The characters arrived around 4:30pm, and we were led to the club level, where the very expensive suites and press box are located. Inside the World Series conference room, the costumed characters changed into their outfits.
Meanwhile, I waited in the hallway, where I met Dodger Stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley, whose music I have enjoyed at the stadium for years.
Once everyone was ready at around 5:20pm, we made our way to the elevator behind home plate, for the long walk leading to Autograph Alley, directly behind the center field wall. I knew R2 would be up for the drive though, the Senna drivetrain was ready for the task and the batteries were freshly charged.
Once at Autograph Alley, I parked R2 and the pictures started and kept on coming.
When we were done with Autograph Alley, our next stop was the "My Town" section of the stadium, which was the Clone Wars section of the ballpark for the evening. I parked R2 near the section's entrance, where even more pictures were taken. Some of the characters were shown on the video board, I'm not sure if R2 ever made it up there or not.
As we were entertaining the crowd upstairs, Cad Bane and four clone troopers threw the first pitch. I tried to get R2 involved, but alas, I was unsuccessful.
After a few innings, we were done with the entertainment portion of our visit, and we were allowed to go back to the club level and stow our gear and watch the game.
While being escorted back to the conference room, some idiot ran up and slapped the dome hard. It was so loud I thought he may have done some damage, but I don't see any evidence at all. Fortunately security was right on top of him, and I think he got booted from the stadium.
When I got back to the room, I ran across Spanish language broadcasters Jaime and Jorge Jarrin. Jaime is in the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame and is a local legend in the Spanish speaking community in Southern California. Jorge is a very popular English and Spanish broadcaster in his own right, and I've heard him on the radio for years as well.
We exchanged pleasantries and moved on, but a few minutes later, Jorge came back and asked if I could visit the press box. Um, sure! When I was a young teenager I snuck into the press box a few times after the game just to see what it was like in there. It was nice to be invited this time around. :-)
Here's video of most of the visit.
Next, I parked R2 in the conference room and went back upstairs to take my seat, where I was just in time to see the Dodgers score five runs in the seventh inning to break a scoreless tie, clinch first place in the National League West, and secure the best record in the National League!
Finally, after the game was over and most of the crowd left (after watching quite a bit of post-game celebration on the video board), I headed back to the club level one last time to collect R2 and start heading out.
Comedian Jon Lovitz and friends asked for a picture with R2, so I got one for myself.
Larry King also walked by.
At long last, R2 was back outside where he started, and I got him into the Droidmobile and on the way home. A great game, and a fun time.
The full photoset is here.
2 comments:
Looks like you had fun! I hope your dome is ok.
Great video, don't you love when people will not move their big butts out of the way. LOL
Thanks Moose, I checked carefully and the dome is fine. No sign whatsoever of the slap. I actually have video of the dome slap, and it doesn't look as bad on the video as it sounded when I was there (I was facing forward, and the back of the dome was slapped, so I only heard it and didn't see it). Fortunately he only hit the aluminum area and not the blue panels or HPs or lights.
-Victor
Post a Comment