It's my favorite time of year: baseball season. Being from the Bay Area, I was born and raised a Giants fan. Ever since I was little, I loved going to games. AT&T Park was my favorite place in the world. Now that I'm going to school in L.A., I'm in Dodgers territory, and it is a whole other world.
The Dodgers and Giants rivalry is a deep-rooted and passionate one. I've gotten side eyed or even dirty looks from some obvious Dodger fans if I wore a Giants shirt around campus, so I was interested to see what would happen in a stadium full of them. On Friday, April 15, my friends and I had the opportunity to go to the Giants vs. Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium.
After sitting through an hour or so of L.A. traffic, we finally drove up to Dodger Stadium, which is actually in a quite beautiful location; the cityscape of Los Angeles is on every side of you and palm trees are every which way. I was impressed; I thought going to AT&T Park for all these years would have ruined the chance for any other baseball stadium to stand out to me.
The field itself was very nice as well. There were two jumbotrons, giving all fans a better view. The grass was nicely manicured, with "LA" mowed into it in center field. The stadium was also way larger than I had thought it to be, and the game we went to was sold out.
This game was also special because it was Jackie Robinson day. All the players wore number 42, and that number was also drawn into the infield behind second base.
The game was to begin at 7:10 p.m., and we arrived just as the sun was going down, creating a summer-esque ambiance. It felt like the beginning of a great evening of baseball.
Well, it was for the Dodgers. Their two home runs and a lot of errors by the Giants made for an easy victory for the Dodgers, 7-3. However, while it's never fun to watch your team lose, especially to one of their biggest rivals, the experience at Dodger Stadium was definitely fun and memorable, except for a few fans.
When my friends and I first found our seats, we were a bit confused by the numbering so we stood off to the side attempting to figure it out. A Dodgers fan a few rows above us says, "It's because they're Giants fans." While he did smile and laugh it off, it felt a bit more hostile than "just a joke."
During the game, a Dodgers fan in front of us would attempt to whisper, but actually talk in a normal tone, passive aggressive comments to the fan next to him whenever my friend would say something to me. For example, she said something about wanting Bruce Bochy to pull Madison Bumgarner, and the Dodgers fan in front of us said something rather crass and offensive about Bruce Bochy.
Besides the occasional "Giants suck" chants and the slightly disappointing Dodger dog I tried, my experience was pretty great overall. I do wish the Giants would have won, but it is an even year this year, so here's hoping for that fourth World Series Championship.
