Dodgers-Indians: Cali trip part 6

For those of you that are jumping into the story from here you might want to read from the beginning here. Or Part 2. Or Part 3. Or Part 4. Or Part 5.

Yes, I Phillip James Morgan ... an Angels fan went to a Dodger game at Dodger Stadium. And yes, I the aforementioned Angels fan ENJOYED MYSELF at said Dodger Stadium.

I guess I should start at the beginning of the story huh? (Yeah, moron that's the best place to start.)

Well, if you remember, I had gotten sick Tuesday night into Wednesday day (The day of the Angels game). I thought that it was food poisoning and thought that the rest of my wonderful family would be fine and not get the nasty little bug. ... Boy was I wrong!

Thursday night into Friday morning (the day of the Dodger game), Leslie got a tiny bit of it too, only making one trip to the can as opposed to my 3-5 ... ANYWAY!

She was still feeling under the weather when our lovely son Kendrick also got the diarrhea bug and was not a happy boy. At this point I'm afraid that my SECOND favorite part of our trip was going to get cancelled.

Leslie, being the wonderful (not to mention beautiful ... even sick) wife that she is, said that it would be ok with her if I went to the game and she stayed at her dad's house with Kendrick.

After numerous confirmations that she was serious, I called Michelle (Leslie's sister) about the tickets that she was going to be getting. She said that she knew a guy and that all I had to do was to call him and the tickets were ours. She also mentioned that his tickets were $30 each, which was fine with me.

I call him, not knowing his name (and to this day I still don't), and said, "Umm ... My name is Phill Morgan and I'm Michelle Brady's brother-in-law. She said that you had tickets to tonight's Dodger game?"

"Yeah," came the response, "did you want the field-level tickets ($30) or the loge-level seats($20)?"

"The field-level." I said.

"Ok, how many do you need?"

After checking one last time with Les that she was indeed not going I said, "Just two."

Now this is where it felt really sketchy to me ....

I asked him, "So how do I get these tickets?"

"I'm at a restaurant called 'Phillippi's' ... " and he gave the the address, which from what he said was less than a mile from the Stadium. "Just call me when you get here and I'll meet you outside."

Ok, I thought, I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure that everything will go the way it should.

I packed my "bag of tricks*" for batting practice ...

* -- The 'bag of tricks" includes 3 different types of pens (regular sharpie, fine point sharpie and a gel pen) for autographs, a draw-string backpack (which I ended up having to use because the other back was "too big" bahhh!), a hat for each team (in this case the Dodgers and the Indians. {I'll explain why later}), a cheat sheet with all of the players' pictures, names and numbers on it. Very similar to this one, a camera ,and of course my glove.


... and gave a kiss to Kendrick and Leslie. Before I left Leslie made a very interesting little comment that stuck with me for the entire drive to the park.
"Whatever you do to get the tickets, DON'T GET ARRESTED."

Huh? Arrested? Why would I get arrested? Maybe because this whole situation reminded me of a deal with the mob? You know, the whole "Behind an Italian restaurant is a guy ... knock twice, then once, then twice again and he will give you what you want." type of situation.

I jumped in the car and headed to Phillippi's. On the way I called Michelle, who said to call her once I was at the restaurant. After getting to the restaurant I tried calling Michelle and got no answer. I tried to call Leslie to hear what she thought I should do ... Me being paranoid at this point ... and got no answer SEVEN TIMES!

I decided to call the guy with the tickets. Again, another "mob" twist came into play. "Do you see a Chinese restaurant across the street from Phillippi's?" he asked.

"Yeah I do," I said.

"Go around to the back of that restaurant and I'll meet you there with the tickets."

GULP!

More paranoia sets in as I frantically call Leslie, still without an answer. I'm pacing at this point as the guy comes to the side of the building (looking sketchy I might add) and waves for me to come over to him.

"Are you my guy?"

I nodded, still trying to call Leslie ... still no answer.

"Here are the tickets." He says as he hands them to me and I hang up my last-ditch effort to contact someone I know.

"It's $60 total right?" I ask.

"Yeah," came his reply.

I paid him and that was that.

No cops. ... No "offer I couldn't refuse" (other than the tickets I mean ... they were $60 face value, AND I GOT THEM FOR $30!) ... No "swimming with the fishes" ... Nothing like that.

I decided to just chill for a minute to catch my breath, relax and once and for all get a hold of Leslie. When I still didn't get an answer I thought that I should just get to the stadium parking lot and make the trek to the gates so I could be the first on in the park.

