That’s the signpost up ahead -- your next stop ... a Dodgers game?
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Went to a baseball game Saturday night and a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode broke out.
Players walked the field trying not to step in dog doo-doo, which would have been completely understandable given the smoke in their eyes.
It’s an old baseball axiom: Never think you’ve seen it all. Even with the bizarreness that continually surrounds the Dodgers, Saturday was a new one.
‘I’ve never seen that,’ said Manager Don Mattingly.
Him and everyone else. On a night the Dodgers invited dog owners to the ballpark, let them stroll around the field before the game and then take over the right-field pavilion, a fire broke out in small warehouse just below the reserved level on the first-base side of Dodger Stadium.
And smoke drifted down the first-base side from on high and enveloped the stands like fog. Fans were calmly moved from seats along the right-field side of the stadium, to those empty ones on the left-field side.
First time that fan boycott proved handy to the Dodgers.
The Dodgers said the fire was quickly contained, though the smoke continued for almost three innings. If only Vladimir Shpunt were still on the payroll, maybe he could have foreseen it all.
The smoke lightly burned the eyes and probably left everyone feeling like they needed a shower. I was going to figure out a way to blame Frank McCourt for all this but decided to pass. It’s not like the chamber is empty.
Somebody asked right-hander Hiroki Kuroda if he had ever pitched in Japan and a fire broke out.
‘Of course not,’ he said.
Silly us, these really unusual and ridiculous happenings are saved for the Dodgers. And Rod Serling.
‘It was different,’ Mattingly said.
Yeah, but just wait until tomorrow.
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-- Steve Dilbeck