Kurt Streeter: Dodgers fans in left field suffer
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The left-field pavilion -- aka left-field bleachers -- is a depressing, muted place right now.
I’ve written several times on this blog, and twice in the newspaper column, about this most rambunctious, most typically “L.A.” of places at Dodger Stadium. (“Typical” because, like most of Los Angeles, the non-Hollywood side, it is a wild amalgamation of people and it’s also well on the scruffy side.)
Usually, you sit in the bleachers and it’s an ear-rattling madhouse. But I just got back from spending a few innings out there and let me tell you, the parishioners are down in the dumps.
‘This is terrible,’ said Gabriel Ruiz, seated on a hard bench in section 307. ‘They have the potential for so much more than this.’
He buried his face in his hands. He spoke during the fourth inning, before the Dodgers sloppily handed the Phils two more runs to make the score 5-0. When that fateful inning came, he looked deeply, totally, completely, clenched in pain.
Ruiz, an LAPD cop, and Renato Casas are season-ticket holders out in left field. It would be cliché to say they live and die with their team, but it would be close to right. At the moment, Dodgers down 5-zip, showing little life, these two and many others out where the real fans hang are in deep need of some Prozac.
At least it’s a beautiful evening. T-shirt weather at night in mid-October, a dark evening now, but a warm, golden-orange sunset just a little while ago. Take that Philadelphia.
-- Kurt Streeter
