The Dodgers held their annual open house for the media today, and your intrepid blogging duo, Scott and myself, were invited to partake. This was Scott’s fifth open house and my second. I’m starting to get the feeling that no matter how many of these you attend, the excitement doesn’t diminish one bit.
Just driving into Blue Heaven on Earth for the first time of the year holds its own magic, and I’ll be honest, the knowledge there’s plenty of yummy food waiting for us to taste holds its own charm. The Dodgers were having us over to introduce the stadium’s special event games, bobblehead nights, and to taste the new concoctions that Executive Chef Ryan Evans will be bringing to the stadium food stands over the summer, and we were were very happy to be there.
Enough introduction. Let’s get to the photos – and there are plenty of those.
The Dodgers’ Team Historian, Mark Langill, welcomed us into the Stadium Club and got the day started. Soon enough, we were headed on down through the bowels of Dodger Stadium. Destination: Field level and the visitor’s dugout.
The hallways of the stadium are drenched in history. Here’s Scott getting a photo of the Gold Gloves won by Dodgers through the decades.
Our first 2018 view of the field. No matter the grounds crew was in the shot, what a magnificent sight.
The visitor’s dugout was full of the upcoming season’s goodies, such as the bobbleheads commemorating Kirk Gibson‘s legendary World Series home run and Cody Bellinger‘s Rookie of the Year Award.
Here’s an assortment of special event t-shirts and caps, and one of my favorites, a jersey replica for Jackie Robinson Night.
Before we headed back up, Scott reminded me to touch the infield grass. He was right! It felt awesome – soft and cushy.
Finally, it was time to head back upstairs for lunch! (Did I mention the halls are drenched in history?)
Meanwhile, the Stadium Club was drenched in delicious food for us to taste.
Among my favorite things today were the pretzel chicken croissant (chicken with sundried tomato, herb aioli, swiss cheese and lettuce),
The carne asada torta (with refried beans, jalapenos, cilantro, crema, pickled onions on the softest, perfect bread)
…and the King’s Hawaiin lobster roll, which was so delicious, it was all gone before I could snap a photo! Trust me, it’s that good.
What else was good was spending the day at our favorite place, Dodger Stadium, surrounded by good friends and good food.
Thanks for everything, Dodgers!
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
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What a great way to spend an afternoon!
I feel so lucky to be included.
Highlight of the day was Jon SooHoo telling Oscar his camera was too dirty!
So jealous!
That chicken sandwich looks delicious!
It truly was!
Well Michael,
Dodger Digest has your prediction of Thompson making the roster, except they predict that Thompson will only be the fourth or fifth outfielder, who is sitting on the bench, in case of an emergency, or to use to replace Kemp on defense, later in games.
Thompson is a RH hitter in a sea of left handers. Hernandez, the former RH bat off the bench is the starting second baseman.
Badger
The starting outfielders, are all rightie hitters.
Toles. Pederson. Verdugo. All left handed backups. Thompson is the only RH outfield bench guy left.
Badger
I was thinking about the starting outfielders like I said, and Kike.
Still not finalized, but I believe they are leaning that way. Just like I think that Venditte has a real chance of being in the bullpen. Font? Not so much. I could have told you in November that Verdugo was not making this team out of spring training. In a sea of outfielders, he is the least experienced. Joc will be in AAA. Outfielders will be Puig, Taylor, Kemp, Toles. Thompson stays if they do not add another infielder like Farmer to the mix. What? No Dodger Dogs? Those cheapskates……..Dodger Dogs now sell for about 5 bucks apiece……..money money money…..
Farmer or Kiké in the lineup? I think it’s possible Farmer is the better hitter.
I would take Farmer any day. Just looks more polished and composed at the dish.
From what I’ve seen, I think I’m with you.
Put Farmer, a former shortstop, at third and leave Forsythe at second. Toles and Utley are left handers off the bench. Pederson is off too. Off to Oklahoma.
But most depth charts I see have Toles listed after Pederson. I don’t see it that way.
I don’t know how they could say that. Toles has outplayed him from day one, is hitting 140 points higher and stealing bases to boot. They both have options left. I send Joc out or trade him. That makes the most sense.
I agree.
Well it is almost that time. I am curious to see how the 25 man plays out. We all know that Turner’s replacement is going to be Forsythe. I am not to worried about his defense. If he can hit like he has this spring, his offense should be decent. I do not really envision him in a RBI slot. Right now Cody is sliding into the 3 hole and probably Kemp behind him for now. According to reports, Grandal is going to be the primary catcher again. Barnes’s injury did not help him much and his hitting has not come around yet. The biggest mystery is for now the final OF spot and the makeup of the bullpen behind the 5 already assured of spots. Although I would keep Fields and dump Baez. Baez has nasty stuff and a empty brain. He keeps pumping that fastball in there and they keep hitting it and he stands on the bump smiling. What a moron. One thing that has been really nice on this site lately is the lack of drama between posters. It is much better than it was a year ago. So nice job Scott, Oscar and all the posters for making it a more pleasant place to be. We can all voice our opinions without being down right vile to each other……
Badger
I guess it is the tradition that former regulars, or former regular platoon players, get the first chance to be on the roster, even if they have terrible Spring training numbers.
But with Joc, he has only had one decent season, in three seasons, and his most recent season numbers, are not good at all, so I wouldn’t put him in that tradition.
And I would expect more from him, then all of the outfielders, because he didn’t have a good season at all, last year.
It would be different if he had consistent good seasons, but that is not the case.
But they may make him the fourth or fifth outfielder, to sit on the bench in the majors.
I traded Joc months ago. I prefer Toles and Farmer. If there is room for Thompson? Fine. I wish him the best, though I don’t expect it.
Badger
And you know they don’t alway put the players on the roster, that had good spring training numbers, so we really don’t know, for sure.