Sports Highlights

A visit to Chavez Ravine:

Tuesday night Ray and I went to Chavez Ravine to see the Dodgers-Giants game. I left the office at 5, got to Ray's house in Woodland Hills at 5:38. We switched to Ray's car and we headed for the stadium. The traffic was okay and when we got off the Freeway it was 6:30. From the exit to the parking lot it was bumper to bumper. The road into the ballpark goes through Elysian Park so the scenery is nice. Ray had his company's tickets and "Preferred Parking Pass". By the time we parked it was 7:35 and the game was into the bottom of 2nd inning. By the time we sat down in our excellent seats, just to the left of homeplate in the Loge section after getting a couple of beers and Dodger Dogs the game was in the 3rd. The beers and dogs cost $38.50. The Dodgers lost 4-1 and dropped a game and half behind the Giants in the NL West! Dodger Stadium is 50 years old and it is kind of a grand old place. It was a revelation when it opened because it didn't have any obstructed view seats!

Fenway Pahk:

I sat in a seat in Fenway Park's right field grand stand that had a steel beam in front of it. If you sat upright in the seat you had 10 inches of steel 24 inches from your face!

The summer I turned 50, old friends, Gary, Don and John spent an afternoon at Fenway and an even longer evening on Landsdowne Street after the game. Good thing I lived on Newbury Street at the time and we didn't have to walk very 'Fah".

The Gahden:

The old Boston Garden had plenty of obstructed view seats, there were seats in the third level that had I beams directly in front of them and the beams were so close to the seat you had to spread you legs to sit in them. No AC either, I went to a Bruins Stanley Cup semi final, it was 97 degrees outside and foggy in the "Gahden". The Ringling Bros circus used to play the building every year, in the 30's some monkeys managed to escape and they lived in the rafters of the old Garden for many years. They lived on popcorn, pizza crusts, old hot dogs and anything else they could scrounge up. Legend has it they used to drop a nice monkey turd or two on the ice during Bruins games and they targeted the Celtic's parquet floor, too.

The first concert in the New Boston Garden was Plante and Paige. Saw the show, it was good and no, they didn't play "Stairway to Heaven". 

Wrigley Field:

 
Years ago, Doug James and I went to a Reds-Cubs game at Wrigley Field. There was a pitcher's dual that afternoon and Pete Rose was up in the late innings. We were seated in a box right behind home plate. The crowd was really quiet while waiting for the pitch. Sitting in the box next to us was a guy who was so drunk it seemed impossible he was still conscious. The call was 3 and 2, the park deathly quiet, Rose was ready and then the drunk threw up. Not only did he throw up gallons of whatever he had drank before and during the game it was the loudest barf I've ever heard. It seemed like it echoed through Wrigley. Rose stepped out of the batter's box, the catcher stood up and they both, along with the umpire stared back into the seats behind home plate. Years later, when Rose had his restaurant in Delray Beach, I had a chance to ask him if he remembered the "Guy Barfing at Wrigley"? He said he did. Pete struck out on the next pitch and the Cubbies defeated the Big Red Machine that afternoon.