Los Angeles Coliseum
Los Angeles, CA
Boston Red Sox at
Los Angeles Dodgers
March 29, 2008
By
Ken Schlapp
 When
I heard that the Dodgers planned to play a game at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum, I was immediately excited and started working on
my plans be there, because there was no way I was not going to go.
I was quite happy that the Dodgers made the decision to celebrate
their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles by playing an
exhibition game in the stadium in which they played their first four
seasons, the Coliseum, before moving into Dodger Stadium and after
abandoning Brooklyn. All I had to do was convince TJ and Rick to
go with me and then buy tickets as soon as we could. The first part
was easily accomplished, as I knew they would go. With as large a
capacity as the Coliseum has, I was not worried about getting
tickets, but I never realized that when I did that I would be one of
the 115,300 fans attending the game, which set a new world record
for attendance at a baseball game.
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was
built in 1923 as the home of the USC Trojan football team and the
Trojans still call the coliseum their home today. It is a memorial
in honor of the World War I veterans. It was also the home of UCLA
football from 1928 through 1981. However, the coliseum is most
famous for being the only stadium to host 2 separate summer
Olympics, in 1932 and in 1984. Prior to the 1932 Olympics, the
Coliseum was the largest stadium in Los Angeles, with a capacity of
75,144. However, in preparation for the 1932 Olympics, the stadium
was extended upwards to 79 rows in the upper level to bring the
capacity up to 101,574. After the 1932 Olympics, the Coliseum
continued to add tenants. The Los Angeles Rams began playing NFL
games there in 1946 and continued to do so until 1979. The Los
Angeles Chargers played there in 1960, before moving to San Diego
and the Los Angeles Raiders played there from 1982 through 1994,
both after leaving and before returning to Oakland. Various other
professional football and soccer teams played there from time to
time. The 1967 Championship game (which would later be known as the
Super Bowl) would be played her as well as the Pro Bowl from
1951-1972 & 1979.
 There
was no shortage of use for this historic stadium, but it was not
until 1958 that baseball was added to the curriculum when the
Dodgers abandoned Brooklyn to play in Los Angeles. Coming from New
York, I have to have some fun with the abandonment theme, because
people from Brooklyn are still mad at the Dodgers for leaving, but
still want them back. I have always been a Mets fan, but my uncle
and older cousins were New York Giants fans, so my long-time
affiliation sides more with the Giants and I never liked the Dodgers
anyway, so I have no problem with them being on the left coast, but
I am not the majority. The Dodgers were truly loved by Brooklynites
even though they only managed to win one World Series during their
long history in Brooklyn. However, they did manage to win a World
Series in only their 2nd year in Los Angeles in 1959 and
have done it 4 more times since. The unique thing about their 1958
title is that along with the 1967 Super Bowl, the Coliseum is the
only stadium to host both the World Series and the Super Bowl.
During the Dodger 4-year tenure at the
Coliseum, they had to play under some unique conditions because they
were effectively squeezing baseball into a football stadium. This
means that the angles for the field and seating were not in the
typical and appropriate positions. In fact the distance to the left
field fence was only 251 feet from home plate, but was 42 feet
high. This led to some very short home runs (although some line
drives that may be home runs elsewhere would just bounce off the
fence here.. Most famously were the many home runs hit by Wally
Moon, which, of course, became known as Moon Shots! Playing at the
Coliseum also led to some of the largest crowds ever to attend
baseball games to the humongous capacity of this stadium. When the
Dodgers finally moved into their brand new stadium in Chavez Ravine,
nobody thought there would be baseball in the Coliseum again, and
there would not be until March 29, 2008, when the Dodgers played an
exhibition game against the Red Sox to commemorate their 50th
anniversary in Los Angeles.
