Having attended dozens of Giant-Dodger games at Chavez Latrine, it's hard for me to get worked up about the Dodgers winning three of the four games in the opening homestand -- not with a guy beaten half to death for the egregious sin of wearing Giants gear. I don't do that but I do applaud if the Orange and Black does something good. Now, I'm wondering about going there at all. When the hell is the Dodger ownership going to get serious about providing security against these thugs running wild?
What's really distressing is what Frank McCourt said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times -- "You could have 2,000 policemen there, and it's just not going to change that random act of violence," McCourt said Saturday....."What we have done is that we have reviewed everything that has happened. First of all, let me just say it's tragic. It's very, very unfair to take what was otherwise a fantastic day — everything from the weather to the result of the game to just the overall experience — and to have a few individuals mar that. MY RESPONSE -- Why don't you commit to doing something about it, you pompous putz? Why don't you beef up the security at your joke of a ballpark so that people aren't scared to show up?
Someone who's actually being accountable would admit something on the order of "OK, we have a problem here and we're going to do something about it right now," rather than insisting it was otherwise a "fantastic" day.
I'm not alone here. Blogger Paul Oberjuerge, in a post titled "New Incident, Old Story," believes that the thugs have become a huge problem -- though he doesn't say that it's because McCourt is too cheap and too chicken to address the issue -- It may be a dirty little secret, nationally, where the perception is that Dodgers fans are ultra-mellow. You know, “they come late and leave early!” thing. Too cool for school. In point of fact, Dodger Stadium has been filled with dozens, maybe even hundreds of thugs almost every game for years now. Obscenity-spewing, tatted-up gangsters, often-drunk, who can ruin a game for anyone in their vicinity.
They are particularly common in the pavilions and the top deck, but almost no part of the stands are safe, aside from the most expensive seats on the field level.
Frank McCourt is a bad owner. We know that. But his biggest failing is not adequately addressing what appears to be an ongoing, perhaps even growing problem with bad-acting fans.
