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In part 3 of our 4-part series on the current state of the Dodgers, we examine how the lack of fans at the game is hurting the people who work in and around the stadium.

It was sad.

An empty stadium and too many vendors. Men and women walking around in 95 degree heat with ice chests slung over their backs having to walk a lot farther than usual to lighten their load. During the second inning, fans in one section saw the frozen lemonade guy go past them from section to section, covering 2-3 whole sections before he got a buyer. Instead of walking up and down the aisles, this vendor got smart and simply walked down one of the many empty rows.

In the third inning, still with plenty of inventory, the same vendor walked past the other way, hawking his sweet and sour refreshment. Such has life become in what used to be called the happiest place on earth.

Now it just seems like another place.

In just a few seasons, Frank McCourt has done the unthinkable. For many Dodgers fans, he has turned Dodger Stadium into a place filled with negative emotions. Had he truly tried, McCourt couldn’t do what he has done to slander the Dodgers’ reputation and name. From actual parking issues in the parking lot to security issues throughout the stadium, to the well-documented tumult throughout the organization, the confidence of Dodgers fans has slowly eroded like a tooth that only starts to hurt when a root canal is needed.

And the fans’  bad experience has to be affecting workers and other people who depend on Dodger Stadium for their livelihoods.

On a Saturday afternoon game in the heat of the pennant race on Saturday, the California Pizza Kitchen snack bar was closed on the Loge Level. Without enough people at the game, CPK and the Dodgers seem to have thrown in the towel.

For the first time maybe ever, there were no lines at the concession stands when I got a pregame Dodger Dog. My guess is that the “Save the Dodgers” rally before the game had something to do with that. And, not to be outdone (as Bill Plaschke describes), apparently concession lines were adjusted back to normal as long lines returned for today’s mid-week game vs. the Padres.

But what happens to all those people who would be manning the concessions just enough to keep my head from exploding from waiting in line? Do they just not work now? In an economy that’s already pretty bad, I feel for these Angelinos who are missing work. Sometimes, for things to get better, there has to be some pain.

What about ticket salesmen? Having taken a group of 15 or more to a game during each of the past 2 seasons, I got a call from one this year. I described to him my reasoning and told him to give me a call when the organization stabilizes and proves it can spend money on being a serious World Series contender. I haven’t heard back from him. I also described to him that the game I went to featured Felix Hernandez for the Mariners vs. Eric Milton for the Dodgers and we all know how that turned out. During that game, I actually texted the number they showed on the screen and, while I don’t blame him for the Dodgers’ trouble, I did turn Eric Milton in for disrupting my fan experience.

But I don’t want to digress. The main inspiration for this semi-rant was a scalper. On my way into the stadium on Saturday, walking up Elysian Park Ave., a man asked me if I needed a ticket. When I told him I was good, he replied with a four letter word that had an exclamation point at the end. Being a family site, it’s the one that rhymes with “McCourt is out of luck.”

As I continued on, I was a little sad. Dodger Stadium was always a happy place for me. Every game I’ve gone to since I was a kid involved a 3 1/2 hour drive from San Luis Obispo County. When we drove into the parking lot (from the Stadium Way entrance off the 110), the right field scoreboard was a huge and wonderful sight. The grand cathedral that is Dodger Stadium was poised to house all the happiness a young baseball fan could hope for. Much of the time, games were ventured to on somewhat of a whim and, in these cases, scalpers were often involved. They always seemed like happy sheisters to me — putting a smile on to make a buck from my dad, who always seemed to be able to talk them down from the exhorbitant prices they were asking for.

Again, I digress. The scalper on the sidewalk didn’t have a smile on his face. If he’s been around long enough, the man is probably used to actually selling his ticket to a weekend game.

As I walked into the emptiness that Dodger Stadium has become, I reflected on the scalper who dropped the F-Bomb. Where there used to be so many, I only saw one. What happened to the other guys? They didn’t seem like guys who had other jobs.

I don’t have all the answers to the questions about what has happened to these people. Maybe someone in Los Angeles can find out for us. The point is that due to the lack of people at the games, jobs have probably been lost, and even Dodgers fans who are boycotting the team have to feel for these people.

On the way out of the stadium, I saw the same gentleman directing traffic in the crosswalk as had been there on the way in. At least he still has a job, though with so few people at the game, one wonders how long that will last.

Dodger Stadium could once again be great. When McCourt goes away, fans will come back.

In the mean time, and though they seem to be using an interesting “volume reduction” strategy to solve the issue,  it’s nice to see that it only took the Dodgers 5 years to get the parking situation straightened out.

Visit fansmanship.com tomorrow for the finale to our four-part series on the state of the Dodgers: “Where do they go from here.” 

1) Safety. It’s pretty simple: when a guy gets beat to the edge of his life on opening day and when the stadium already has a history of parking lot shootings, people are wary for their own personal safety.

Even if they aren’t worried about getting beaten or shot, there are increasing amounts of vulgarity and belligerent behavior that I know I wouldn’t want my wife or kids to see (if I had kids).

Can you spot the troublemakers?

2) Carlos Santana, Russell Martin, Trayvon Robinson, et al. These are players the Dodgers have traded or allowed to walk away who are all-stars or future stars in the league, and they aren’t the only players the Dodgers have made personnel mistakes with. While the Phillies (who the Dodgers faced in the 2008 NLCS)  have made every move imaginable over the past 3 years to make their team better, the Dodgers have struggled to stay even mediocre.

If you want to see everything the Dodgers should have been doing with their roster, look at the Phillies. If you want to see pretty much everything the Dodgers should not be doing, from a roster standpoint, look at, well, the Dodgers.