In 2003, during my big baseball, trek,
I was able to walk around the outside of the Coliseum, but I was not
able to make it inside on this day. Thankfully, due to the Dodgers
50th anniversary celebration, I was able to make it
inside this time. I flew out to San Diego on Friday the 28th
to stay at TJ’s house. On Saturday, we met up with Rick and headed
up to LA for the historic game. As per tradition with this crew, we
managed to find a spot on the street and walk a few blocks to the
stadium, and with over 115,000 people in attendance, that was no
simple feat.
Since the Dodgers were playing the Red
Sox, I decided to wear my Pedro Martinez Red Sox Jersey to root for
the Red Sox and against the Dodgers. You can take your pick on
either angle. Rick, however, decided to wear his Roberto Clemente
jersey, which made our day more interesting. Several people saw him
with his Pirates Jersey and immediately
 ridiculed/questioned
him as to why he would be wearing a Pirates Jersey. However, every
single time, when the noticed it was a Clemente jersey, the
immediately said “Oh, Roberto Clemente, that’s cool”. It must have
happened at least 10 times, which made it quite funny. I got a few
derisive and abusive comments about my Red Sox jersey, but nothing
like the constant reaction Rick was getting.
During our walk around the stadium, it
was hard not to notice how majestic this old stadium is. The
concrete base, walls, and façade in conjunctions with some open air
in between to give a peak at the inside, made this coliseum appear
to be Romanesque like the great Coliseum in Rome. Adding to that by
the main entrance are the 2 large nude, but headless statues of a
male and a female athlete that were erected for the 1984 Olympics.
USA water polo athlete, Terry Schroeder was the model behind the
male athlete, Long jumper, Jennifer Innis, from Guyana was the
female model. The “Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum” lettering and the
Olympic rings were added along with the large analog clock and
thermometer over the office windows on both ends of the peristyle in
1955. This makes for a beautiful entrance to this almost ancient
(by US terms) stadium. In addition, there is a “Court of Honor”
with plaques honoring the many heroes and events that took place
during the Coliseum’s long history. Finally the Coliseum was
deemed a National Landmark on July 27, 1984.
Once inside the stadium, I was simply
overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place. Any venue that can hold
the 115,300 fans that were in attendance on this day has to be
massive. Our seats we relatively high in the upper level and right
down the left field line. Therefore, we had a great view of the
fence constructed to act as the large left field wall. Due to the
many modifications made to the Coliseum since the Dodgers last
played here, the short 251-foot left field wall/fence had to be
shortened all the way to 201 feet for this game. To attempt to
compensate for this short home run opportunity, the height of the
fence was increased from 42 feet to 61 feet, which clearly makes for
the shortest and most unusual home run barriers in all of baseball.
 These
unusual field dimensions would lead to some unique happenings within
the game. The Red Sox participation in the game was unique itself
for many reasons. First was the fact that the Red Sox are in the
American League. Secondly, the Red Sox were playing an
exhibition/spring training game after having already played to
regular season games against the Oakland Athletics….in Japan! On
their way back from this trip, the Red Sox scheduled 3 exhibition
games against the Dodgers, including this game in the Coliseum.
After that, they got back to regular season action against the A’s
in Oakland.
Before the game, the Dodgers paid
tribute to the 1958 Dodger team that played that first season in the
Coliseum, by having Wally Moon of “Moon Shot” fame to throw out the
first pitch. They added a 2nd 1st pitch in the
2nd inning when Laker great Kareem –Abdul-Jabbar through
out the pitch, while being flanked by 15 members of the Dodgers 1958
team. The Dodgers long-time announcer, Vin Skully, was also honored
before the game. He has been announcing Dodgers games since the
early 1950s, when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. The funny
thing about his situation, is that I learned in a documentary, that
he grew up a Giants fan, but ended up a big part of the Dodgers
family and history. In my opinion, he is the best announcer to
listen to, and he does most of the games on his own, with no aid
from a color man. One of his best attributes may be his ability to
be silent when appropriate and not overwhelm you with constant
chatter.
