Trip Report: Dodgers vs Rockies (October 2)

It was a rough week to be a Dodger fan but for me, it was rough for a different reason. Ever since I realized that we'd be going to the game on Friday night, I had an eye on the schedule for the Dodgers as well as the Rockies to try and judge if it was at all possible for Friday night to be a potential clinch night.

In all honesty, it didn't look likely. It seemed almost a lock they'd clinch while faced with series with the Nationals, the Pirates, and the Padres. I mean... come on. It almost had to happen, right?

Throughout the week, I felt a little bit of split loyalties. On one hand, I really wanted them to clinch and get it over with but with each loss and Rockies win, I can't say I was horribly disappointed. When the stage was set for Friday night, I thought it was too good to be true.

Turns out that it was.

The Dodgers lost. Duh. If they hadn't, I probably wouldn't even bother focusing on anything else in this. I was encouraged by some things last night's game and they really did have a legit shot to win that game. A couple breaks in their favor and it definitely could have happened.

Could have, would have, should have. It didn't. They lost. We get up tonight and do it all again.

But that's not what this post is about. Okay, it partially is but I've got smaller fish to fry in this one.

In almost all events I go to - whether it's sports, music, theater, whatever - one of the first things I do is analyze the surrounding fans and determine if I think it's a bad crowd. Not dangerous necessarily... but just whether or not they'll be annoying. This one seemed okay. Middle aged people behind us... Dodger fans... they seemed fairly well behaved.

And then the game started.

OH. MY. GOD.

I shall preface by saying I'm a loyal Dodger fan no matter what. I do not boo members of our team under any circumstances. I didn't boo Jeff Kent when he insulted Vin Scully (as much as I would have liked to.) If I'm not going to boo Jeff Kent, then you'd basically have to kill someone on the field to get me to boo you, I think. And there is absolutely no chance in hell that I'm going to boo a member of our team based on his performance on the field. What good does that do? Do you think that's a motivational tool? It just makes them feel worse and press harder next time and likely have similar results. Trust me, Manny feels bad enough about striking out four times in a game and doesn't need to be reminded of that by the fans.

Let's start by saying that if you legitimately seem to hate every player on your team and have nothing but negative things to say about all of them, you should probably go be a fan in Philly. That's kinda right up their alley.

These people were just horrible. Of all the events I've ever been to (and that's a lot), I legitimately can not think of another group of fans sitting near me that I despised more than this group. Well, the guy who puked next to us at Acoustic Christmas was a little annoying. And the guy who licked me at Guns N Roses was pretty bad. But these people? Hands down, they provided the worst atmosphere for watching a game ever.

I mean... they seriously complained about everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. Their negative attitude was just a complete downer and they almost seemed to relish in the Dodgers' problems. I couldn't bring myself to a full-on confrontation about it but by the end of the night, their snarkiness had my snarkiness BLOWN UP to the nth degree and I was commenting very loudly on their comments. Maybe a subconscious desire for a confrontation?

So, what were they saying? Let's look at some of the prize winners...

"That Russell Martin is worthless. Just worthless. They should send him down to the minors. Not Triple A either. Single A! Straight down to Single A!" - just moments before Martin hit a home run.

"Martin's only hit 2 home runs all year! 2! That's it!" - with the scoreboard saying Martin has 7 HRs nice and big. To his credit, a friend of this gem of a human being pointed out that he had 7.

One of them apparently decided that pitch location and the inability to "hit 'em where they ain't" is directly proportional to a player's intelligence as he decided it was a good idea to yell, "STUPID IDIOT!" in some horrific gravelly voice after any failed play.

Lots of steroids comments directed at Manny. Of course.

They decided it was a good idea to insult other fans amongst themselves. Mostly an overweight girl with poor choice in clothing. Oh, and a kid who caught a ball tossed by an ump got a, "That fat kid sure is glad he brought his glove." Ugh. They also thought they should question if an elderly peanut man is capable of doing his job and wondering what would happen to the Dodgers if he had a heart attack and died on the job. Real nice.

With the score at 2-0 in the second, the woman (who rivals Wanda Sykes and Fran Drescher for the most annoying voice EVER) decides to proclaim, "Well, I guess this isn't happening tonight!" Even when the Rockies had a one-run lead, apparently the game was over to these folks.

The same woman showed her on-field managing brilliance by proclaiming that Manny was worthless and that they should bench him in favor of Juan Pierre because he "knows how to motivate a team." Really? Juan Pierre? I know he's had a good season and all but let's not fool ourselves. Has JP ever motivated a team to do anything but search for ways to unload his contract? (Low blow, I know... but I'm still not booing him!) This one got a little more comical as he pinch-hit to her delight at one point. She actually bellowed, "SHOW 'EM HOW IT'S DONE! WOOOO!" and then went silent as he struck out on three pitches.

Every pitcher was mocked relentlessly before they'd thrown a single pitch. I don't know who they wanted to come in from the 'pen because they hated every reliever that got brought into the game. Even relievers who didn't get into the game like Jeff Weaver earned their ire.

Oh! Oh! And apparently Arizona is the greatest stadium on Earth because it seemed like every other sentence out of her mouth started with, "In Arizona..." followed by some great thing they do there like not let people walk down the aisle during an inning. Really? That seems kinda annoying to me. It's almost like the theater. It seems like pretentious bullshit, IMO. Also in Arizona, they have a section where people can make posters. I'm sorry. Is this fucking kindergarten? Has this woman ever been to a WWE event? If she has, she'd know this is, in fact, THE WORST FUCKING IDEA EVER!

Gravelly voice guy also said, "These guys are getting paid a billion dollars! They shouldn't ever make an out!" But yet they complained about how long the game was. Make up your mind!

They were mad that no foul balls were hit into our area.

They were mad that people were walking down to the field for the fireworks.

What else? I don't know. I could write for hours about this probably. But here's the final statement on the matter.

Those are the kind of fans that give Dodger fans a bad name.

Those are the kind of fans who do not deserve to be at the stadium when they win. They do not deserve the privilege of celebrating with people who actually support the team no matter what.

And at the end of the day, they are not truly fans. They're wishy-washy STUPID IDIOTS who couldn't motivate me to piss on them if they were on fire.

Is that too harsh?