Manny Happy Returns - The Militant Follows The Dodgers to San Diego!

The Militant slipped away to San Diego on Friday to witness Manny Ramirez's first game back from his 50-game suspension for using a banned substance. Personally, the Militant feels torn about the issue, but he was down south to support the Boys in Blue play against the Padres. And besides, Manny did the crime, Manny did the time, so let's move on.

The good thing about the Padres' PESTCO Park is that it's in an urban location, where the Militant and one of his operatives carpooled into an unspecified San Diego Trolley station and rode into the vicinity of the baseball park. The train was full of baseball fans -- most of which were proudly dressed in Dodger gear. But that was nothing compared to the sight and sound of Dodger fans, decked in blue, walking through downtown SD, chanting, "Let's Go Dodgers!" Looks like Dodgertown moved 140 miles south.

This may or may not be the Militant's first time in a baseball stadium that doesn't have the word "Dodger" in the name, but he can tell you that going to a baseball game in another stadium is much like going to a different church of the same denomination: The format's the same, the local customs are definitely different. PETCO (er, more like PESTCO) Park is yet another generic, faux-retro stadium deigned by the architectural firm Populous/HOK Sport, with all the seats of the same color.

PESTCO was a truly different experience from Chavez Ravine; the Militant couldn't help but notice the following:

PESTCO Park Cons:

- No stadium organist, ergo no "warm and fuzzy feeling."
- Stadium PA bangs out shrill drum machine noises to boost the crowd.
- Stadium PA announcer sounds like the "Dance Dance Revolution" guy.
- Inequality in bullpens. Home team gets a nice facility beyond the centerfield fence, visitors get a lame strip of dirt past the right field foul line -- opposite from their dugout.
- Their hotdog of choice is some generic Weinershnitzel dog.
- They only sing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" once. Not much time to stretch, is there?
- Each homerun sets off pyrotechnics; not a very good environmental move (though fortunately, this season's team doesn't have to worry about polluting the air that often).
- Not only do they have the team's dorky/creepy-looking friar mascot, but the stadium's naming rights sponsor has its own mascots, Red Ruff and Blue Mews. Do you really need two sets of unrelated mascots?
- A plethora of advertisements pepper the entire stadium. Don't you ever complain about the number of ads in Dodger Stadium again.
- Why is Steve Garvey's #6 a retired number?!?

PESTCO Park Pros:

- Urban, transit-friendly location.
- Concession lines move much faster here.
- Video screen "Guess The Hat?"game an actual challenge.
- Visitor's dugout is in the 3rd base side, where we're used to seeing the Dodgers.

Despite this being in San Diego, it appeared some 2/3rds of the stadium were visibly Dodger fans. The crowd was a sellout of 42,217 (which, in Dodger Stadium numbers, is like a Dodger game versus the Nationals. On a Wednesday. During the day. In the rain). It was a slightly different paradigm, though, having to cheer on the team wearing the grey uniform for a change. And the special 4th of July red baseball caps worn by both teams (the Dodger caps had the "LA" logo in blue with a white outline) didn't help either.

The fan ratio definitely helped, as when the Man(ny) Of The Hour made his first at-bat, the Dodger crowd, almost instinctively, conspired to drown out any "Boos" emanating from the home crowd. And for the most part, it worked. Even cheers of "Manny! Manny!" erupted (the Militant himself may or may not have started the first one!).

Some video goodness:




When he took to his left field position, there he stood, standing less than 80 feet from the Militant!

Manny ended up going 0 for 2 with a walk and was replaced in the bottom of the 6th by Juan Pierre, who also got love from the Blue crowd with some cheers of his own. The game ended in a 6-3 rout, with five of those runs scored in the first inning alone. Good times.

The game concluded with a 4th of July fireworks display (due to the actual July 4th game being a day game as the Fox Game of The Week, the Friday night game was their Independence Day celebration), which was pretty lackluster compared to the one at Chavez Ravine. Perhaps the downside of being in an urban area (surrounded by midrise buildings) was that the pyrotechnic display was not very large or very high (San Diego also has an airport and landing path that's ridiculously close to the city's skyline). And the coordination of us outfield folks to be corralled into right field wasn't executed very well by stadium staff (the Militant had to watch the fireworks show in the plaza area behind the outfield bleachers). Which wasn't such a bad thing, since all the post-display smoke wafted back into the stadium.