Who would Dodgers fans rather have right now: Casey Blake or Carlos Santana? Would you give up the playoff run in 2008 if you could have Santana at catcher or first base even? Russell Martin was probably a move the Dodgers had to make, but it’s still frustrating to see him doing so well with a well-run organization.

And what about Robinson? He was touted as one of the gems in the farm system and initial reaction to his being traded (by people who know a lot more than me, like mikesciosciastragicillness.com) is that the Dodgers got fleeced.

3. Cost/Value: During the McCourt regime, the price of a Dodgers ticket has become more and more expensive without the relative value of the team on the field changing at a commensurate level. In other words, fans are paying more for the same mediocre roster. Instead of old ex-Giants Jeff Kent and Jason Schmidt, we have Juan Uribe… and what would I do to have a Jeff Kent-level player, even during his time with the Dodgers, on the roster right now…?

The team seems like something Donald Sterling might put together if he was a baseball owner. What a sad day when I’m comparing the owner of the Dodgers to Donald Sterling.

The team has some stars, but the overall entertainment value has become a hollow shell of what it used to be. The experience is certainly different, but it’s grown far worse and this fact has never been acknowledged by Frank or any of his people.

4.  Blue Land – The Dodgers spend $14-15 million per year on, get this, rent. Apparently McCourt has broken up the Dodgers’ holdings into separate entities. One of these is called “Blue Land” and the Dodgers pay it huge bucks for rent — far more than other teams pay for rent throughout the league.

On top of that fact, the ambiance of the place has been lost. Ushers seem more like ill-trained automatons than the baseball-knowledgable, straw-hat-wearing ushers of the past. Fans aren’t able to move into unoccupied seats, even late into the game.

The scoreboard is filled with obscure stats, for example that James Loney was the 11th best hitter in late game situations when Vin Scully had chicken for dinner between June 27, 2007 and May 3, 2010. I’m only exaggerating a little here.

To top off the point about “Blue Land,” I’ll describe something that happened to my family during the last game I attended. In the 8th inning, on a 95 degree day, the Loge Level concession stand ran out of water. The water at the stadium already costs $6.50 and on a day this hot, they SOLD OUT OF BOTTLED WATER. It seems like someone could have made a Costco run when they realized that there is an announced crowd of over 35,000 people and they clearly didn’t have enough water for a hot day. The funny thing is, there were probably only 15,000 people there. If there were more, I can’t imagine what they would have done. They would have run out by the 4th inning. It’s no wonder that nobody wants to go to the games anymore. But it is sad. And it needs to change.

In the words of the protesters in front of Dodger Stadium on Saturday, “the sooner the better.”

The stadium sold out of water on a day that looked like this 15 minutes before game time...

And when it was over, there was always the pool.

Yep, basketball camp in San Luis Obispo was an enduring memory from my childhood and I know I’m not alone.

Recently, one of the coaches from that camp finally retired. Coach Scott Larson stepped down as the Paso Robles High School basketball coach after over 30 years on the bench in North County.

To be a coach for that long at any level takes patience, perseverance, and adaptation. But what struck me about the article in the Tribune was the coach Larson’s love of practice and getting better. Larson took joy in the little things.

At SLO Camp, a coach was chosen every year to talk about proper shooting form in front of the whole group prior to station breakdowns. Coach Larson’s display was the most memorable by far. As one of his sons rebounded for him, he would describe and model proper form, draining jumper after jumper. His words would echo in my mind whenever I practiced shooting.

When I spent some time in the high-school coaching world, I always admired coach Larson’s demeanor on the sidelines. Even during games, he kept his instructions to players simple and direct, teaching the whole time. His belief in fundamentals like defensive positioning and rebounding showed in his players’ success. It was clear coach Larson never stopped teaching the game whether he was in the middle of a practice or in the 4th quarter of a close game.

I applaud Coach Larson for the time he has spent and impact he has surely had on hundreds of young people. Congratulations Coach!

RECENTLY, I saw an early episode of Tosh.0 I’d never seen before. It included a great breakdown of the dunk below. I thought it worth reposting. There’s a great Sasha Vujacic joke and I laughed out loud in the hotel room every time I watched it.

BASEBALL season has officially started. Saturday’s Dodgers headline talked about the crappy game the Boys in Blue had. But the notable detail in the article was the lack of fans. As I watched the game, I felt the same way. After a 2-0 start against the hated Giants, it seems Dodger fans would have been out in droves on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

But it was not to be. I’ll be interested to see two things as the season goes on:

1) Is this a sign of lack of confidence the city has in the ownership and team? If this continues, it will be a clear vote by the city of “no confidence” in the organization and the perceived lack of leadership.

2) How will this “story” be covered as the year goes on. If lack of attendance made the LA Times game recap for game three of the season, what will the story be if they are 12 games back before the all-star break and struggling to break 30,000 fans for a weekend game?

Keep an eye on the situation — Fansmanship.com will be.

THE NCAA FINAL IS SET. Connecticut and Butler are both deserving teams. They both have experienced players who have got better over time and used their experience to get them to the final.

I look forward to see the impact that the coaching difference has on the game. Can the young Brad Stevens keep up with wily old Jim Calhoun?

Kentucky put up a great second-half fight against the Huskies, but had to expend so much energy catching UCONN that they couldn’t make the final push. Terrance Jones was really impressive for the Wildcats in the loss. If he works hard at polishing his game, he could become a very good NBA player. The comparisons to Lamar Odom are really easy and seem apt at this point in his career.

Butler winning the title would be really cool for lots of reasons, but none more than it gives low and mid-major teams hope that they can build a program good-enough to compete nationally. In the shadow of the Big 10 and Indiana basketball, Butler has established themselves as a consistent contender. Good for them.