This collection of trunks was used to transport baseball equipment for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
More than a dozen major-league teams are trade show exhibitors at the enormous ipw 24 convention (5,700 delegates including 500 journalists) at the Los Angeles Convention Center this week.
Hoping to attract international business when foreigners visit the United States, the teams are not only promoting game tickets but group tours of their ballparks.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the first teams with ballpark tours, hosted an ipw delegation of 43 people – mostly tour operators and media members from overseas – prior to the Braves-Dodgers game Saturday.
Their 45-minute tour covered both inside and outside areas of Dodger Stadium, the largest ballpark in the majors with a seating capacity of 56,000.
The facility, which opened in Chavez Ravine in 1962, is the third-oldest in the majors – following Boston’s Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (1914) – but is so well-maintained that it looks much younger than its actual age.
In fact, visiting players often come up the top of the seating bowl with their cameras to take photos of the panaromic view, which includes the San Gabriel Mountains and the famous HOLLYWOOD sign.
The Chavez Ravine seating bowl of Dodger Stadium holds 56,000 fans, the most of any MLB facility.
The tour, which costs $50 for individuals or $30 per person in a pre-arranged group, starts at the top, where the always-busy Dodgers Team Store sits next to Will Call ticket windows.
Fans enter on the ninth level, then ride elevators or escalators to their seat locations. If their timing is right, they could rub elbows with players headed to their clubhouses before the game.
Tour participants also get up close and personal with players on the field. During Saturday’s ipw group, Dodgers star Mookie Betts – recently converted from right field to shortstop – was taking practice grounders at third base only a few yards from the group, which was standing on the dirt path that stretched behind home plate in both directions.
The best part of the tour, most participants agreed, was a walk that passed large displays of trophies awarded to the team and its members. Included were World Championship trophies, Cy Young Awards, Rookie of the Year plaques, and Most Valuable Player awards. The Dodgers have a healthy share of such hardware.
Long before they became the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team had other nicknames, as shown in this ... [+]
Another area that attracted the attention of participants was the evolution of team nicknames, which went from “Trolley Dodgers,” a derisive description of Brooklynites by New York Giants fans, to “Robins,” named for one-time Brooklyn Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson.
Nearby was a pile of trunks used to transport equipment whenever the team went on the road or headed to spring training. A full-size bullpen cart, capped by a giant blue Dodgers hat with a white intertwined LA, also sat in the stadium catacombs as if awaiting an actual pitching change.
There were old wooden seats, blown-up versions of tickets and baseball cards, and paintings of such memorable moments of team history as Don Drysdale’s scoreless innings streak, Fernando Valenzuela’s sudden success at age 20, and Kirk Gibson’s World Series homer. Valenzuela remains the only player to win Rookie of the Year honors and a Cy Young Award in the same season.
The tour also passed an exhibit of jerseys containing numbers retired to honor stars who wore them, from Drysdale (53) and Sandy Koufax (32) to Jackie Robinson (42), Duke Snider (4), and Gil Hodges (14). Among them were uniform tops worn by Hall of Fame managers Walt Alston (24) and Tommy Lasorda (2).
At one point, the tour guide ushered her group to the side of the corridor, suggesting that players might be passing by en route to their locker room.
Patrons did see several writers and broadcasters when the tour’s route passed right through the press box, named for the late Vin Scully, a team mainstay for 67 seasons.
Although several tour participants said they were disappointed not to receive “Dodger dogs” as a parting gift, they couldn’t complain about the longer-lasting souvenir they did receive: a blue LA hat with a small side patch that read “DODGER TOUR.”
The tour guide was a petite blonde well-versed in baseball and Dodgers history, which the team emphasizes among its employees. The Dodgers were the first major-league team to hire a full-time historian whose main job is to keep players informed of the team’s legacy.
Teams with booths at the ipw trade show included the Braves, Cubs, Giants, Mets, Padres, Red Sox, and Yankees, along with MLB Tourism, a new organization created by the Commissioner of Baseball.
