DODGER STADIUM

'Dodger Stadium' is a large outdoor baseball stadium in Los Angeles, California at Chávez Ravine. It is located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles. Dodger Stadium was privately financed at a cost of $23 million in 1962.

Contents

Overview

Construction controversy

Other notable events

2005–2006 offseason improvements

References

External links

Overview

Dodger Stadium has been the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball team since 1962. The stadium hosted the 1980 MLB All-Star Game, as well as games of the 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, and 1988 World Series.
Despite being built in a part of Los Angeles called Chávez Ravine, the stadium is also on a hillside overlooking downtown Los Angeles, providing spectacular views of the city to the south; the green, tree-lined hills of Elysian Park to the north and east; and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond the outfield pavilions. Player polls regularly rate Dodger Stadium's playing surface as one of the best in the game.
Dodger Stadium is the only current MLB park (excluding the most recently-built parks) that has never changed its capacity. It has always held 56,000 fans, due to a conditional-use permit limiting its capacity. Every time the Dodgers add seats, they always remove an equal number of seats in the upper deck or in the pavilion to keep the capacity the same.^[1]
The stadium was originally designed to be expandable to 85,000 seats, simply by enclosing the outfield pavilion. However, the Dodgers have never even considered such a project.
It has a unique terraced-earthworks parking lot behind the main stands, which allows ticketholders to park at roughly the level that their seats are, minimizing their climbing and descending of ramps once they get inside the stadium. It was also designed to be earthquake-resistant, certainly an important consideration in California, and has stood the test of several serious earthquakes.
The park's most distinctive feature is the wavy roof atop the outfield pavilion. A series of strobe lights were added to it in 1999; they flash when the Dodgers take the field, after a Dodger home run and after a Dodger win.
It was the only park built from 1961 to 1973 (excluding Arlington Stadium, which was originally a minor-league baseball park) designed solely for baseball. At the time of its construction, multi-purpose "cookie cutter stadia", or "concrete donuts", were coming into vogue. The next baseball-only facility to be built would be Royals Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. With the construction of many new MLB ballparks in recent years, it is now the fifth-oldest park still in use.

