Tuesday, September 22, 2009

At-Game Recap (Sept 18, 2009): Sure, We'll Spot You Guys One Just For The Hell Of It

Not that this is all about me, but I have to confess that I don't think it was coincidence that the Dodgers' only loss in this past weekend's series with the Giants came at the game which I attended rather cavalierly. Instead of keeping to my normal consumption tradition, I went with the Camacho's Fish Tacos rather than the staple Dodger Dog, even going so far as to eat the tacos first. The tacos were good. I love fish tacos, especially Rubio's, and revelled when Rubio's began to expand beyond the San Diego area. But I digress.

As we fell behind early, I freaked out and quickly wolfed down the Dodger Dog--but it was too late. Though the Dodgers came back to tie the score, off a two-run jack by Manny Ramirez (who once again validated my reasoning to never miss watching a Ramirez at bat) and a solo shot from Rafael Furcal, they were eventually felled by a trio of Giant doubles in the sixth inning, and the Giants went on to win 8-4. Billingsley's inning of relief yielded a Aaron Rowand solo HR, so that wasn't too good, either.

But there were some cool highlights on the field. I can't find a video of either highlight on the mlb site, but Orlando Hudson turned two nifty double plays on Bengie Molina in the first and fifth innings. And what made each of them hilarious was that Hudson would take the feed, step on second, and then scamper backwards from second two or three short steps before firing to first base. And each time, Molina was still so far out at first, it was ridiculous. It was like Hudson could have run to the dugout, gotten a cup of coffee and some sunflower seeds, and then thrown to first, and Molina still wouldn't have made it to the bag in time. I know the Giants' offense is pathetic, but part of the reason has to be the lack of conditioning of Molina and Pablo Sandoval. Those guys are slow on the basepaths, allowing opponents to turn double plays in slow motion.

Off the field, there were a couple of curious highlights too. First I have to point out the go2taiwan.net ribbon ad, appropriately themed to coincide with My Town Irish Heritage Night. I don't know why they didn't have go2ireland.com advertise on this evening, but who knows, maybe the Irish are big Taiwan supporters. Neither Hong-Chih Kuo nor Chin-Lung Hu played on Friday night, either, which is too bad for the former as Vicente Padilla could have used the help (earning his first loss as a Dodger).

My seats were great as always on a summer night in Los Angeles, and Mrs. Sax and I were lucky enough that Erin of Robots Took My Medicine stopped by (along with Christine) from the press box to say hello. Erin's a kick, which I've already memorialized, but this time she also helped educate me on two things I didn't know about Dodger Stadium: 1) that Vin Scully stands up to sing along for the second stanza of Take Me Out To The Ballgame (which we watched in awe and admiration); and 2) the Don't Stop Believing lunatic who lip syncs and hams it up for the camera appears to compensate for the one-second tape delay by the end of admittedly comical routine (which is quite a skill, I might add, if he is able to lip sync a second ahead of the music in order to make it coalesce on screen). Maybe we should get the DSBl to work on the television screens over the concession stands, which remain in a vicious tape delay of at least five seconds (meaning that if you're in the queue, you hear the crowd reaction, and then have a couple of beats before you can see what happened on the monitors; if it's Bengie Molina running to first base, you actually have more than a couple of beats).

The beautiful evening:

And then, of course, there was the between-inning Kiss Cam that inevitably morphs into the Bud Light Real Men of Genius Mr. Stadium Marriage Proposal Guy event. I usually laugh at these, but given the person was in the section right next to us, I took some shots. First of all, Maria Becerra, your name is in ten-foot tall letters, so you'd better say yes:

And, lucky for her attention-seeking beau, she did (the Dodgers attendant in the back is holding up a big "She Said Yes!" sign; the attendant with the "She Said No, And The Baby Isn't Yours Anyway" sign had already retreated up the aisle).

In all seriousness, congratulations Maria and Mr. Stadium Marriage Proposal Guy. Not the way I would have done it; in fact, I looked over at Mrs. Sax and asked her if she had wanted her proposal done in front of 56,000 of our closest friends at a game that we'd end up losing to our arch-rival foes, and she took about a millisecond to say, unequivocally, "no." I'm glad I didn't choose this option, as I like being married to Mrs. Sax.

