The grass in Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles lies on a pile of sand. The edges of the grass actually look like carpet that has been rolled out, giving you the feeling it could be rolled back to reveal a beach.
The Dodgers, celebrating their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles this year, are proud and protective of their grass. The Bermuda grass is something called “Prescription Athletic Turf,” which makes it sound like something a doctor would write an Rx for. Sports Illustrated polled major league players in 2003 about which ballpark had the best field, and Dodger Stadium was ranked at the top.
Alta and I took a tour of Dodger Stadium Sept. 4. It was Alta’s first trip to the park and the first time I had been there since the park opened in 1962. The tour, at $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and kids, is a real deal in a stadium where everything else is expensive. The cheapest beer at the game that night was $8, while 2 brats, a side of fries and bottle of water cost $26.
The tour took us into the club meeting room, some special boxes, the Press Box (looks pretty much like every other press box I’ve been in), down some memorabilia-laden hallways (uniforms of the greats), and into the Dodgers dugout (see the sun-tan lotion but don’t drink the water from the fountain because that’s where the players spit). And don't touch the grass, look but don't touch.
Inside the stadium we walked down a “hall of fame” wall with the names of hundreds of Dodgers from all eras. Alta particularly noticed one name – Alta Cohen. Cohen played outfield for the old Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931-32, winding up his career at the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Cohen started in the Bigs with the Brooklyn Robins, where he batted .667 in 3 at-bats, but faltered the next year with the Dodgers, batting .156 in 32 at-bats. When he died in 2003 at the age of 94 he was the oldest living member of the Brooklyn Dodgers Alumni Association.
Alta got her name from her grandmother and we wondered where Cohen got his first name. Maybe Alta Cohen being male is the reason that Alta Jones got a draft notice from the Army when she was a teenager. Alta Cohen’s nickname was Schoolboy, maybe because he kept learning, and he was born on Christmas Day 1908.
The Dodgers won the game we saw, 6-4 over the basement-dwelling San Diego Padres (as I write this the Colorado Rockies are threatening to beat the Padres to the bottom). The Dodgers got three homers and scored 4 runs in the 4th to win. Alta maintains the Dodgers victory kept our personal streak alive – every game we’ve seen in our travels this summer the home team has won. That’s seven different ballparks (St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and LA Dodgers). That doesn’t count seeing the Colorado Rockies lose at home, but maybe those losses can be ignored because we didn’t travel to Coors Field (at least longer than a couple dozen miles from home).
This was likely our last road trip for baseball this season, unless the Cubs make it to the playoffs when we're in Chicago Oct. 1-3. (Hear that Cubbies? If you have a playoff and we're in town, you should make sure we're in the stands.) Next year we're thinking about Florida in the spring.
Foodwise, the highlight of our trip wasn’t a Dodger Dog. It was lunch at Phillipe’s diner, the original one on Alameda just down the hill from Dodger Stadium (actually the original was torn down for the Santa Ana Freeway but the Alameda location opened in 1951 and is as original as you get). The diner is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Founder Phillipe Mathieu claimed to have created the first French Dip sandwich in 1918 when he accidentally dropped a sliced french roll into a roasting pan filled with hot juice from the oven. The roll was used to make a sandwich filled with sliced roast beef. A policeman ate it, loved it, and Phillipe kept making them. Phillipe’s still makes them the same way, dipping the roll into the juice so the bun’s outside remains firm. You don’t dip Phillipe’s French Dip.
The photo shows Joe Torre's view of Dodger Stadium, sitting in the dugout.