However, the Dodgers devote significant resources to the park's maintenance. For example, it is repainted every year, and a full-time crew of gardeners maintain the site. As a result, it has stood the test of time very well, and no plans are in the offing to replace it, although some renovations were made in 2004 that added luxury suites, a feature that had not been previously present. Currently, Dodger Stadium is one of the few Major League Baseball stadia without the name of a corporate sponsor as part of the title.
For various reasons, Dodger Stadium has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a pitchers' park. At first, the relatively deep outfield dimensions were a factor, with the power alleys being about 385 feet (117 meters). Home plate was moved 10 feet (3 meters) toward center field in 1969, but that move also expanded foul ground by 10 feet (3 meters), a tradeoff which continued to help the pitchers. Also, during evening games, as the sun sets, the surrounding air cools quickly due to the ocean climate, becoming more dense, and deep fly balls that might be home runs during the day might instead "die" in the air for routine outs. Recently, however, Dodger Stadium has actually been neutral with respect to home runs. [1] The stadium does depress singles, doubles, and triples quite a bit, due to its uniform outfield walls and relatively small "corners" near the foul poles. Even with some expansion of the box seat area, the overall foul ground remains relatively large, and the cumulative effect still tends to favor the pitchers.
Pitchers such as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Don Sutton, Fernando Valenzuela, and Orel Hershiser became superstars after arriving in Los Angeles. The pitcher's edge is also evident in the fact that nine no-hitters have been thrown in the stadium, including two perfect games (by the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax in 1965, and by Dennis Martinez of the former Montreal Expos in 1991).
The park's significant advantage was eroded somewhat in 1969, in general because MLB rules were changed to lower the maximum height of the pitcher's mound, and more specifically because the Dodgers moved the diamond about 10 feet (3 meters) towards center field. This also gave the fielders more room to catch foul balls, so there was some tradeoff. Following the 2004 season, the stadium underwent a renovation which significantly reduced the amount of foul territory. Seats were added which were closer to home plate than the pitcher's mound, the dugouts were moved closer to the field, and previously open space down the foul lines was filled with new seats. To pay for an outstanding loan with the Dodgers former owner FOX. Frank Mccourt use Dodger stadium to obtain a 250 million dollar loan[2].
Dodger Stadium was the first Major League Baseball stadium since the initial construction of Yankee Stadium to be built using entirely private financing, and the last until AT&T Park was built.
2006 was the Dodger franchise's 45th season at Dodger Stadium, the same number of seasons that the club spent at its storied ancestral home, Ebbets Field (1913-1957). Thanks to the 162-game season that coincidentally went into effect the year the stadium opened, as of 2005 the Dodgers had actually played ''more'' games at Dodger Stadium at that point than they did at Ebbets Field. In the mid-1950s, team president Walter O'Malley had tried to convince the Borough of Brooklyn to construct a new stadium, complete with dome, to replace the woefully cramped Ebbets. O'Malley eventually got his stadium, except it was in Los Angeles and without a dome. Given the Dodgers' ongoing commitment to keeping the stadium in good shape, and barring unforeseen circumstances, Dodger Stadium should outlive Ebbets Field by a good margin. With completion of the new Washington Nationals ballpark projected for 2008 and new stadia for the New York Yankees and New York Mets for 2009, and if Wrigley Field and Fenway Park are still around, Dodger Stadium would become the third oldest Major League ballpark still in use, albeit some five decades younger than the other two venerable facilities.
The ballpark has had a terrific run of luck with rain. Prior to 1976, the Dodgers were rained out only once, against the St. Louis Cardinals, on April 21, 1967. That rainout ended a streak of 737 consecutive games without a postponement. The second home rainout, on April 12, 1976, ended a streak of 724 straight games. No rainouts occurred between three straight games from April 19-21, 1988, and April 11, 1999 - a major league record of 856 straight home games without a rainout.
[3]
Famous players who have called Dodger Stadium home include Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Steve Garvey, Fernando Valenzuela, Kirk Gibson, Orel Hershiser, and Mike Piazza.
In addition to those of Drysdale, Koufax, and Sutton, the retired numbers of Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Tom Lasorda, Walter Alston, Roy Campanella and Jim Gilliam are mounted below the pavilion roofs behind the outfield fence.

Construction controversy

The land for Dodger Stadium was purchased from local owners/inhabitants in the early 1950s by the City of Los Angeles using eminent domain with funds from the Federal Housing Act of 1949. The city had planned to develop the Elysian Park Heights public housing project which included two dozen 13-story buildings and more than 160 two-story townhouses, in addition to newly rebuilt playgrounds and schools.
Before construction could begin, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing projects like Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support as they became associated with communist/socialist ideals. Following protracted negotiations, the City of Los Angeles was able to purchase the Chavez Ravine property back from the Federal Housing Authority at a drastically reduced price, with the stipulation that the land be used for a public purpose. It wasn't until the baseball referendum Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball, which was approved by Los Angeles voters on June 3, 1958 that the Dodgers were able to acquire 352 acres of Chavez Ravine from the City of Los Angeles.
Noted Los Angeles author Mike Davis, in his seminal work on the city, ''City of Quartz'', describes the process of gradually convincing Chávez Ravine homeowners to sell. With nearly all of the original, Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, developers resorted to offering immediate cash payments, distributed through their Spanish-speaking agents. Once the first sales had been completed, remaining homeowners were offered increasingly lesser amounts of money, to create a community panic of not receiving fair compensation, or of being left as one of the few holdouts.
The controversy surrounding the construction of the Dodger stadium provided the inspiration for Ry Cooder's 2005 concept album, ''Chávez Ravine''. The album received a Grammy Nomination for "Best Contemporary Folk Album" in 2006.
The top of a local hill was removed and the soil was used to fill in the actual Chávez Ravine, to provide a level surface for a parking lot and the stadium.
A few years after the stadium opened, a minor land dispute arose. A nearby landowner claimed that a corner of his property had been paved over as part of the parking lot. He announced he was going to build a small hamburger stand on that small slice of property, selling "O'Malleyburgers", the buns to carry an imprint of Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley, so that disgruntled patrons could "bite off his ear". Apparently a settlement was reached, as nothing much came of this incident.
Dodger Stadium was also the home of the Los Angeles Angels between 1962 and 1965. To avoid constantly referring to their landlords, the Angels called the park 'Chávez Ravine Stadium' (or just "Chávez Ravine"), after the former geographic feature in which the stadium had been constructed.

