So I Went To See Puig Play For Myself...

Hey Everybody,

My man inside Dodger Stadium offered up a couple of tickets for today's Dodger game, so I naturally jumped at the chance to see the Cuban phenom himself in action.  Here's how it all went down...

 I decided to be a good environmental citizen (and a well-planning beer drinker) and take the train.
The trick is to take any train to Union Station in downtown L.A., and then hop on a shuttle bus that runs you up to the stadium.

Before you can go anyplace, you gotta figure this out.

(Some of these photos look pretty nice in larger size.  Just click on any photo and it will blow up for you.)

I might have known this was gonna be a rough day for the Boys, as it started out on the rough side for us "shuttle captives".  I guess today was our shuttle bus driver's first day on the job since he drove right past the drop-off point for us riders - slowly enough for us to see our stop fall behind and disappear behind us.  He then proceeded to circle the ENTIRE STADIUM.  He eventually got back to the original stop, and we were off.

No worries as we got to our seats soon enough to catch the first pitch. Below we see Atlanta's second batter, Jason Heyward being walked by Dodgers starter, Matt McGill.  These first inning walks were more bad omens of the awful afternoon ahead.  I suppose McGill's 6.29 ERA on the display should have been another unlucky omen...

That said, we certainly can't deny we had our chances, as we quickly loaded the bases in our half of the first...

Whizz kid Puig led off the game with a single in what amounted to be the Dodgers' only rally of the day.  That's him standing at third base in the photo above.  The problem with this scenario however, is Puig is on third with bases loaded and not at bat, so the best the Dodgers came away with was one run on a slow, tired roller from Skip "15-Game Hitting Streak" Shumaker.  Yay!

That was all she wrote for the Dodgers as Dan Uggla later slammed a three-run homer and we had to endure the first of too dang many tomahawk chops from the Atlanta backers in the crowd.

It was definitely time to take a walk after that, so my buddy and I headed over to the Stadium Club to grab a couple of brews.  The last time I was on this, the Club Level, I showed pics of the historic Dodgers wall art.  This time lets check out a couple of shots from the Stadium Club, which offers the best selection of beers on tap on this level.

Here's the Stadium Club Bar.  The view of the game is out and to the right.

Not a bad set up in here.  They have a fresh pizza station.

They have unrecognizable offerings with bou-jee exotique names.

You can dine under a wall of Dodger greats from the past.

Here's the view from the Stadium Club.  It's now 7-1, Atlanta, and McGill is about to be yanked.

On our way back to our seats, we had our first Dodger celebrity sighting of the game.  Exiting an elevator alone, and heading right toward us, was none other than Dodgers G.M., Ned (Please Be Gone Next Season) Colletti.  The first thing I noticed was the guy looked like he was wearing the stress and frustration of the team on his face.  I said, "Hey," to Ned and he was nice enough to shake my hand.  I almost felt sorry for the guy and patted him on the shoulder.  I remarked to my friend afterward that if my beer hadn't cost $11, I woulda dumped it right on Colletti's head.

We got back to our seats just in time to see this couple get featured on "Kiss Cam".

By now, it was garbage-time.  Belisario was pitching, and most of the fans who were cooking in the sun this afternoon had left.

Puig hit a double in the ninth, but was eventually left at third as the Dodgers quietly faded away in the ninth.

There was nothing left to do after that shellacking but to gather up and get out when suddenly I noticed this through a crack in some window shades....

Waitaminute!! Does that say...whom I think it says?

I glance in and see a desk piled high with figurines and trophies that all say "Tommy Lasorda".  I look up and the walls are covered in photos and memorabilia from Tommy's glory days. It's Tommy Lasorda's office. WOW!

Sinatra's here, Don Rickles, famous athletes and movie stars.

Here's Tommy, Vinny and Al Campanis. 

Almost forgot the second celebrity sighting of the day, Dodgers Elvis!

The Boys lost today, but it was just another day at the office for Puig.  the young superstar went 3 for 4 on the day with 2 doubles, and threw an insanely bad-ass strike from deep in right field to home, holding an Atlanta runner at third.  Scott Van Slyke made 2 nice sliding catches out in left field as well.

Ended the day at Congregation Ale House in Pasadena.  I do love to ride the train.

Thanks for reading, everybody!