YFSF

Soxfan in LaLaLand, Redux

We took our first trip to Chavez Ravine (we forgot our non-telephonic camera, sadly) this Saturday evening to see the Major League-best Dodgers take on Felix Hernandez and the Mariners. Some observations:

• Most diverse crowd I have ever seen at a ballgame. We sat in the upper deck, reserve seats. $19, and a great view, sight lines nearly perfect. The crowd lives up to its reputation of LA insouciance: relaxed, intermittenly paying attention, truly enjoying themselves. A very nice atmosphere.
• Even understanding tendentious history of Chavez Ravine and eminent domain, the site and park are beautiful. Clean, situated in lovely fashion, with sunset views of the San Gabriel mountains as the game wore on. The most beautiful professional baseball park I have been to that sits outside a downtown. And during the approach to the stadium and at the plateau for the upper decks, you get full views towards sparkling (or smoggy, depending on the time of day) Los Angeles.
• The stadium is segregated by ticket type, even more so than Yankee Stadium. We sat in the upper deck reserves, and there was no way to go anywhere else, even if we wanted to bowl over a security guard. We could have base-jumped, I suppose. The upper sections are separated completely (not by barricade or fence, but by air and space) from the lowers. Yankee Stadium seems positively democratic by comparison. Chatter around the park was that the Dodgers are interested in renovating and changing this, which would be welcome. It is really quite shameful that you can't move around.
• We didn't sample much food other than what we had for dinner, this was no culinary expedition (that was left to an earlier evening and a Top Chef Master - thanks to Ludo for a genius meal and good conversation, the wine provided by a tastemaster). The grilled Dodger Dogs were fantastic, the Gordon Biersch garlic fries even better. Despite a decent crowd they were able to serve them to us fresh, crisp, and covered in garlic. The bagged peanuts were generic, oversalted, dry. With a bottle of water dinner ran $16.
• Felix Hernandez is very impressive in person, even from the top shelf of the stadium. 
• The Mariners lineup is not, despite their win. Oh, except for Ichiro, who put on a display. Though he also dropped an easy fly ball (channelling Luis Castillo, almost!).
• We get to say we saw Ken Griffey Jr. hit a homer in person, something that we weren't able to do up until this weekend, and something on which we thought we'd miss out.    
• In the fifth inning there was a video tribute to Fernando Valenzuela, who was in the house.  A treat to see him and also the highlights.  The crowd went nuts (as nuts as LA fans go, that is) for Fernando. 

Soxfan in LAlaland

First a mural of Manny, then this. Certainly odd to see.

Saturday Morning in LA

On the Left Coast for work, took a quick trip to Chavez Ravine to get impulse tix for tonight's game. Visitors are allowed in, and the view from just inside the box office is SPECTACULAR. Excited for tonight, my first time to this park.

Cheapies, Contd.

After this morning's post on Nick Green's home run, somewhat in response to a complaint from a YF in an earlier thread about how cheap it was (and how sports media should be berating Fenway Park for allowing so many such home runs), I emailed Greg Rybarczyk, who runs Hit Tracker, the home run tracking site that will waste two hours of your time before you even realize it.

Inspired by Brad's question in that post, I asked Greg basically whether there was a way to see which park's notoriously easy home run spots tended to be utilized more often.

A little debate is developing about the relative “cheapness” of the home runs allowed by the respective ballparks, especially in light of Yankee Stadium’s new title as Coors Field East and yesterday’s walkoff cheap shot by Nick Green.

I’ve read your emails with Yankee bloggers in the past about how the straightening of Yankee Stadiums’ right field wall has effectively shortened the dimensions at that park, and some of us were wondering if that change makes right field at Yankee Stadium an easier place to hit a home run that would otherwise be an out (or non-HR hit) in every other park than down the lines at Fenway. Is there some way for us to figure this out on your site, or do you have a spare moment to run some numbers?

Greg was kind enough to reply with a pair of extremely enlightening diagrams, which follow the jump.

Cheapies

There's been some talk -- seemingly among disgruntled Yankee fans rightly annoyed by the media carping about the unexpected home run proclivities of their own ballpark -- about how "cheap" Nick Green's home run to win yesterday's game against the Braves was.

And, no doubt, it was cheap. Our eyes tell us this because it snaked around the Fenway Park right-field foul pole. Greg Rybarczyk's excellent HitTracker site also tells us this because it traveled just 317 feet, the second-shortest homer in baseball this season (for which there is data; about 10 homers do not).

This raises a fun question: What is the cheapest home run hit so far this year, and how do we define "cheap"?

Contract Year Conspiracy Theory

Johnny Damon interned here a few summers ago, and changed some dimension strings without telling anyone.

Home Cooking

Times' food critic Frank Bruni hits both New York ballparks, rates the chow, and emerges pretty unsatisfied. Though it sounds like the eats are a mixed bag, Danny Meyer seems to at least prove that mass quantity food can be served with excellent attention to quality (Shake Shack, duh), though Bruni takes him to task for the predictable thirty minute wait.  Frank should know that's only five minutes longer than we waited at Yankee Stadium on Day 2 for a bleepin' Nathan's hot dog, so this blogger isn't inclined to pin this only on this one proprietor.

It sounds like with a little focus, some re-jiggered recipes, and a little editing, the new parks can provide some quality niche products for those who want more than the traditional hot dog.  Which, full disclosure, is our own preference.

Take a Hike

Kottke points us to some math, via Phil Mushnick.

Bottom line: it's cheaper to fly to Seattle, rent a car, watch the Yanks lose at Safeco, enjoy some tasty Pacific Northwest grub, and live the high life in a four star hotel than to go to a game at YS2.5.  Click through either link for the math.

The 75 Percent Solution?

There are a great many opinions floating around about the new ballpark in the Bronx and whether it is overpriced, but I'd like to hear from anyone who thinks it's not a serious problem that the vaunted Yankees, after an offseason of massive spending to build a contender, could fill only 74.9 percent of their 4-day-old ballpark on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Today's official attendance was 43,068. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Soxfan in Yankeeland

Imminent Contact - Mark Teixeira about to hit his first homer in front of the home crowd.

Additional pictures and impressions of YSv2.5, from my visit today, after the jump.  All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on the original embed.