Other notable events

★ Pope John Paul II celebrated a famous Mass at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 16, 1987.

★ Many of the world's top rock bands have performed at Dodger Stadium, including acts such as The Cure, Kiss, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Depeche Mode, U2, the Dave Matthews Band and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Police played at Dodger Stadium on their reunion tour.

★ Dodger Stadium was also the site of "Encore - the Three Tenors", a 1994 concert reuniting internationally renowned tenors Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

★ The Fleetwood Mac song "Tusk" was filmed at the empty stadium in 1979.

★ Dodger Stadium has also staged other sporting events such as boxing, a basketball game featuring the Harlem Globetrotters and a ski-jumping exhibition, as well as the baseball competition of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

★ The stadium hosted the opening ceremony of the 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival.

★ Baseball games from Thursday April 30, 1992 to Sunday May 3, 1992 were postponed due to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Three consecutive days of double headers were held later in the season.

★ Dodger Stadium was the site of media day for Super Bowl XXVII Played between the Dallas Cowboys & Buffalo Bills at the Rose Bowl In nearby Pasadena.

★ The baseball scenes from The Naked Gun were filmed at Dodger Stadium, although the team represented in the film was the California Angels.

★ In the opening scene of the 2003 movie The Core, the Space Shuttle makes a crash landing in Los Angeles after flying over Dodger Stadium during a game. Interestingly, the shuttle is shown flying from beyond the outfield toward home plate, which would take it from the inland toward downtown. In actuality, the shuttle's approach as depicted in the film would have taken it west to east toward downtown and not over Dodger Stadium.

★ Part of the 2006 ''Superman Returns'' movie, was filmed at Dodger Stadium, however a CGI backdrop for Metropolis was added behind the outfield.

★ In a scene from the 2007 film Transformers, an empty Dodger Stadium is depicted being hit by one of the Autobot's protoforms crashing through the upper deck and landing in the outfield.

★ A scene from the 2007 movie was also shot at Dodger Stadium

★ The latest Baby Ruth Commercial was Shot in Dodger Stadium

2005–2006 offseason improvements

At the conclusion of the 2005 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers made major renovations during the 2005–2006 offseason.
The largest of these improvements was the replacement of nearly all the seats in the stadium. The seats that were removed had been in use since the mid-1970s and helped give the stadium its unique "space age" feel with a color palette of bright yellow, orange, blue, and red. The new seats are in the original (and more muted) 1962 color scheme consisting of yellow, light orange, turquoise, and sky blue. Two thousand pairs of seats were made available for fans to purchase for $250 with the proceeds going to charity.
The baseline seating sections have been converted into retro-style "box" seating, adding leg room and a table for fans. Other maintenance and repairs were made to the concrete structure of the stadium. These improvements mark the second phase of a multi-year improvement plan for Dodger Stadium.

References

★ Clem's Baseball: Source for dimensions

★ Ballpark Digest Visit to Dodger Stadium

★ Dodger Stadium history and facts

★ Official Website of former Dodger owner Walter O'Malley

External links

★ Dodger Stadium official website

★ Los Angeles Sports Council