Your 2008 LA Dodgers: Alienating its fan base one child at a time!

I thought O'Malley was willing to build the stadium in Brooklyn and pay for it himself (he wanted a dome), but he wanted NYC to condemn a plot of land by eminent domain and Robert Moses refused to because he didn't consider a stadium to benefit the public good. Today, there are bunch of parks (the Texas Rangers') that were built on land taken away by eminent domain.

I recently went to a Phillies game at Citizen's Bank with my son and we were sitting in the outfield. During batting practice, I figured we could stand near the top of the lower deck near first base. An usher asked what we were doing and I explained. She smiled and told us to go right down near the dugout. Unfortunantly, we didn't get any autographs.

 

I remember the Jays doing this at Exhibition Stadium 30 years ago.

 

Be my guest . . . look up the regular-season attendance figures for Dem Bums in the mid '50s, and get back to us.

Yes, O'Malley can rot in hell. Agree with that. But take a look.

 

From 1950 to 1956, the Dodgers finished either in first or second in attendance in the National League every year but 1954 (they were fourth). (source: baseballreference.com)

I'm not saying that O'Malley was such an innocent person in this, but he wasn't the only one at fault for the Dodgers' move.

 

Wholly agree with your last sentence . . . but given the quality of those teams, they should have drawn markedly better than they did, and the raw numbers are pathetic.

 

Whatever his tactics, I think that over the last 50 years, O'Malley's move has proven to be the right one. Could you honestly look at America in the last 1950s and say New York needed three teams and Los Angeles zero?

 

Buh, buh, buh, HBO said that NYC was going to build the Dodgers the stadium, but in Flushing Meadows.

 

For most of the 1950-56 span, the Dodsgers drew about 1.2 mill per year. The Yanks drew 1.4-1.5 mill per year, the Giants were right around a million.

What is so pathetic about the raw numbers?

 

Raw numbers were a lot different until about 25 years ago or so. It used to be that a team drawing 1 million fans considered it a successful season. Now, of course, if a team doesn't draw 3 million, they consider it a failure.

Robert Moses wanted to build the stadium where Shea is located now. With the risising population in the suburbs, he wanted a place that was accessible by highways. O'Malley wanted it built in a part of Brooklyn that was next to the Long Island Railroad terminal, so that people would take the LIRR to the game. They had different visions of travel for the fans, and were never able to come to an agreement. Plus, O'Malley got himself a sweetheart deal in L.A. As a businessman, he did the right thing. As a human being, he left a lot to be desired.

 

All true Baron. All O'Malley wanted was for the City to give him the property at the Atlantic rail yards where there would be subway service from Manhattan and LIRR service from LI and Queens.
Moses' great "vision" for New York was superhighways and bridges everywhere..he's the one who created the traffic nightmares that now exist.
O'Malley's plan was for a stadium with a retractable "canopy." He even got Buckminster Fuller to design a variation on the geodesic dome as an example of what the stadium could be.

Oh, and that property O'Malley wanted? It's where Bruce Ratner is now trying to put the new arena for the Nets.

 

Petco is absolutely beautiful, but some of the seats suck.
I'd still take it over most parks any day of the week.

 

I think if you have a ticket at Coors or Safeco, the two stadiums I've been to the most in recent years, you can get anywhere because there's a nice, wide concourse circling the whole stadium.

And you can easily go between the upper and lower decks. Not sure about pre-game infield-area access but you can stand right outside the bullpens in Safeco and watch through a wire screen. Jamie Moyer threw my son a baseball several years ago after he was done warming up.

They are sort of alike, almost cookie-cutter ballparks, but it's one damn fine cookie. They are two of the nicest ballparks I've ever been in.

Parking can be a pain at both. But the Rockies have an excellent bus system from many parts around the metro area that takes you there and back very quickly, efficiently and affordably. For example in Colorado you can get to the stadium in about 15 minutes from 120th N (Broomfield/Westminster).