Results tagged ‘ Camelback Ranch ’
Looking back at The Dodgers and the 00 Decade
The 00 decade saw me going from single games, to mini packages to returning to being a season ticket holder.
When I review my Dodger pictures, what I remember from the 00 decades are the thrill of victories, the friends that I have made because of baseball and or the Dodgers, the friends that I continue to have, the sadness for departed players, the pain by the beloved players that have used PEDs, the way I have learned to accept that we can’t win every game but still the frustration of some of those winnable games, my beloved Dodger Stadium, the road trips, Vero Beach, Camelback Ranch, the game at the Coliseum, the Dodger float at the Rose Parade, the Bluetopia movie, the Dodger Star in Hollywood Walk of fame, my family and non-baseball friends accepting and understanding for my love for the Dodgers.
Dodgers Most Remembered during this 00 Decade.
Vin Scully. Hearing Vin Scully on the radio or TV or when I ride the elevator at the stadium brings a big smile to my face. He is the reason I carry a radio to the stadium.
Adrian Beltre. My first and last player’s jersey. After his departure, I vowed not to get a current player’s jersey. My next jersey was a Jackie Robinson jersey.
Paul Lo Duca. He lingered in the minor league for a while. From 2001 to 2004, he hit .288 and hit 55 homers and 286 RBIs. I cried when I heard him crying when he found out he got traded to the Marlins.
Eric Gagne. Oh, how electrifying it was to listen to “Welcome to the Jungle” when he exit the bullpen gate. There was such energy from the entire stadium with the anticipation of him coming into the game.
Paul Lo Duca and Eric Gagne: How dissapointed I was when I read the Mitchell report.
Shawn Green He hit 91 homers in a two-year span, including four of them in a single game at Milwaukee on May 23, 2002. Shawn just went quietly about his business. He was such a nice guy.
Here is a picture of Shawn Green with Sandy Koufax:
Jeff Kent. He was the Dodgers’ best offensive player for the bulk of his four seasons with the club. He got a raw deal with a writer from the L.A. Times. I am glad that he got to host the WIN Baseball clinic for four years so that we, the fans that attended those events and others he attended got to see a more approachable and friendly Jeff Kent.
Derek Lowe. Reliable, never been on the disabled list. At times, I felt bad for the lack of run support. I made it a point to go by the bullpen after his starts to praise his starts when he lost. He was nice and friendly with the fans. He helped Jeff Kent at one of the WIN baseball games
Manny Ramirez. He energized the team when he was traded during the July 2008 tradeline. His production dropped off after his return from his suspension but one must also remember that he got hit on the wrist after coming back. Likable and friendly when my friends and I met him by coincidence in the parking lot during Spring Training.
Andre Ethier. There was no other player I’d like to see when the game was on the line than Andre. He lead the majors with six walk-off hits in 2009 and a total of nine walk-off hits in 2008 and 2009 combined, with five of those hits home runs. What an incredible year he had in 2009.
Arizona countered my Fastballs with Curveballs!
So you all read about my 4 trips to Camelback Ranch during The Dodgers Spring Training right? Well, Arizona countered my Fastballs with Curveballs!!
I knew in one of those trips our picture was taken on the freeway but what do I get in the mail? Not one, not two, but THREE speeding tickets!!
I was like Oh No! That is not me on the pictures!!!
Surely I should have slowed down or taken this
on closer examination of the dates and times I was like
What???!? Two tickets within 3 minutes???????
Help!!
Surely there must be something I can do about at least removing one!
Arizona is
evil, evil, evil.
36 cameras on the following freeways 10, 101, 51, 60, 117, Take a look at this link for all the camera locations http://photoenforcement.azdps.gov/Cameras/
Pics from inside Camelback Ranch
Clayton Kershaw warming up.
!
O’Dog at the plate.
I have yet to see a win at Camelback Ranch but there is still another weekend after the WBC games this weekend at Dodger Stadium.
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![official locker room[1].jpg](http://mlblogscrzblue.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/2172_2176416248515466847_3194_n5b15d1.jpg)
Official Locker Room for the Dodgers!
all pictures are mine except the lockeroom is from one of my cousin that took the tour before ballpark was done.
Meet my traveling friends.
Here are my friends. Yeah, is just shadows of us. One of them wants it that way. Pic taken at Camelback Ranch March ’09.
Friend1, friend2, me and and maybe a future friend at the end. Check out my pic in my profile. did not know my friend had taken that pic at the stadium last year 
TroyfromWestVirginia’s Youtube “We are the L.A. Dodgers”
I first met TroyfromWestVirginia last year when I went on a road trip that took me first to Yankee Stadium then PNC. I had seen his tribute to Joe Beimel before so when he walked infront of me, I recognized him!.
