It’s home sweet home. It’s a beautiful ballpark. You don’t really think that you’re in the city because you’re surrounded by mountains.
—Vin Scully, Los Angeles Dodgers TV/radio play-by-play broadcaster
In terms of weather, in terms of view, Dodger Stadium is about as good as it gets. It really is home field advantage in every sense of the word.
—Charley Steiner, Los Angeles Dodgers TV/radio play-by-play broadcaster
For seven decades the Brooklyn Dodgers staked their baseball claim among the New York City boroughs, playing their intraleague rival Giants and interleague nemesis Yankees—often—in a postseason setting. In fact, over a 13-season span, the Yankees defeated the Dodgers in the World Series five times. However, on October 4, 1955, Brooklyn finally beat the Yankees in their own home in game 7 of the World Series, bringing the championship glory to Brooklyn for the first time in the team’s 66-year history. Two years after this pivotal moment for the Dodgers came another, as team owner Walter O’Malley announced the team would be moving west to Los Angeles the following season. Despite appearing in nine World Series and hosting perhaps the most iconic moment in sports history—Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier—just 10 years before, the Dodgers began their pilgrimage westward, leaving in their dust legions of broken hearted Brooklynites. Though in a new city, the Los Angeles Dodgers weren’t quite in a new home. The team played in the Los Angeles Coliseum for four years, waiting for a permanent residence. On April 10, 1962, 2,800 miles from their old home of Ebbets Field, the Dodgers took the field atop Chavez Ravine in their new home of Dodger Stadium, which stands today as the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball.
A Place Among the Palms and the Traffic
Dodger Stadium’s geographic location is among the most unique of any ballpark in baseball and allows fans to soak in elements specific to the Golden State. When asked what features made Dodger Stadium unique from the other 29 ballparks in baseball, Charley Steiner simply responded, “You mean the sunsets, the palm trees, and the San Gabriel Mountains? Oh, and did I mention it never rains?” Located just minutes (depending on traffic) from downtown LA in one direction and the Hollywood Hills in the other, Dodger Stadium is cemented into the hillside of Chavez Ravine, an area once relegated to the lower income families of Los Angeles. While the slanting foundation and clay surface weren’t the most ideal for building a residential home back in 1962, a $23 million (roughly $181 million today, adjusted for inflation) stadium didn’t seem that implausible. With the high-rising buildings of downtown LA at its back, Dodger Stadium sits with an amazing view of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains, and where there are mountains, there’s bound to be a beautiful sunset. Around the time the second inning would be coming to a close on a summer evening, the three natural elements described by Charley Steiner all culminate in what many would consider to be the most beautiful landscape in all of baseball. Longtime Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play broadcaster Vin Scully gives his own, more personal description of the surroundings of Dodger Stadium: “The biggest thing about Dodger Stadium—certainly in July, August, September—when the air is clear and you are looking out beyond the pavilions, you would see the mountains, and you would remember the words from the song and the words ‘the purple mountains’ majesty’ and that’s out there for all the world to see. It’s a beautiful ballpark. They spent a lot of money building it. They’ve spent even more money maintaining it. There’s also been a lot of careful planting, which was done by Walter O’Malley, who designed it and built it. Mr. O’Malley loved the earth. He loved flowers, and so we have a lot of that as well. The current ownership has not just taken it over, they’ve taken it over and tried to add considerably to the fans’ experience. So when you look at this great sprawling acreage with a lot of parking, you have a beautiful, clean, modern stadium even though it was built and opened up in 1962. They spent a lot of money to make sure it remains the edifice that it is. It’s a great tribute to the game, it’s a great tribute to baseball, and it’s a great tribute to Walter O’Malley, so, all in all, it’s a rather sacred place for me.”
The nature of Dodger Stadium isn’t just found in the palm trees planted by Walter O’Malley or the shrubbery landscaping the San Gabriel Mountains. Downtown LA’s “other nature” slows to a crawl in the form of a steel-framed, exhaust-emitting species, many of which migrate to their colony alongside Chavez Ravine on a nightly basis. Just a few miles south of Dodger Stadium, the California freeway system converges on itself again and again, making it look, from above, like a tangled-up string of Christmas lights fresh from the box the day after Thanksgiving. The eastward/westward US 10 meets up with northbound/southbound I-5, only to merge onto California 101 for a brief moment before connecting to the 110, and three right turns and a circle or two around Chavez Ravine later, you’re at your parking spot just in time for the bottom of the second inning. If you’re the earliest bird of the bunch type, the view from your seat at Dodger Stadium will likely include the sight of red brake lights blinking lethargically on and off as drivers perform an exercise in futility searching for that perfect parking spot. This usually takes place during the first and second innings and resumes during the eighth and ninth, with the cars facing the opposite direction. Though this tardiness is often criticized by fans across the country, Charley Steiner defends the blue-and-white latecomers, saying, “The reality is Dodger Stadium is located off a freeway. Games begin at 7:10. Fans arrive right at the height of rush hour. That’s one of those deals where that ain’t gonna change. They’re not going to pack up and move Dodger Stadium 50 miles away out of Los Angeles where there’s less traffic. These are the cards we’re dealt. All I know is that when the Dodgers are on the road and people are trying to arrive and leave at whatever the stadium at roughly the same time, when you’ve got 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people all in one place at one time, guess what; there’s going to be traffic there, too. It is certainly an easy criticism that’s aimed at Dodger Stadium, but that’s the way it is. I don’t see how that’s going to change. As long as the Dodgers are popular and lead the league in home attendance, there is going to be traffic.” Reinforcing Steiner’s words, the Dodgers have led the league in total attendance for the past two seasons (’13, ’14). Referring again to LA traffic, Steiner adds, “I suppose if there’s any upside, from a perfectly selfish point of view, I’ve got a captive audience if they’re stuck in traffic, coming or going.”
