Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, California, 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.

	Capacity		56,000
	Opened		April 10th 1962
	Owner		Los Angeles Dodgers
	Cost		$23 million
	Architect		Captain Emil Praeger

Despite being built in a part of Los Angeles called Chavez 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. It is often ranked as one of the best stadiums in baseball.

The stadium holds 56,000 fans and was designed to be capable of expansion to 85,000 seats. 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. The design is also alleged to be earthquake-resistant, certainly an important consideration in California.

It was the only park of its era designed specifically for baseball, and with the construction of many new MLB ballparks in recent years, is now one of the oldest still in use. Being privately owned, however, and maintained with a level of pride that is typically missing from public facilities, 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 stadiums without the name of a corporate sponsor as part of the title. (Others include Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Angel Stadium).

Because of overall poor visibility for hitters, fairly large dimensions and a large amount of foul territory, Dodger Stadium has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a pitcher’s park. (The amount of foul territory was significantly reduced during the 2004 renovation, which added seats which were closer to home plate than the pitcher’s mound, moved the dugouts closer to the field, and filled in previously open space down the foul lines with new seats.) Even the almost always pleasant California weather benefits pitchers. 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 instead “die” in the air for routine outs. Pitchers such as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Don Sutton, Fernando Valenzuela, and Orel Hershiser became superstars after arriving in Los Angeles. This pitcher’s edge is 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 now-defunct 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 towards center field. This also gave the fielders more room to catch foul balls, so there was some tradeoff. Renovations in 2004 added some seats to the field level, reducing somewhat the amount of foul territory.

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 Pacific Bell Park was built.

2006 is 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 Nationals Ballpark projected for 2008 and the new Yankee Stadium 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.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Dodger Stadium wikipedia entry
Los Angeles Dodgers website
Dodger Thoughts
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