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June 8, 2005
Chavez Ravine
I did the cross-country baseball stadium drive in 2000, where I got to see the roof retract at SkyDome, watch Mark McGwire hit a home run at Busch Stadium, and pay $9.50 for a Dixie cup of beer at Comerica Park the year it opened.
But Wrigley Field was the best park -- by a ways -- I visited that trip. And remains my favorite, even though I have seen games in about 20 of all the stadia in the country.
Camden Yards gets a nod for being the first ballpark that revolutionized the game, and put HOK in the position to design pretty much every last sports facility built in the last 10 years. Plus, it has Boog's BBQ in the right-field bleacher seats.
But that doesn't mean Dodgers Stadium doesn't get a big thumbs up from me. And it is the 4th oldest stadium in the majors.
That's why I was so glad that the Los Angeles Times did a good one-two punch about the stadium on Sunday and then yesterday. This story in the Sunday Times is exactly why Sunday newspapers are maybe my favorite parts of journalism (besides public radio of course). It neatly compiles a piece of history, a series of moving anecdotes, and lots of human interest angles -- all in 40-column inches.
And then the Times' review of tonight's PBS documentary on CHavez Ravine -- in what I would suggest should be titled, 'How Walter O'Malley is really Los Angeles' version of Robert Moses.'
Posted by Ethan Lindsey at 11:28 PM
Comments
I believe that the term "carpetbagger" would best fit O'Malley (I think some would be a lot less charitable), who made enemies on both coasts, enemies who disliked him so much that the children of those enemies carry that dislike for the man and, to some extent, the team he brought here (or removed), to this day.
By the way, I agree with you that Wrigley is great, but my personal favorite was old Tiger Stadium. Just a great place, and by the time I made it out there, it was looking pretty shabby. Did you ever visit it in your travels?
Posted by: Andrew Torres on June 9, 2005 7:32 AM
