Thursday, February 15, 2007

Giants or Dodgers? Part Two

The thing I've noticed about living in California is people here are passionate about baseball. I like that.

On Tuesday, I solicited opinions on which National League West team I should choose to support. My first love will always be the Texas Rangers and that is non-negotiable. Living in central California, however, means I should choose an NL West team to follow. The Giants and Dodgers are both an easy drive, traffic notwithstanding, from Fresno.
For the pro-Giant side, I offer up the following email:

"Joe (our Minister of Evangelism/Outreach at Woodward Park) is a Dodger fan. Do you really want to run with that crowd? Take another look at the pictures on your blog from the recent visit to San Francisco. What does LA have? A photo of an old sign that used to say Hollywood." No contest!
About the stadiums, Dodger Stadium may be historic because its old, but that's about it. It's in a ravine- a ravine is what we call a "wash" back home. Is that where you want to go to see a ball game? In San Francisco, you can see the Giants, see the bay and the Bay Bridge. An old stadium means old ways of parking; no routing of cars- everyone heads to the one exit all at once! What a mess! Also, there's no public transportation in LA. In the Bay Area, you can park your car in Livermore and take the BART all the way into Frisco all for a couple bucks (less than parking fee in LA!) Also, if you're on the BART, that's more time to spend with family/friends visiting instead of driving and white-knucklin' the traffic.

The Dodgers are the Prima Donna's of Cali -- nobody likes the prima donna.

If you choose the Dodgers, I'll question your sanity...just like I do Joe's!!!!"

And now, there's this email, espousing the pro-Dodger side. As you can tell from the passion and thought given to these emails, baseball is huge here. Anyway, nibble on this from a Dodgers loyalist:

Having been born and raised in Southern California, (Santa Barbara), I grew up with my ear to the radio, listening to Vince Scully and Jerry Dogget broadcasting the Dodger ballgames.

Comparing the Dodgers and Giants, brother, is like the proverbial case of trying to compare an apple and an orange: Good and evil, light and darkness, truth to lies. God's favorite color has always been blue, (skies, oceans, my wife's eyes), and Dodger Blue is a heavenly shade of blue. And my friend, have you ever eaten a "Dodger Dog?" Most people will agree that they are better than Tri-tip with potato salad and watermelon.

Then there's the weather - It's always cold and foggy in S.F. during the spring and summer, and almost always around 75 to 85 degrees at Chavez Ravine, where you and the girls can enjoy the ballgame in a T-shirt and shorts. When you go to a ballgame in L.A. plan on spending the night too, because you'll want to go to Disneyland the next day! By the way, if you are a people watcher, there are always Hollywood stars in the audience at a Dodger game.

As you know, Jim, S.F. is a modern day Sodom, and no place for a C of C preacher. On your way home, come up the coast and spend a day going through Santa Barbara. You'll find it to be the most beautiful and charming town on the West Coast.

I rest my case!

As you can tell, a lot of thought and insight have gone into the email response I've received thus far. As of yet, I haven't made a decision. You can continue to send your email pitches to jim@wpcoc.com and remember, no pro Oakland A's or Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim emails will be accepted!