information about any games.
So if I text message someone the score, am I breaking the rules? If I call someone and say “Jeter made an awesome catch,” can I be arrested?
Coors Field: Single frame photography is permitted at all times. Lighting at Coors Field is bright enough that flash photography is not necessary or allowed within the ballpark. Camera support pods are not permitted by Guests in Coors Field. Please make sure you are courteous of those around you when taking pictures.
Well that’s nice and friendly. Thank you, Colorado.
Wrigley Field: Visitors are welcome to bring video and still cameras into the ballpark; however, tripods are not allowed in the seating areas. Recordings may be used for personal viewing only. Any other use, distribution or commercial use is prohibited.
Fenway: Cameras and video cameras are permitted inside Fenway Park, but cannot be used to reproduce the game and must not interfere with other fans’ enjoyment of the game.
I’m not really sure what it means to reproduce the game, but it would probably be hard to do that with a still camera, regardless of the lens length.
Busch Stadium: Both still and video cameras are allowed in Busch Stadium, as long as they do not obstruct another guest’s view. Credentialed professional news crews/cameras are only allowed on the concourses and are not to film any game action unless given permission by the Cardinals.
Fine. Fair enough.
So now what to do, what to do? Suggestions gladly accepted.
…I think this would have been funny if it were non-famous people too. Rick Fox and his woman Eliza Dushku were at the Dodger game last night watching my boys in blue go down to the evil OC empire. Of course they were in the $500/seat section, and around the 8th inning they’d had enough baseball and got up and left. One of the drunk Angel fans spots them going down the stairs and literally throws himself over the wall into the stairwell (a good 8 foot drop) and lands on top of this lady. Rick Fox is feeling sort of bad (after all, he knows his recent coked out appearances on Lakers Live has made him the sort of superstar that has fans literally throwing themselves at his feet) so he goes to console this woman who appears to have suffered some sort of head injury. Meanwhile the drunk Angels Fan douche recovers and starts clawing at Rick Fox to get an autograph or a photo or something before people pulled him off of Rick. Classic. This is why I live in LA.
For those of you bleeding Blue out there.
More on Flickr…
That would be sweet. I wonder if I can get a media pass for my own blog. Then I could see the game up close. Like these people.
Not that I’m complaining, because I am very fortunate and lucky to get to go to the games at all. But I think it would be totally awesome to sit there and get hit with basketball sweat and never have to stand up because there’s a guy in your row with a large prostate who manages to leave 8 times per half and never during a time out.
Then again, I think maybe it’s just my calling to photograph games as the fans see them, rather than where media people sit. That way people feel they’re really at the game, and not watching TV. Plus, photographing sports might be too easy when you’re not trying to shoot around people’s heads, fans high-fiving, and people knocking against your camera.
I’ll leave you with this, because the pervs comprise a large portion of my audience, and I need to feel loved.
The Dodgers must know that my life’s been difficult right now, because today Nomar pulled off a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to cheer me up. Sigh. I love them.
Too many people in front of me. They block my view of the winning run with a play at the plate. So fucking annoying.
Anyway.
Last night’s game was fun. And had a walk-off hit by Ethier. Thank Vin for good baseball. It’s been a rough week.
They keep hitting Manny. It’s getting ridiculous.
Thank you, Dodgers. You have no idea how badly I needed this.
The pitching has been fucking awesome this week. Tonight Lowe pitched a perfect game into the 7th. Wow.
Final score: Dodgers 2, Braves 1.
And a few photos from tonight:
Matt Kemp hits a home run to score the first run of the night.
Andruw Jones breaks up a double play by mowing down 2B Johnson.
Stupid Braves outfielder Francouer hit a home run over the left field wall.
My boyfriend Russ caught Kotsay stealing second.
Kemp is still working on his base running.
McCann catches a ball popped foul.