For The Win(ners)

Look, even though the Dodgers are in last place, and even though there's a planned protest on Saturday to voice fan displeasure with the McCourt regime (The Militant is 100% for the Deportation of Frank McCourt, but he's also 100% against that rich Dallas dude owning our beloved Boys in Blue, so The Militant's support for the protest is mixed), there's nothing like taking in a Dodger game in the Summertime.

Yes, The Militant is actively boycotting The Dodgers, but he will still attend a game if he can get away with free tickets, using the Dodger Stadium Express bus and eating off-site, resulting in a net of $0.00 for The McCourt regime.

A few months ago, The Militant attended an unspecified organization's fundraiser event, and successfully bid on four Dodgers Loge level tickets in its silent auction. Since the Dodgers donated the tickets to this organization, and the Militant's money went to the organization instead of the McCourt regime, these were, in effect, "free tickets."

The Militant was wondering which of his operatives to take to the game, but had another idea.

After four years of Militancy, he's often wondered what kind of people read his blog and follow his tweets. A number of people are pretty dedicated and hard core MA blog readers, so he wanted to find a way to reward them somehow.

So, he e-mailed a random sampling of MA readers (if you didn't get an e-mail from The Militant, worry not, you may or may not get a chance later on) and randomly selected three qualifying respondents to win a prize: A chance to attend Friday's Dodgers vs. Padres game with The Militant Angeleno.

Wait, what?!?!

The Militant's identity was revealed at last?

Well, it may or may not have. Seriously. His true identity was never revealed to the three unspecified winners, but he did appear unmasked, sort of.

After meeting at an unspecified Downtown landmark eatery, we took the bus to The Stadium, and like clockwork, arrived right at The Militant's proper game deadline: The singing of The National Anthem.

The Militant won't reveal much details but he will say that he and the three winners, each of whom hail from different backgrounds and live in different parts of town, all had an awesome time, each partaking in  some awesome conversation. The Militant got to know more about these folks, whom he never had the chance to meet in his other life, and they got to know more about The Militant (well, all he is allowed to reveal...). A bunch of cool, down-to-Earth, real people.

So all y'all who say Angelenos are superficial, self-centered, rude, stupid and any other pejorative pinned on the people from this great city, you need to sit down with a knife and fork and dine on a piping-hot, fresh-from-the-oven shit pie. You need to go on Twitter, follow @TheShitTruck and eat today's special. you need to search on Yelp for the word "shit" and...okay, you get the picture.

As for the game, it was almost secondary, but the 8th and 9th innings were all that mattered: Furcal's RBI single, Javy Guerra's cliffhanger save and the Dodgers' second shutout win in a row, beating the San Diego team 1-0. The evening couldn't have been better.

But it was: After Randy Newman's victory song, the four of us went down to the outfield, and situated ourselves right smack dab in the middle of Andre Ethier's workplace, on the very same sacred grass field where so many Dodger memories were made, where we saw a 15-minute low-altitude (as to not disturb the neighbors as much) fireworks display (as if we all didn't get our fill on Monday).

The awesome conversations continued on the bus back to Union Station, where, upon arrival, The Militant led them to a spot on Vignes Street and pointed to a location not far from there, where he gave them an exclusive Militant tour of a significant historical location (He'll tell the rest of you readers all about it later on). After that, they all went their separate ways, and The Militant went back underground, both literally and figuratively.

The Militant has long lurked in the shadows, but it was very exciting to step out, albeit for just a little bit. This was an experiment in expanding Angeleno militancy on a more social level. After all, other sites shouldn't have a monopoly on social events, and The Militant has been doing his thing longer than they have.
Of course, such gatherings would have to be controlled. No doubt his enemies will inevitably try to infiltrate such events for the sole sake of exposing his identity. So The Militant will remain ever-cautious about these things.

But ultimately, his little experiment validated what's really the best thing about Los Angeles: Its people. And The Militant will continue to explore more of that asset...masked or unmasked.

So keep reading, replying, Tweeting, Facebook commenting and e-mailing...You may or may not have a chance to meet The Militant someday!

Stepping down into the sacred Dodger Stadium outfield!

The lights go out...

 Make 'em go Ah! Ah! Ah!

Okay kids, enough of this planking business.