LA Dodgers: Opening day roundup
Dodgers Stadium turns 50 just in time for opening day, and so much has already happened. 1. Security will be tight. At last year’s home opener, police arrested 89 people.…
By Caitlin Shamberg • • 1 min readBy Brendan C via Flickr
Dodgers Stadium turns 50 just in time for opening day, and so much has already happened.
1. Security will be tight. At last year’s home opener, police arrested 89 people. Last night, police went into local parks to make sure that no one was drinking, which can lead to fighting. The Daily News reports:
Los Angeles Police Department will deploy a contingent that includes plainclothes cops wearing Pirates jerseys “to see if anybody is going to attack those officers,” Deputy police Chief Jose Perez Jr. told CBS 2. Additionally, around 60 officers will patrol on bicycles.
2. The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin questions the business behind the $2.15 billion Dodgers sale to a group led by Magic Johnson. Here’s what he says:
A quick background check and some back-of-the-envelope math raises an obvious red flag: how on earth can this group of individuals afford to pay $2 billion in cash? The answer is that they probably can’t — at least, not by themselves.
3. ESPN rounds up some highlights in Dodgers history, including Marilyn Monroe’s attendance at a game just a few weeks before her death:
On her 36th (and last) birthday, Marilyn Monroe goes to Beverly Hills to pick up “Something’s Gotta Give” co-star Dean Martin’s 10-year-old son, Dean Paul, to take him to a baseball game, as promised.
4. A new coffee table book, “Dodgers Coast to Coast,” has some fun fodder for fans. From the Los Angeles Times:
The pictures recall the time when the Dodgers would fill the football stadium for baseball, and transistor radios were as vital as sunblock on a summer’s day.
5. The New York Times George Vecsey takes a look at the “curses” of Chavez Ravine and the Dodgers past (both good and bad). From Vecsey’s article:
After the 1957 season, Walter O’Malley moved the franchise from the funky little bandbox of Ebbets Field to Los Angeles. This move (along with the Giants’ move to San Francisco) made financial and geographic sense — except that a whole generation of Brooklyn fans put a curse on O’Malley.
In Brooklynese, this was pronounced coise.
Here’s to a good, safe, winning 2012 season!