Quote:
Originally Posted by Crapshoot
Right, but don't they have to stick around past the 7th inning to see an actual victory ? :D
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The 7th-inning phenomenon is really overrated. I go to a handful of games each year, and I've only seen a mass exodus once since Gagne won the closer's job back in, what was it, 2002? That was with the Dodgers trailing by something like 7 runs late.
If the game is close, you still have people who'll leave early, but it's a far smaller number.
As far as the folks who do leave early regardless of circumstances, I think they really can be distilled down to a handful of groups, but here's my bet as to the most common reason: the kid-factor. Ever been to a Dodger game? Kids everywhere. Some of them are school-age, some of them are younger than that.
Now, I realize that San Francisco, being the G&L capital of the world, probably doesn't have that concern. :D
But yeah, there are parents who don't want to sit in the parking lot for an hour and a half after the game with fussy children in the backseat. And yeah, Dodger Stadium's parking lot is probably the most poorly-designed mass parking facility I've ever seen, so I can empathize with the desire even though I don't have kids myself. The fact that they leave early doesn't mean they're not real fans. It does mean that they're having to bend to the realities of having children.
You know, I went to a Cardinals game in the old Busch Stadium. Its location made it easy to just walk up to the stadium, and if you had to park, there were parking structures in the surrounding city. I don't know how common that is for other parks in urban settings (I've not been to Pac Be -- I mean SBC -- I mean AT&T Park, although I'd like to go someday), but it's certainly not the case at Dodger Stadium. You've got about 12 lots surrounding the stadium, all of them feeding into a single road that encircles the stadium, and people driving like madmen all over the parking lot to zip ahead of other folks who are trying to exit.
Yeah, I'd rather everybody stay 'til the end, but I can understand not wanting to risk an accident with your kids in the car. There's no place I'd rather watch a baseball game than Dodger Stadium.
There's no parking lot I'd like to exit from less than the Dodger Stadium parking lot.
I mean, yeah, I get it. Some Dodger fans leave early. Har, har. You're a paragon of original humor. But, you know, I guess you have to be when your team hasn't won a championship in 52 years, huh? (See? I can trot out the tired zingers, too! :D)