The outcome of the game wasn't ideal, but it was a fun night at the Stadium as always. This was most likely my last regular-season game of the 2009 season, which gives me a record of 7-2 (seven straight wins to start the season, then two losses; I kinda feel like Chad Billlingsley). This marks the fewest Dodger games I've been to in any season since I moved back to LA. But I'm confident I'll be back for another game at the Stadium soon either way.

20 comments:

Steve K said...

I saw one of the Mr. Stadium Marriage Proposal Guys last year with my then fiancee (now wife). It's amazing how fast that "NO!" comes when you ask if she would've liked to be proposed at the stadium. Mine came before I'd finished the question.

Steve Sax said...

Well I do hope Maria Becerra doesn't lord this over Mr. Maria Becerra for the rest of their married life.

Because wives don't do things like that, right?

Fred's Brim said...

they should make a Dodger Dog taco. i bet that'd be pretty good

Neeebs (The Original) said...

It's posts like these that make me yearn for the day of the unmasking!

Nostradamus said...

To avoid any future stalking by Neeebs, I will now reveal my secret identity as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Kyle Baker said...

They do make Dodger Dog tacos. Where do you think the meat comes from?

Kyle Baker said...

I snapped two pics of the fat schlub Don't Stop guy at the game on Sunday afternoon:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bakerkm45/JintsVDodgers#

He was in particularly fine form. He was wearing some stupid-ass white louvered sunglasses, posing like a senior class picture with his elbow in his knee and his fist holding up his chin, when the camera first panned to him. This guy knows no fear, and must be quite comfortable with himself.

rbnlaw said...

My wife won't go to ballgames, so the proposal would've been a tad difficult.

I did propose to her about a month after taking her to a Clipper game, though. And that game was at the Sports Arena where I spotted then-Dodger Mike Marshall (1st baseman, not pitcher) in the Clipper Club. She must have been impressed at my cache, being able to score sweet tickets like that.

Steve Sax said...

@Neeebs, what unmasking? I'm Steve Sax!

Kyle Baker said...

I'm Kilroy!

Neeebs (The Original) said...

And I'm Spock, Damn it!

karina said...

@Mr Customer where do you get stuff like that?

I'm Elizabeth Benneth, but i dress more like Holly Golightly.

karina said...

@Sax lovely recap! and i like you more because you're sweet with Mrs. Sax :)

karina said...

I witnessed a proposal, they were seated like three rows away, someone handed a microphone to the guy, after the mascot dance and the very first thing he says is "Aguilas, the champion team", "a la carga (charge)", then he realizes he has something to ask, she took a while and said yes, then the guy says "she said yes, Aguilas, a la carga, champion team, this is the year", after that, he kisses her, repeats the chant and someone had to take away the microphone.

'Till today i don't know if it was funny or if the guy really wants to marry the team.

Nostradamus said...

@karina

Will you still respect me if I tell you that it was the first thing off the top of my head?

karina said...

@Mr Customer do you want to be Elizabeth Bennet? (i just realized i misspelled the last name, SHAME ON ME). First place, i respect you, then, what's wrong in being a Jane Austen fan? (as long you don't mention any Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park because i haven't read those,no spoilers accepted)

Let's do this: you get to be Elizabeth Bennet and i get to be Jo March, without the Holly Golightly wardrobe, because she obviously doesn't care about that. If you like Jo March, i'd settle for Sara Crewe, film version, for obvious reasons.

Nostradamus said...

@karina,

Hah! Actually, I was referring to the Scarlet Pimpernel comment, and how I came up with it. Nothing wrong with Jane Austen, though. I may be secure in my masculinity, but I don't believe I've ever fancied myself as being Elizabeth Bennet

karina said...

@Mr Customer your self-humility is your best feature and i do respect that :)

Erin said...

For the record, I did propose at the stadium. But there are caveats:

1) We were practically married anyway, and weren't sure of the legal standing of any marriage we could get done before the November election.

2) I didn't do it on DodgerVision, as I was pretty certain that the Dodgers would not broadcast a same-sex marriage proposal.


I never would have done it if everyone had been watching.

Kyle Baker said...

@ Erin

You are my hero! Well done. When CA gets its shit together, we can do the whole thing up right.

=