I personally have a dream to be come true while I’m alive; to visit all home stadiums of 30 teams in major league baseball!
I grew up watching baseball games on TV almost every day because my grandfather loved them. After leaving my hometown, I traveled to visit all home stadiums of 12 teams in Japan. It is easy because I’m a Japanese living in Japan, but I still have next target.
Fortunately, many of top players from Japan have been so successful in MLB. In particular, it is not clear whether Shohei Ohtani is enrolled in Los Angeles Angels in the future. That is why I decided to visit Angels Stadium of Anaheim before Ohtani san leaves the team, and additionally I set the schedule to go to Dodger Stadium (located in LA) and Petco Park (located in San Diego) also.
This story is about Dodger Stadium.
How to Go to Dodger Stadium
Dodger Stadium Express
Dodger Stadium is located near from LA downtown, but it is on the hill and inconvenient for tourists to visit alone. Cars are the most popular way for the stadium, but currently Dodger Stadium Express is available. If you have tickets of the game, you can access from Union station to Dodger Stadium for free. As long as I hear, the owner of Dodgers changed about 10 years ago and introduce this new service.
The bus stop is at West exit of Union station. If you get to Union station by metro, metro station is on East exit, so you need to walk through connecting passage from east to west. A guide like the picture above will help you to understand the direction, even if it’s your first visit.
You will find many Dodgers fans so you just follow them. Electronic ticket of the game was ready to show before getting on a bus, but I wasn’t asked to do it. Totally I see older people, not younger people in the bus. Younger fans may go by their cars.
Not that it really matters, but one American wore JAPAN team uniform of Ohtani san. Though he is not a player in Dodgers…
It is not far from station, but the time to the stadium depends on traffic jam. If you are lucky, you can reach in 10 minutes.
Explore the stadium before play-ball
Dodger Stadium is so beautiful as I have heard. Everyone with tickets can go up to the top deck (9th floor), and there you’ll see green hills and mountains behind outfield seats. On the contrary, behind infield seats you’ll enjoy the scenery of downtown and Hollywood. I didn’t go there but I could see the well-known symbol of “HOLLYWOOD” from here.
Additionally, the biggest team store of Dodgers is at the top deck. Many T-shirts and uniforms of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Julio Urías. It’s easy to see which players are popular for fans, even if I go around in teams store.
What to Eat/Drink
The most well-known foods here is “Dodger Dog”. I heard the sales of hot dog here is the biggest in MLB stadiums.
Many stores of Dodger Dog are available in the stadium, and some of them are express type; foods are already available and you just take it to a register. You don’t need to wait for a long time. Ketchup & mustard are self-service style, and you can take them as much as you want.
By the way, many people say the taste is not so exceptional. It’s general and normal hot dog. However, it costs over $15 with coke, which is not reasonable price. Coke is too big for me…
Game: Dodgers 10x - 6 Phillies
I booked the seat along the first base line. In Dodger Stadium, Dodgers uses dugout on the third base side, so tickets’ price along the third base is higher than the first base. I’m not a fan of Dodgers, so I chose reasonable one, even if it was over $100…
This day was Thursday but the game started from 1:10pm. It’s not full and I could relax to enjoy the game.
Dodgers’ starting pitcher was Gavin Stone, who was 24 years old. This was the first game in MLB in his career. Even after he was got knocked-out with 5 runs, Dodgers caught up little by little. At the bottom of the 8th inning, at last Dodgers came from behind, but at the last inning Phillies tied the score again. All of Dodgers fans who were standing up were discouraged and sat down again. It was simply an interesting game.
Finally, at the bottom of 9th inning, Max Muncy finished the game as walk-off gland-slam home run! I’ve watched a lot of games in Japan, but this was the first experience of seeing walk-off gland-slam home run in stadiums. I got so excited. I enjoyed!
After the game, again I used Dodger Stadium Express to Union station. It is not safe in the night, but the game finished around 4pm and I could come back to Union station before 5pm. I stayed in Santa Monica so I went back there by Metro Rail E Line.
Additional Information
If you’re interested in other photos, please kindly to see my Instagram account.