I made my way to the parking lot gate where the attendant told me that the parking lot doesn't open until 2 hours before the scheduled game time, which just so happened to be the exact same time that the gates to the stadium opened too (game time was at 7:40 p.m.), but that they started letting cars lineup at the parking lot gate 15 minutes before they open.

It was 4:50 p.m. That meant that I still had 40 minutes ... 40 MINUTES ... before I could even park my car!

Frustrated, and still trying to call Leslie, I turned around and looked for a place to park. There was nothing on the street and I was panicking again. That was when Leslie finally answered and tried to calm me down. It worked a little bit, and it also improved my luck, as a car pulled out on the side of the road just as I was approaching.

Even though it had been 8 years since I had had to parallel park a car, I still did it with pin-point accuracy.

I grabbed my bag as Michelle called and said that she was on her way and that it would be pointless for both of us to park in the Dodger Stadium parking lot (Parking: $15 ... Finding free parking for one of your two cars on the side of the road: PRICELESS. There's some things money cant buy, for everything else there's Mastercard ... errr ... except for the Dodger Stadium parking lot where they only take CASH lol :0))

I told her that I had already parked and that I was just going to walk to the stadium gates so that I could be the first one in the park. She laughed at me, told me how much of a hike that was and said that she would be there in 5-10 minutes and would pick me up.

I thought that I would start walking and if I wasn't close to the stadium by the time she got there, I'd turn around and go back. Well, I talked to the attendant to see how far it was and he told me a mile. Not too bad. But I felt bad leaving Michelle, so I hung out until she got there.

When she pulled up it was 5:07 p.m. still 8 minutes until we could line up. "Pull up and see if they'll let you line up," I told her. She pulled up to the attendant and he pointed to Lane 2 so that's where we lined up and waited.

I was thinking we would be one of the first cars to park and I could make a mad dash to the stadium gates, so I prepared for "battle", putting the pens in my pocket, folding my cheat sheets and getting everything situated for a quick "look through" by security when I presented my ticket.

However, we were not the first ones in the parking lot and so most of the prep work went for not. Oh well.

I had heard that Dodger Stadium opens up the center-field gate and lets you go on the warning track for batting practice, which is the only stadium I know of that does that.From these pictures (provided by dodgers.com) you can see exactly how it is set up. I thought, however, that the fence to hold you onto the warning track went from straight-away left to straight-away right. I also thought (thanks to picture #2 above) that there would be some room to maneuver and ask players for the baseballs.

Oh how wrong I was ... on both accounts.

We headed straight to center field. I had my pack open and ready for inspection, my ticket in hand and my cheat sheets ready to be read. However, there was nobody to take my ticket. Yes, to stand on the warning track is F-R-E-E (that spells free...credit report dot com ba-by :0) ... free!
If I really wanted to I could park on the side of the road, hike to the stadium, stand and watch batting practice, then walk back to my car and go home to watch the game on TV. It's a good thing I don't live in L.A. or I might just do that A LOT!

When we got onto the warning track, I soon realized that the corral went from left-center to right-center .. a much shorter distance than I had prepared for. It was VERY crowded as well. So we went to the field level (yellow seats) and I squeezed into the first row next to the left-field foul pole.

There was nothing during the Dodgers portion of BP. Sure a few balls rattled into the corner, but nothing that I had a realistic chance at getting.

Remember that I had a Dodger hat and an Indians hat in my "bag of tricks"? Well when the Dodgers left the field and the Indians took BP, I quickly switched hats to look like an Indians "fan".

See, when teams go on the road they like to look for their "fans" and reward them for supporting them on the road by throwing them balls during BP.

So if I look like a "fan" then I have a better chance of getting a ball. When the pitchers came out to shag fly balls Scott Elarton and another pitcher stayed in left field. I called each of them by name, but they ignored me. Finally, about 15 minutes before BP ended Elarton got a ball and turned and threw it in my direction. His throw was 5 feet to my left and I couldn't get to it.

During BP Michelle found some seats and got a world famous Farmer John Dodger Dog. I went and sat with her and took this picture of our view toward home plate.

I got up soon after that and went back to the foul pole because the Dodgers' starter Clayton Kershaw ... who Michelle and I agree looks A LOT like Orel Hershiser ... right?

Anyway, I saw him walking toward left field to start to warm up for the game. I decided to stand behind the Dodger catcher Danny Ardoin (Ar-du-ah) in case of an over throw .... it never came, but I did get a few pics of Kershaw throwing.

Here's a picture that AP took of him during the game.