Dodger Stadium Played Fair but Plays Fairer
In 1968 right-hander Don Drysdale was only one of the two remaining Dodgers from the Brooklyn days at Ebbets Field (the other was Ron Fairly). Already having won three World Series titles and a Cy Young award, Drysdale made history in his second to last year as a player. Starting May 14 against the Chicago Cubs, the right-hander delivered 58 consecutive innings of scoreless baseball, breaking Washington Senator Walter Johnson’s record streak of 55⅔ innings, which was set 55 years earlier. The following season, in order to increase fan stimulation, the diamond at Dodger Stadium was shifted a full 10 feet closer to the fences, making the park slightly more hitter friendly. In 1988, 20 plus years after Drysdale’s feat, another “boy in blue,” Dodgers right-hander and soon to be Cy Young winner Orel Hershiser, not only broke Drysdale’s scoreless inning streak, but did so with a 10-foot disadvantage.
Today, Dodger Stadium is one of the only symmetrically designed outfields left in all of baseball. There are no angled walls, deepening triangles, or ascending hills to torment the outfielders. Steiner comments, “In terms of the perfection of the ballpark—the layout itself—you’d be hard pressed to have any sort of complaint. There are no weird hops off the walls. It plays fair, but it plays long.” The “long” he refers to has more to do with what takes place above the field than on it. Situated relatively close to the Pacific Ocean, Dodger Stadium tends to attract much of the cool air the coast has to offer once the sun sets, and for a hitter, cold air equals heavy air. Steiner continues, “The numbers are misleading because of the heaviness of the air. You would think if you look strictly at the dimensions (330 feet down the line, 395 in straightaway center) that it would be an easy home run hitter’s park. Au contraire. The numbers are painted on the walls because they’ve got to put them somewhere.” Perhaps the consolation, if there is any, for the batter is the vantage point for such a “loud out.” Steiner points out, “It’s a pristine setting. The grass is always immaculate. The weather is always perfect, so it plays fair except if you’re a hitter. You can smash it and mash it and hit it about as hard as you possibly can, and, sometimes, it doesn’t go as far as you think it would or should. Blame it on the moist, heavy air and the marine layer.” Dodger Stadium is constantly in the bottom third of the league for home runs allowed by either team, which is good if you’re a pitcher but not if you’re a long-ball-craving ticket holder. Fortunately for the fans, on September 18, 2006, the Dodger Stadium air went on a temporary diet.
Melee on the Field and in the Parking Lot
In a town where brevity in storytelling is practically mandatory, Charley Steiner excels as a broadcaster. Having wanted to be a broadcaster for the Dodgers since he was seven years old, Steiner recalls the most memorable game he has called for the boys in blue—which took place in only his second year with the team—in a way only he could describe it: “The Dodgers were trailing the Padres by four runs in the bottom of the ninth. It’s the middle of September, and it’s a battle for first place at the time. The Dodgers are trailing 9–5, and fans are beginning to leave. It was Jeff Kent who led off the inning in the bottom of the ninth against Jon Adkins. He hits a home run. All right, 9–6. J. D. Drew comes up. Back to back homers. Now it’s 9–7. I’m thinking, ‘Well, this is getting interesting, isn’t it?’ The first home run, my voice is kind of matter of fact. ‘Okay, home run. The Dodgers trail by three.’ Drew hits a homer, makes it 9–7. So, it’s out with Adkins and in with Trevor Hoffman, and the first pitch from Hoffman to Russell Martin, a home run to left center. Three home runs in a row! Now it’s 9–8. Well, this is getting really interesting. Still nobody out. Up comes Marlon Anderson. Marlon Anderson of all people—a journeyman utility player acquired by the club down the stretch—damned if he doesn’t hit a home run to right center. It’s now 9–9. Four home runs in a row. The crowd is going crazy. I am looking out beyond the walls and you see the traffic leaving. You see all the red, brake lights. Now, all of a sudden, the brake lights are illuminated, and the fans are making u-turns coming back. Now the remaining crowd is just going berserk. The next batter, Rafael Furcal, people forget that he hit one right to the wall in left center that was about two feet from being five home runs in a row. So the Dodgers tie the score in the bottom of the ninth, but in the top of the 10th inning, the Padres score a run. Now, it’s 10–9 San Diego. So, all the people who made the trek back—(the next day, I think they said it was about 5,000 people who made a ‘B line’ back into the ballpark)—they get back inside and no doubt are thinking ‘We turned around for this?!’ In the bottom of the 10th, Kenny Lofton led off the inning with a walk and Nomar Garciaparra hits a two-run, walk-off home run to win it. Damndest finish I ever saw.”
Interestingly, Garciaparra is now one of Steiner’s broadcasting partners. Steiner adds, “Nomar and I have known each other a long time, back with my days with the Yankees and he was with the Red Sox. He, of course, played and I announced. He will often say that is the craziest moment of his career, and it certainly was for me watching. It was one of those moments where you go, ‘Whoa!’ Back to back home runs are nice. Three in a row are sweet. Four? You know, it happens once in a blue moon, but four in the bottom of the ninth trailing by four to tie the score was historic. That was one of those special nights I will always remember.” Providing another simple yet sound perspective on his night at “the Ravine,” Steiner signs off, “That game was so wonderful and unpredictable and for all of the reasons why we do what we do. Why players play, and fans come out, and writers write, and broadcasters broadcast.”