Oh, so spoiled

One of the most delightful things about being an As fan -- aside from the joy that comes with watching them blow an 8-4 lead owing to baffling bullpen decisions -- is that the As play in NetAss.

(And yes, I realize that it's now McAfee, but whatever: NetAss it was, and NetAss it shall forever be. NetAss is what you get after sitting through God knows how many 13-inning games over 3 years.)

The As venue was fine for many reasons -- cheap bleacher seats, excellent concessions, the actual baseball games therein -- but I liked it for two big ones: it was on the BART line, and it was a 20-minute drive from our apartment. A 20-minute drive on surface streets, no less. Getting to weeknight games was easy: drive to BART lot in morning. Take train to work. Work. Take train from work. Exit turnstiles; go left toward NetAss instead of right toward car. Watch game. Drive home.

I should also point out that on the rare occasions when we went to games at PacBell park (again: don't care that it's SBC now; I'm officially getting cranky about these things. I'm off to tie an onion to my belt), getting to and from the games was also trauma-free, what with the stadium being about three blocks from my office and within handy walking distance to both BART and the ferries.

Public transportation is a fine, fine baseball enabler. I had never consciously clung to this conviction until I went to an Anaheim game last week, and then to a Dodgers game last night. And while I'm somewhat pleased to have attended games at three of California's five MLB venues in the last 3 weeks, getting in and out of two of those venues nearly gave me a heart attack -- and that's with reserved parking.

So, my nutshell review of the Dodger Stadium: when someone invents a way to teleport to and from the game -- or maybe hires some damn traffic attendants to control traffic after the game so the parking lot doesn't turn into a game of bumper cars, only with SUVs and the added complication of pedestrians aimlessly milling through the rare traffic opening -- then, I'll happily go all the time. Until then, I'll sigh and wonder why on Earth forces have conspired to keep Los Angeles from having anything resembling effective public transportation to and from publicly-available entertainments.

Comments

[josh lucas]

I know what you mean. I was spoiled by living in Chicago and being able to head to Wrigley on the El.

I know it is fun to mock Dodger fans who head home in the 7th inning but when I sit in the parking lot after a game, trying to avoid an accident, I sometimes think those that left early had the right idea.

[Jessica]

God, seriously. I love Dodger Stadium, if only for the many games my parents took me to as a kid, but the parking situation makes me want to stab someone. My solution has been not to leave early, but to just park in the boonies. You have to trudge a long way to the stadium, but the closer you park to the exit, the sooner you get out.

[Marlys]

I haven't tried this, but Metro offers Friday night shuttles from Chinatown and Union Station to Dodger Stadium(http://www.mta.net/riding_metro/special_services/dodger_shuttle/images/dodger_shuttle.pdf). Not sure if it would solve the parking lot logjam, but it sounds like it could.

[Other Jessica]

I was thinking of taking my dad and my brother to a game on my dad's birthday at Should've-Been-Named-For-Hank-Aaron Field in the ATL. And then I thought of the parking situation, and began seriously reconsidering. (The closest my parents ever came to divorce was in the car right after a game at Yankee Stadium.)

There is, supposedly, a bus that goes from the nearest MARTA station to the Ted, but it's not a particularly easy bus ride, and now apparently they've begun charging extra for it.