Park #9

August 15, 2005: Anaheim, California
Park #9: Edison Field
Well, even though Dodger stadium and Edison Field are only separated by about 45 minutes of highway, they are eons apart in how good they are. First of all, the stadium is actually a nice place to be. It’s like Walt Disney designed it himself, with all sorts of things for people of all ages to do there. There were carnival-style games, baseball themed games (like speed pitch and hitting), as well as concession stands as far as the eye could see. It was really like Disney world had opened a new theme park or ride called “The Angels and their magical journey toward the pennant”. As you come off one of the countless freeways in the Anaheim/LA area, you actually see the stadium staring you in the face, the giant red “A” as a beacon of majesticness. I was surprised how clean both the stadium and parking lot were; I mean seriously, it was immaculate.
Now the Angels have only been around since 1961, but the dedication that stadium did to the team’s short history just showed how utterly pathetic Dodgers Stadium really is. As you go around the interior of the stadium, there are countless photos and pictures of current and former Angels stars, I mean there was all but a shrine to Nolan Ryan (however, I was sad that they didn’t have the picture of him putting Robin Ventura in a headlock-I know he was with the Rangers when that happened, but how can you NOT include that great picture whenever you honor Nolan Ryan?).
Furthermore (and this was way cool), there was a display case for the Angels 2002 world championship. They had the World Series trophy, the American League pennant trophy, and the Silver Bat and Ball award (I have no idea what it stands for and I’ve never heard of it, but it looks friggin sweet). Now this was really nice to see; a team with a short history and few things to brag about (only 1 world championship, 1 pennant, and 3 years total in the playoffs). Not many other teams do this, but it was really nice to see.
As you get out to the field, you realize more and more that baseball really can be a dog and pony show. Out in centerfield, there is a giant set of rocks and boulders with a number of fountains/geysers on it, with a bunch of colored lights. This is where the fireworks come out of, and not just on home runs, they shoot out a lot. I guess Anaheim is firework happy, because you could also hear the fireworks from Disneyland during the 9:00 parade…….and the 9:15 parade…..and the 9:30………well, you get the point (I’m trying to say that Disneyland is like a trip to the circus on Ecstasy).
In addition to the firework/boulder amalgam, the stadium has two of the nicest scoreboards I have ever seen. One in right center and one in left center, they both have the perfect balance of video screens and computer generated statistics. And there are two of them. That’s really I can say about those.
What was really shocking to me was the bullpens. I’m sure I was aware of this fact before I visited the stadium, but it never really stuck: both teams bullpen are right next to each other. In left-center field, you have the Angels bullpen right up against the left-center fence, and pushed further back, and only separated by a chain-link fence is the visitors bullpen. Now, this is just asking for trouble. You know that sometime the future, there is gonna be a brawl, and someone on visitors bullpen is gonna climb the fence and go hog-wild on an Angels pitcher (I’m guessing John Rocker will be involved in some fashion…..or maybe Jeff Nelson-he’s a goon, or it could be Armando Benitez, he’s a little bitch).
One thing that confused me about the stadium was the giant gap between the boulder/fountain display and the right-center seats. There is about a 150 foot space between these two in which nothing exists but a giant green flatness-thingy. Now, I don’t know what purpose this serves, but they could easily get about 1000 seats in that space. Oh well.
As you are walking around the stadium, there are a number of places in which you can get off the main concourse and head out into this really nice picnic area which has a brick floor and is surrounded by palm trees (what else?). This would be pretty cool, but if you are out there, you can neither see or even hear the game. This reminded me of Cincinnati (read Park #1); and I am not a fan of this whole thing. I call it “The picnic that never should have been”.
I do have to say just for the record that calling the Angels the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” is ridiculous. I mean I guess I can understand why they did it (to make $ on the media of LA), but it just sounds so stupid. Whatever no talent ass clown came up with that needs to be beaten.
As for the game itself, when I saw who was starting pitching, I was highly disappointed. After seeing a great battle the day before between Brad Penny and Pedro, I was disenchanted when they announced that Gustavo Chacin was battling Ervin Santana (if you said “Who?” then you probably agree with me). However, both these guys pitches a solid game. It was a real see-saw battle of a game. The Angels had a 2-1 lead until the 7th inning (known hereforth as “the inning that never ended”, in which the Angels gave up three runs and were down 4-2. However, they managed to score a single run in both the 7th and the 8th to tie the game. Just for a note, the first 5 innings of the game lasted a total 70 minutes, and the next four innings took just about two hours. The Angels managed to tie the game, but they did it without a single ounce of clutch hitting. In the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, the Angels had runners in scoring position (3 of the innings had runners in scoring position with one out) and they only managed to get one run in 3 of the innings. Well, the game went to extra innings, and in the 11th, Chone Figgins led off the inning with a double, and Darin Erstad hit a nice blooper that landed in left center. As soon as it left his bat, everyone knew the game was over. Kudos to the Angels bullpen, who I don’t think were charged any runs in 5 innings (even though the 3-run 7th runners were hit in when the bullpen was on the mound, but the runs were charged to the starter). It was a good game though.
I do have to say that there was an attendance of 39,000, but you would not have known that until probably the 8th inning. The fans were pretty subdued for most of the game and only came alive in the 8th inning.
Overall, it was a good game and the stadium was much better than the crap-festival I saw the day before. However, nothing about Edison Field blew my socks off, so I’m gonna give it a B+.
Well, I’m in the LA airport now (it’s 5:30am) and I’m on my way to Seattle.
9 down, 11 to go.
Before I go, I forgot to share a FANTASTIC story from San Diego. So, I was with my friend Navin, who is an engineering student at UCSD. And we met up with like 5 of his friends and went to some party at some rich kid’s house. So we’re there and we are drinking and I’m talking to this girl who we came with. Well, all of a sudden this guy who looked like John Cho (the asian guy from Harold and Kumar) on steroids. He sits down next to the girl I’m talking to and says “what do you do?”. She tells him how she just graduated the engineering program, and in the polite manner reciprocates, asking him what he does. He proceeds to tell her that is a “Dildo model”!!!!!!!! This is clearly off the charts on the Oh My God scale. Who says that??? I overheard it and I couldn’t contain myself, I had to get up and leave. I didn’t know what to do. Well, of course I told Navin and he told the other guys who came with us. So later on in the evening, Navin starts talking to this so-called Dildo model, and Navin finds out that the guy is actually some crappy computer programmer. I mean, who plays the façade of a dildo model? Oh my god, that is just crazy.
On to Seattle,
Laz