Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Dodging the trolleys
Two recent pieces of news from the Los Angeles Dodgers: their organist Nancy Bea Hefley is playing a lot less than she used to, and they're considering adding a mascot (no link available, but there was a story in today's L.A. Times that, if today were April 1 and not June 1, I would have thought was fake).
I'm wondering if new Dodgers owner Frank McCourt doesn't have some kind of "Producers"-style scam going on that depends on low attendance at Dodger Stadium. Raising ticket prices would have been too obvious, so he raised parking prices and concession stand prices, but that didn't work too well, because people still keep showing up to the games. There were no spectacular free agent signings in the off-season, just a troublemaker acquired at the last minute. Yet the Dodgers are doing pretty well, so people still keep showing up to the games. Perhaps when the no-organ-plus-annoying-mascot plan doesn't work, McCourt will make every night Free Beach Ball Night, in which every fan will get a free pre-inflated beach ball and will be encouraged to bat it around in the stands throughout the game. Oh, wait a second...
By the way, the Major League Baseball organist situation isn't quite as dire as the Seattle Times column makes it out to be. Their list of organists is incomplete. For example, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a live organist, believe it or not, to name one team they didn't mention. His booth is next to, but not inside, the press box, and I was just a few sections over from it at the game last month. I only realized afterwards that I should have gone over there to see if he took requests.
Levi: Hey, don't knock Milton Bradley.
As he said last year when sent down by Cleveland, "There seems to be one set of rules for Milton Bradley, and another set for everybody else."
thatbob: Oh, see, I have a deep and profound love for annoying mascots that I'm surprised you don't share, Jim. But at least if they get a Trolley Dodger, they'll have to get a trolley, no? Wouldn't that make you happy! LA hasn't had one of those since, what, the 1940s?
I hope it's a big pink and green trolley made of balloons and glitter that runs back and forth across the backfield. Isn't that the kind you like?
Jason: Bernie Brewer was never annoying.
Levi: If the Dodgers get a mascot, who's next? A big, stinky Red Sock? A plastered Trixie named Cubbina?
We can only hope.
Jim: The Red Sox have a mascot: Wally the Green Monster.
I'm wondering if new Dodgers owner Frank McCourt doesn't have some kind of "Producers"-style scam going on that depends on low attendance at Dodger Stadium. Raising ticket prices would have been too obvious, so he raised parking prices and concession stand prices, but that didn't work too well, because people still keep showing up to the games. There were no spectacular free agent signings in the off-season, just a troublemaker acquired at the last minute. Yet the Dodgers are doing pretty well, so people still keep showing up to the games. Perhaps when the no-organ-plus-annoying-mascot plan doesn't work, McCourt will make every night Free Beach Ball Night, in which every fan will get a free pre-inflated beach ball and will be encouraged to bat it around in the stands throughout the game. Oh, wait a second...
By the way, the Major League Baseball organist situation isn't quite as dire as the Seattle Times column makes it out to be. Their list of organists is incomplete. For example, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a live organist, believe it or not, to name one team they didn't mention. His booth is next to, but not inside, the press box, and I was just a few sections over from it at the game last month. I only realized afterwards that I should have gone over there to see if he took requests.
Original comments...
Levi: Hey, don't knock Milton Bradley.
As he said last year when sent down by Cleveland, "There seems to be one set of rules for Milton Bradley, and another set for everybody else."
thatbob: Oh, see, I have a deep and profound love for annoying mascots that I'm surprised you don't share, Jim. But at least if they get a Trolley Dodger, they'll have to get a trolley, no? Wouldn't that make you happy! LA hasn't had one of those since, what, the 1940s?
I hope it's a big pink and green trolley made of balloons and glitter that runs back and forth across the backfield. Isn't that the kind you like?
Jason: Bernie Brewer was never annoying.
Levi: If the Dodgers get a mascot, who's next? A big, stinky Red Sock? A plastered Trixie named Cubbina?
We can only hope.
Jim: The Red Sox have a mascot: Wally the Green Monster.
Labels: devil rays, dodger stadium, dodgers, frank mccourt