The problem that I had after that was
that I could not find a scorecard to buy in the stadium and could
not keep score as I traditionally do on my first trip to any
stadium. I was very disappointed, but I trudged on and still took
notes and cheated by looking up stats after the fact to get my story
down correctly.
Once the game got started, the
dimensions of the field immediately came into play. The Dodgers
decided to go with 5 infielders and no left fielder. Normal center
fielder, Andrew Jones, played right by 2nd base to clog
up the middle, while Dodger shortstop Blake DeWitt was effectively
playing both shortstop and left field on any balls that were hit
over his head and off the giant screen/fence. The Red Sox did not
employ that same strategy, but their left fielder did play all the
way over in left center field.
 The
Dodgers started off well in the first when Esteban Loaiza held the
Red Sox scoreless in the first and then scored the first run of the
game in the bottom of the inning. Rafeal Furcal singled, moved to 2nd
on Tim Wakefield’s botched pickoff attempt, and would eventually
score on a sacrifice fly by Andre Ethier. That brief lead would not
last long.
Kevin Cash hit a 3-run home run in the
2nd after a 2-out error by Blake DeWitt, and added a
2-run homer by Kevin Youkilis in the 3rd to give the
Dodgers a 7-1 lead that they would not relinquish. No runs were
scored in the 4th inning, but there still was a very
unusual play when Jacoby Ellsbury was caught stealing at 2nd
base when Dodger’s catcher, Russell Martin nailed him at 2nd
on a hard throw to…center fielder…Andruw Jones. This is definitely
the first time (and last time) I saw a 2-8 caught stealing.
Bobby Kielty and Alex Cora each added
RBI singles in the 6th to increase the Red Sox lead to
9-1. The Dodgers would make a late, but feable attempt at a
comeback when Trol Loney his a solo homer in the 8th and
Blake DeWitt hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th
to make the final score a more respectable 9-4. Wakefield ended up
the winning pitcher by giving up 1 run on 5 hits,, one walk, and 2
strikeouts over 5 innings. Esteban Loaiza was the losing pitcher
after surrendering 5 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits, one walk and 3
strikeouts over 3 innings.
During the game, part of the fun was
to stare at the record-breaking crowd. I was amazed that over
115,000 people could fit into one stadium to see a baseball game.
The other thing that stood out to me was that even though I was high
up and far away down the left field line, I was still infinitely
closer than the people sitting in the upper deck in center field.
Those people must have been over 600 feet away from home plate. I
wonder if there were able to see at all.
Bottom Line – This was a great
experience to see this exhibition game in an old venue that was
never really meant for baseball in the first place. The unique
dimensions and defensive alignments made this game priceless, but my
biggest lasting memory of this game is still all the people getting
on Rick about the Pirates Jersey, and then backing off because it
was a Roberto Clemente Jersey. Rick and I still laugh at that when
we are together at other games.
Basic trip facts:
-Stadium # 36
-Old Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 36)
-Under construction Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 2)
-Miles traveled – 250 via Driving and 4,892 via air, total – 5,142
(Totals: Driving – 19,831, Subway - 38, Amtrak – 460, Air - 18,028,
Total – 38,357)
-States, provinces, Districts and/or commonwealths passed through –
California (Totals: States – 48, Provinces – 2, Districts – 1,
Commonwealths - 1)
-Seats – High up in the upper level down the LF line
-Prices: Parking – ?, Beer – ?, Hot Dogs – $4.00-$5.50, Program
(including pencil) – ?, Souvenir Soda Cup – $5.00
-Credit Card giveaway – None
-First Pitch - 7:10 PM
-Attendance – 115,300
-Results – Red Sox 7, Dodgers 4, W – Tim Wakefield, L – Esteban
Loaiza, S – None
-Home team record to date – 24 wins, 18 losses
-Record of “team I was routing for” to date – 19 wins, 23 losses
-Lodging – TJ’s House – San Diego, California |
