While football season may be your first love, for me baseball was a very important of my childhood. I played a little softball, not all that great; my brother was an excellent baseball player starting with Little League and all through high school.
My mother was a huge Dodger fan, especially Sandy Koufax. We have had the pleasure of listening to the best sports announcer of all times, Vin Scully. He started his career in 1950 in Brooklyn before moving to LA, where he continues to broadcast!
In 1986, 4 families of friends, with our 2 kids each, became Dodger season ticket holders. We remain season ticket holders today. Our kids are grown, no longer living at home. One of the families has sons and grandkids that also come to the games.
We’ve seen some of the most exciting baseball one could ever hope to imagine. The Kirk Gibson World Series homerun in 1988 is one such event. There are too many to mention, but if you are a sports fan, you know the long history of this franchise. Some of these seasons could be considered the good, the bad and the ugly! But we are loyal true blue fans!
This week, I had my 2 tickets for the San Diego Padres game and another family was using the tickets of one of the other season ticket holders. It was a special night, because the Dodgers were recognizing the LA Kings, Stanley Cup winners. They threw out the first pitch and were there enjoying the game.
I’ve eaten my fair share of Dodger Dogs over the years, and rarely eat the food at the games anymore. This particular night however, I decided to have a Wetzel Dog. Just like you might imagine, it’s a hot dog with a pretzel wrapped around it for $6.25.
My friends decided they were getting their food from a different vendor. So we separated. I went and got my dog and a cup of brown mustard and went to my seat.
Now, for those of you that don’t know much about Dodger Stadium; it’s an oldie but a goodie. Located in downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium was built between 1959-1962. Prior to that, the Dodgers played at the Los Angeles Coliseum, after leaving Brooklyn, New York in 1958.
We sit in the section referred to as the reserve level. There is a section above us and 2 sections below us. In the outfield, there are the right and left field pavilions.
Our reserve seats are very good. We sit in Section 7, that’s 4 aisles left of home plate going towards 3rd, in row F, 6 rows back from the first row in that section.
I’m giving you this visual because, something unbelievable happened that night!
It’s been very warm in LA these past few weeks and the humidity has been awful. My friends went into the merchandise store to buy a hand held fan. She selected a Hello Kitty plastic fan, why not, it’s really cute and cost a whopping $14.00.
Here’s where it gets interesting. She paid with her MasterCard. That simple $14 purchase was the “lucky” purchase of the evening!! The prize…sitting in the front row of the field seats along the 1st base side.
Yep, that was us!!! All of this is going on while I am eating my mustard and hot dog!! My friends came down to get me, as I didn’t realize they had sent me a text and said…”Stop eating”! “What?” “Stop eating, we’re moving our seats.” I looked at them like they were crazy and said, “What the heck are you talking about?”
“We just won the MasterCard prize and we are moving down to the field and it’s all you can eat for free!!”
I keep score at the games, I was so screwed up. I wrote the wrong players in on the scorecard, I couldn’t focus; I was just sitting there with my mouth hanging open! We were early, the seats did fill in as it got closer to game time.
Do you know how close, close is? Told ya, Best Seats in the House!
We could have had restaurant food, also for free, but we never went inside to check it out. We had to buy the beer, oh shucks, but you could eat as much ball park food as you want, and they serve you, oh yes, that’s how it works in the rich and famous seats!
Up to bat…Yasiel Puig
If you look real close, you’ll see the powerhouse team owner, Magic Johnson and former manager Tommy Lasorda.
The star of the team Clayton Kershaw is on the mound. Butt, I told you we were close. I just can’t help myself sometimes!
The only requirement we had in sitting in those seats were to be sitting there at the bottom of the 6th inning, because this was a MasterCard promotion. Look how many times I’ve mentioned MasterCard, they must love me!! This camera man was in place to set up on the field, why you ask??
Because look who was on the jumbo screen!
Yep, it was priceless, yes we won and yes this was pretty darn cool!!!
First row at the Sparks game a couple of months ago…
First row at the Dodger game.
Next month I’m going to the opening night game between the Clippers and the OKC Thunder. It’s my birthday…do you think there is any chance I could be sitting by Billy Crystal? Wonder if there is a MasterCard promotion??!!
Anything’s possible in LA LA land!!!
