115,300 experience the event of a lifetime
More from the Dodgers' exhibition game at the LA Coliseum:
The Coliseum itself
You often hear that Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden or Lambeau Field are the most illustrious sports facilities in the land. However, you could make a case that the Los Angeles Coliseum is actually the most historic, the most significant venue of them all. Think about its history: the NFL Rams played there from 1946 through 1979, and the Raiders from 1982 through 1994; two Super Bowls and numerous Pro Bowls happened there; the Dodgers were there 1958 - 1961; the USC Trojans' football team has called it home since 1923, and they shared it with UCLA's football team until 1981; John F. Kennedy made his acceptance speech there for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1960; Pope John Paul II celebrated mass there in 1987 and over 134,000 people attended the Billy Graham Crusade there in 1963; numerous amateur and pro soccer and track championships occurred here. And the NFL wasn't the only pro football here: The All American Football Conference (1946-1949), the AFL (1960), the USFL (1983-1985) and the XFL (2001) all played in the Coliseum.
And perhaps most importantly, two summer Olympics were conducted here, in 1932 and 1984.
On the left, you see USC's marching band performing prior to a football game in 2007. On the right is how the same facility looked on March 29, 2008, with 115,300 on hand to see the Dodgers and Red Sox.
I read that the Dodgers spent about $250,000 preparing the Coliseum for this one-game event. While most of that was probably for the ball field and netting, some went to changing the lighting scheme there. For instance, the permanent football lights in the southwest corner of the stadium (directly behind home plate) were left off for this baseball game, but the infield then needed additional illumination, so the temporary light tower (below left) was brought in behind third base.
On the right you see how the field was crammed into the available space. This shot shows the first pitch of the game, and already the Dodgers had elected not to play their left fielder in left field, opting instead to play him like a "short-fielder" in softball, positioning him beyond second base.
You'll also note that not only is there a 60-foot-high net above the left field seats, there is a backstop of sorts just a matter of a few feet behind the catcher. That should cut down on the number of passed balls and wild pitches!
Frankly, the sight lines were poor. While they are sometimes not great for football, they really don't work well for baseball, with lots of people, railings and TV cameras in your way.
Aftermath
The Red Sox, behind fairly short home runs by Kevin Cash and Kevin Youklis, prevailed in this game 7-4. Prior to the exhibition, some feared that the score might reach such stratospheric levels so as to turn the contest into a farce. They needn't have worried.
No, the worrying should be reserved for the logistical problems of this event. In the days leading up to the game, everywhere you looked and listened, you heard warnings telling fans not to drive to the Coliseum for the game. The parking lots and side streets would be overwhelmed, and gridlock would ensue. Instead, fans were told to drive to Dodger Stadium's parking lots, and then ride a free shuttle to the Coliseum. Well, the warnings must've worked, because by an hour before gametime, there were still parking spaces around the Coliseum, but Chavez Ravine was a madhouse. The line to board buses was so long at Dodger Stadium that it was taking fans over two hours from parking their cars to arriving at the Coliseum. Naturally, the hassles happened after the game, too, when tens of thousands of people tried to board the buses back to their cars at Dodger Stadium.
The photo on the right above shows fans still pouring into the Coliseum well over an hour after the first pitch of the game. That's almost entirely due to incredible delays in busing folks to the event.
Once inside, there were frighteningly long lines at the concession stands and restrooms -- and frankly, pretty well filling up the concourses. particularly the upper one. Without a doubt, moving around was a chore. And don't you love the archaic sign admonishing fans not to "crowd" in the tunnels that lead out to the seating bowl (above left)?
But in the end, short home runs, crowded concourses and too few buses failed to put a damper on this remarkable experience ... an experience that for most of us will only come around once in our lives!
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Coliseum photo essay
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