Oh yeah, the promotional item for Saturday's game? Beach towels -- that proudly read, "BEAT LA." Really now! Tsk, tsk. Even them hated Giants fans don't need to be brainwashed like that -- it's instinctive behavior.

Though honestly, the Militant does get severely irked when visiting team fans get overzealous, so, he guesses it's interesting to see it from the other side for once. Then again, even if the Dodgers lost on Friday night, the team still has the best record in baseball, so bow down!

If I Can Make It There, I'll Make It Anywhere...

What would a Militant post be without talking about transplants? Sure, they're an easy target for the Militant. But this time, the Militant takes a different perspective. He shares a NY Times article link sent to him from an operative who recently transplanted himself out East.

The article is on young professionals from other states, who moved to NYC, sharing their trials and tribulations on fitting in to The Big Apple. Sez the article:

"Newcomers suddenly realize either that the city is not working for them or that they are inexorably becoming part of it, or both."

Sounds familiar to some of you? Since the Militant never had to move here, he'd like to hear from some of you transplanted ones who've read the article and would like to know, NY-local references aside, how similar it is to your experience. The rest of us natives can just observe.

Because in the end, it may not really be about the place, but the perspective.

Take A Ride On The Trus!

Many transit proponents want more trains. Other transit proponents want more buses. So...why not...both? This contraption from the Land of the Rising Sun, called a DMV (Dual Mode Vehicle) operates like a conventional bus on the streets, but rolls on a rail guideway like a train, LRV or streetcar. This form of technology is not new, and even exists in this country today as a Hi-Rail Vehicle, usually in the form of a pickup truck with railroad-compatible wheels used as a maintenance vehicle for the railroads. So can you picture this thing rolling on the streets (and tracks) of Los Angeles? This "DMV" thing may or may not be the future, as long as they eventually make them much less butt-ugly.

Why Can't Los Angeles Have A Mayor Like This?

This is Michael Nutter, the newly-inaugurated mayor of Philadelphia, PA, droppin' some rhymes on the mic in his rendition of The Sugarhill Gang's seminal 1979 hip-hop hit, "Rapper's Delight." Now why can't Tony Villar have a cool special talent? Uh, aside from that one.

Foreign Correspondence: Seattle Gets Berry Original

With all this talk of the impending expansion of the Pinkberry frozen yogurt empire both here in California and Out East, one would expect to see the chain (or one of its other So Cal-based competitors) pop up elsewhere.

One of the Militant's trusted Seattle-based operatives/militia members recently informed the Militant that in up the Emerald City, apparently they couldn't wait for all that, so they started their own.

The recently-relocated operative informed the Militant of the spotting of a new fro-yo store in his new Capitol Hill hood (apparently, the operative once described, the Seattle equivalent of Silver_Lake).

The name? "Crazyberry."

The Militant lapsed into LOL mode for at least a minute.

The operative also tipped the Militant off to a Seattle-based blog entry that described Seattleites' apparent "Pinkberry envy" (wait, don't those Washingtonians hate anything and everything that is California?) and mentioned yet another fro-yo ripoff: "Yoberry."
The Militant gets a kick out of all this, especially if and when P-berry moves into the Puget Sound region and enters a market already saturated with imitators, while Red Mango plays further damage control and pushes its "Originator" mantra even further.

According to a well-respected ice cream maker in Los Angeles who is also an operative of the Militant, these "Nonfat Italian frozen yogurt" chains are a joke, since the nightly cleaning and maintenance of the yogurt dispensing machines is extremely costly and labor-intensive (he told the Militant that it takes about an hour and a half each night to properly clean the machines) and that setting up shop in chic, high-lease areas will bite their asses in the end.

And besides, the ice cream maker operative quipped, "They don't even have that stuff in Italy."

Photo Credit: Crazyberry in Seattle, WA by Valleypinoy.