Tags: Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers

The following is a quasi-contribution from SportTsar’s new French correspondent, Julien, from his recent outing to his first ever American baseball game. The fact that the game in question was the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ unlikely victory over the Los Angeles Angels despite being no-hit clearly pales in comparison to the rest of his experience and observations. Here it is, in all of its unedited glory:

I have been in the United States for almost 4 years and I never had the chance to go to see a real American sport. My friend Aaron (a huge fan of baseball) bought a ticket for me last week and told me that I couldn’t live in a country without seeing a game. So here we go, I am trapped for 3 hours on a Saturday night. I will prefer to be at Happy Ending drinking beers and be fucked up with my friends anyways, we left around 6.00 PM and the only thing I am thinking, it is to be over there and order the maximum of beers I can. After an hour drive and 30 minutes of walk we finally arrive to the dodger stadium. My first step as a “n00b” in this sport is to pick a team. Angels or Dodgers? Who give a fuck these teams represent Los Angeles but after 30 seconds of reflection I decide to root for the Angels, not because I care but because mark roots for the Dodgers and I just didn’t want to root for the same team than this jackass. So Allison and Mandy are for the Dodgers and Aaron and myself for the Angels. I quickly realized that we were in the Dodgers Stadium, which means 50.000 people here were Dodgers fans but I like to be different.
So here we go after climbing 500 stairs we arrived to our seat after a little stop to the food store to pick up 2 giants ‘Dodgers hot dog’ and beers.
My first impression was: this stadium is sick and super high. 55.000 people in the stadium watching 18 people trying to score by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four marker, looks like a pretty interesting sport especially when you trapped here for 3 hours and you cannot smoke even if it is outside. After a little talk with the specialist Aaron, I started to understand what this game was about. You really need to be there to appreciate this game, it is so much more interesting than watching it on television.
Like for the basketball game, you have funny games. You have the Smile Camera (they shoot random people on a giant screen, you have the wedding proposal, the intellectual game (How many people are in the stadium tonight if you have the good answer you can win a DHL envelope, and other funny games.
The funniest part like for all sports is the competitions between the fans. Dodgers hate the Angels and vice versa. It is pretty funny to listen to bitchin’ about the other team.
After 2 hours everybody stand up and start to sing the Baseball Anthem, called ‘Take me out to the ball game’, and it is hilarious!!!

“Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don’t care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the Angels, If they don’t win it’s a shame. For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out, at the old ball game. »

Anyways after 3 hours the angels lost, Angels didn’t make a point, final score 1-0 for the dodgers and I can say I really enjoyed this game and to share an American value with my friend.
It is time to go and to be stuck in the Los Angeles traffic, but what a night!

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