FanPost

Scenes from a Pitching Masterpiece

I used to get great seats (field boxes - between home & first) from my Dodger-fanatic season-ticket buddy whenever the Cubs played at Dodger Stadium, but, oddly enough, he moved to Chicago a couple years ago so now I have to buy them when tickets go on sale to the general public.  Last night I was sitting in the field boxes in section 46 on the first place side close to the right field corner, with quite a few Cubs fans in the immediate vicinity.  This gave me a good perspective to view all the antics happening in the right field stands.

There was a noticeable police presence there with groups of LAPD officers patrolling the stands continuously throughout the game.  An additional officer walked on the warning track from center field to the Cubs bullpen gate in the right field corner between innings as well.  I speculate it was in response to the player-on-the-field incident from the previous night and the general rowdy reputation of the fans in those cheaper seats.

Early in the game they started to react to something so I pulled my binoculars out and scanned the crowd.  They were all standing and looking backward.  My immediate thought was that a fight had broken out but I saw that the Dodger fans were reacting to an overweight fellow wearing a Cubs Prior jersey who was very animated as he walked quickly away.  He seemed to be shouting something and looking back as he moved down the aisle away from the disturbance.

In my section we had the same verbal back and forth with Dodgers fans as we cheered for our teams but nothing obscene or out of line.  We heartily booed Penny when he was introduced and when he came up to bat.

With exception of Kenny Holtzman's no-hitter I witnessed at Wrigley, this was one of the most beautifully pitched games I have ever seen. It's a damn shame that Zambrano did not get official credit for the win.

Gagne is still a Dodger fan favorite here even though he is definitely not pitching like the "old" Eric Gagne of years past.  Gagne reminds me of those dead-ball era pitchers, beer-belly fat and wearing baggy, loose fitting pants.  From my angle he looked like a professional painter standing on the mound in those white, baggy pants of his.

It is typical at all games at Dodgers Stadium that a lot of Dodgers fans leave after the 7th inning to beat the traffic pileup after the game. When more fair-weather Dodgers fans left after the ninth with the score still tied, it seemed to us that the stadium suddenly became predominantly Cubs fans.  At that point we moved to better field box level seats just off to the right of home plate.  Perfect seats to witness Neifi's clutch hit in the 10th that scored Barrett.  

It was also the perfect angle to witness Dempster beaning Perez with one of his fast balls.  There was a loud and distinct sharp crack of plastic and the ball bounced in the stands about 10 rows in from the field.  I haven't seen the replay but I have to believe that Dempster cracked the helmet.  There were lots of boos from the remaining Dodgers fans but I don't think anyone believed it was deliberate considering the circumstances.

One last observation - Neifi! played all-star caliber baseball with that one spectacular catch of his (which was replayed on the big screen in center field and which even Dodgers fans applauded) and his clutch hitting in the tenth.

Oh, and Corey looks just as pitiful on the field as he does on TV with those weak strikeout swings of his.

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