When they were done warming up I tried to ask for the ball, but no dice. I returned to Michelle, who probably thought I was an idiot for getting up and trying to get a baseball, but for me it's a hobby ... kinda like fishing. You have to be patient, persistent, knowledgeable and kinda lucky.

She explained that no matter what happened during the game that we weren't going to leave early because "Dodger games never start until the 7th inning" ... prophetic words.

Some of the position players came out to run, stretch and throw before the game, so I ran down to the "front row" (Dodger stadium had box seats that you have to have a ticket to get all the way to the real front row so I had to settle for the 10-12th row from the field) and waited for the players to finish with their warm up throws.

I had targeted Andy LaRoche and Andre Ethier. I thought that LaRoche was going to end up with the ball, so I started yell, "Adam (thinking of Andy's brother who plays for the Pirates), could you toss me that ball when you are done," but he fired one last throw to Ethier. I panicked and waved my arms and flashed my glove trying to get his attention. I yelled once more, this time to ANDRE Ethier, "ADAM, could you toss me that ball ... PLEASE!"

Now, I knew as soon as I said it that Adam wasn't his first name, but I also knew that his first name started with and A, so I might be ok. Fortunately for me it was ok. Ethier looked up, saw my Dodgers hat (I switched back before going to see Kershaw) and fired the ball to me. It was pretty beat up (two big gashes and grass stains on half of it) but I didn't care. That pushed my streak to consecutive MLB games with at least one ball to 5. That was it for pregame, I sat down and relaxed as the game started.

I knew before I went to the game that Michelle was a HUGE Dodgers fan, but I didn't realize how big until I went to the game with her. Her enthusiasm for each player was sky high right from the opening pitch. Honestly, I thought that her energy would wain around the 6th or 7th inning ... it didn't. She was constantly on her feet, yelling and screaming for her boys in blue. Les later asked me if I saw a different side of Michelle at the game and I told her that I finally saw the sports fan that I had heard so much about. ... ... And I was glad that I did.

Our view of the field in the middle of the game.

Thanks for a great day at the ballpark Michelle.

Les also asked if I showed Michelle a different side of me ... because I guess I'm a completely different person during BP than I am during the game and outside the stadium. For the answer to that question I guess Michelle will have to post a comment.

Dodgers left fielder Juan Pierre warming up between innings.

As for the game, I knew that it might be an ugly day for the Blue Crew .... which it was for the first 7 innings. Cliff Lee, who might win the AL Cy young award this year, was pitching for the Tribe and had shut out the Dodgers through seven and left the game with one out in the eighth and a 4-0 lead.

When Lee left with a runner on and one out in the eighth, it was the bullpen's goal and objective to protect the lead.

That didn't happen.

The Dodgers got on the board when Rafael Betancourt served up an RBI double to Jeff Kent. And Rafael Perez came in and gave up James Loney's RBI single up the middle to make it 4-2.
That's the lead that was handed to Borowski in the ninth, and it disappeared in a hurry.
Angel Berroa singled and Russell Martin doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Juan Pierre's awkward, check-swing single off Borowski's leg brought in a run with one out. After Pierre stole second, Borowski was forced to intentionally walk Matt Kemp to load the bases. Kent then tied it when he grounded out to short to bring home another run.

It was Borowski's third blown save of the season, yet it wasn't a full-blown disaster. Usually, when Borowski blows one, he does so in dramatic fashion. This time, he was able to get the third out before the Dodgers found the finishing blow.

Because Borowski was able to get out of the 9th without further damage, this game kept going.

In the 10th, an Indians offense that had gone quiet after Kershaw's departure woke back up when Dodgers closer Takashi Saito took the mound.

Saito walked leadoff man Jamey Carroll, then gave up consecutive singles to Ben Francisco and Ryan Garko to load the bases. A fly ball was all the Indians needed to regain the lead, but

Franklin Gutierrez couldn't provide it. Instead, Gutierrez hit a grounder to short that resulted in a 6-2-5 double play.

That could have been the deflating moment that ultimately unraveled the Indians. Instead, Peralta calmly stepped up and ripped a double to right that Andre Ethier couldn't get a glove on (pictured below)."I know I've been struggling with runners in scoring position," Peralta said. "But I tried to concentrate a lot. In that situation, I had to be confident in myself."

"That should be a big lift for him," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "You saw what Jhonny is capable of going down the stretch last season. I can't tell you how many clutch hits he had for us. And in the postseason, arguably he was our best hitter and run-producer. So it's in there for him."

The Dodgers went quietly in the bottom of the 10th and lost 6-4.

Despite the loss I had a blast. Thanks again Michelle for a fun night.