On July 6th I went with my brother and my friend Tony to see the Dodgers play the Marlins at Dodger Stadium. I hadn’t been there for about 10 years, and a lot had changed. First of all, parking is still a bitch. I read about how it was now wonderful, and that you could get in and out of the parking lot in five minutes. That is BS. Plus, it now costs 15 frickin dollars to park! Goddam McCourts.

Anyways, the stadium is still beautiful at first glance. I actually like the color of the seats, which are muted blues, yellows and greens. It looks cool. But now there are advertisements everywhere! It’s pretty depressing. Everywhere you look, there is an ad. There is this video thing that goes around the entire infield that looks pretty cool, except that they put an ad up there for most of the inning, and it looks horrible. There was a State Farm ad on for an inning and consequently a big red bar was splashed across Dodger Stadium for 10 minutes. Blasphemy! One of the charms of Dodger Stadium growing up was the lack of ads. There was just a 76 and (later) a Coca Cola ad in the outfield. Goddam McCourts.

Another huge change is the addition of prerecorded songs for each batter, plus way too much video on the giant screen. I used to like hearing the organ music between innings, with maybe a little blooper vid or shots of the fans sprinkled in. But Dodger Stadium has just gotten too loud. At least they do still have some of the organ music played by organist Nancy Bea Hefley. I wish they would let her play more. I can imagine Jamie McCourt phoning up to the organist to stop playing and turn on the rap.

I had a couple Dodger Dogs, and they are still great. I was surprised that they are still under $5! But $10 for a cup of beer (large) is insane! And the peanuts are not the same. First of all, they are in plastic bags, and secondly, they cost $5.50! For peanuts! Frickin McCourts!

The field has changed a bit since the addition of those luxury box seats. It doesn’t look right anymore. The field is too “squished”. And it is not as much of a pitcher’s ballpark anymore because of the loss of some foul territory where fielders could make plays. That kind of thing makes me mad because now it’s just another thing that sets today’s stats apart from the old days. But at least there are luxury boxes! Woohoo!

I blame the McCourts of course. They must be getting rich. But at the expense of the fan experience. I guess I am just an “old-timer” and wish for the good old days. Kids growing up now will never know what it was like to go to see a big-league game that wasn’t tainted with the loud music or loud ads. A nice relaxing time at the ballpark is now a rock concert.

Lastly, this was the first Dodger game I have been to where I didn’t hear Vin Scully’s voice coming from a sea of transistor radios. I missed that. I guess a lot of the Dodger Stadium charm really is gone. Oh, the Dodgers lost it in extra innings. I blame the McCourts.