Yesterday I ran into him again at Camelback Ranch. For those that don’t know anything about Troy, he is a big Joe Beimel fan. He is the reason why Joe got a bobblehead. I took a picture with him and his sign saying “Bring Beimel Back”. I I posted the in my prior thread. As the game progressed, I spotted him behind home plate when our pitching started to fall apart, he was displaying his sign and getting other fans to chant with him “Bring Beimel back!’ running up and down trying to get the attention of whoever was in the suites upstairs. I told the people sitting next to me who he was.
Troy’s original youtube was titled “The Legend of Joe Beimel”. He has done many since the but I like this tribute song he did titled “We are the L.A. Dodgers”. Great job with the song Troy!
Meanwhile back at the Ranch, part 3. (3/8/09)
I got back from Camelback at about 10:45 p.m. This was my second weekend there and….there might be another one next week. I have friends that are going already soooo I might also go.
Camelback Ranch scoreboard. Notice the distinction of the logo.
C
Larry King was very gracious, posing for pictures and signing autographs!
The famous Troy from West Virginia! He is the reason why Joe Beimel got a bobblehead. He got plenty of Youtube videos showing his total support for Jjoe.
We found the minor league area where we watched our Baby Blue practicing!! The kid standing up smiling is Preston Mattingly. We saw Johnson pitching well. Dodgers could have used him today.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch part 2.
Meanwhile back at the Ranch…part 2.
Sunday 3/1 Opening Day (posting 3/7/09 from hotel in Glendale, AZ)
So this is the day that my friend Lore, Erik & I had been waiting for! We just had to go to the Grand Opening of Camelback Ranch! I had gone downstairs to use the computer and print the thread tited Jeff Weaver & The Boys of Summer. I was hoping to give it to him to encourage him to do well There were problems with the printer but I finally got it printed and rushed thru the hot breakfast offered at Springfield Hotel (perfect name!). While I was making my waffle and waiting for it to cook, I was having a small bowl of oatmeal. My friends were anxious to get me out of there.
We got to the Camelback Ranch’s parking lot and paid $5 for parking. When we started walking out of the car I heard someone yelled “Emma!”. It was one of my neighbors at Dodger Stadium. She with her hubby and their 2 little girls sit infront of me. We hugged and caught up with each other since (scratches head) oh yeah since the event for season ticket holders at Dodger Stadium in December.
So now we are at the roped area where fans wait for players to pass by. We saw Either and I told him ‘Andre! We need a new restaurant review!’ He looked back, smiled and pointed a finger in my direction. Next James Loney went by and we sang the Loney song that two posters from ITD came up with (I’ll incude names afterwards ). Loney and some of the players smiled at the song. It goes like this:
My Loney has a first name. is J A M E S
My Loney has a second name, is L O N E Y
Oh I like to see him every day and if you ask me why I’lll say
Cause Loney has a way with H I T T I N G.
Fans applauded us after heading the song
Ok, so next we wanted to see Jeff Weaver. Lore is a fan of Weaver and I wanted to give him my post. Everyone said he had already gone by, so after watching some of the guys practice, we came back to the roped line to see if we could see Weaver. I spotted him signing autographs and I said “WEAVER!” I startled him and he said “That is me”. I asked him if he coud read what I had posted in my blog and basically told him what was in the page. He took it and stuffed it in his pocket and said he would read it later. He told me he remembered that game he pitched at Dodger Stadium against Roger Clemens well.
So Weaver continued to sign autographs and pose for pictures. He seemed like he was having a good time. I got on the phone and called Lore to ask her where she was and that Weaver was right infront of me. She was almost at the end of the line so I moved there with her and told her I could take a picture of her and Weaver since I’ve seen him posing for pics. But when he got to where we were, he picked up his things and we were like “ohhhh”, BUT he threw his things at the end of the line and came back. Everyone applauded him. I took the picture of Lore & Weaver and while he was signing Lore’s ball, I said “We are glad to have our guerito back.” Guerito is an endearing term for a blond guy. He smiled and said “also flaquito”. LOL. I did not know he knew a few words in Spanish. Flaquito means skinny. Note that adding the “ito” for males or “ita” for females, it makes it an endearing term.
We lost that game, but we had a lot fun and did not want to go back home. We drove back Sunday evening working on plans to come back soon.
Meanwhile back at the Ranch..
Meanwhile back at the Ranch…..Lore and I made it from the L.A. area to Glendale, AZ in 5 hours. The first thing we saw when we were approaching Camelback Ranch was a digital sign from CVS drugstore that read “Welcome Dodgers fans to the Cactus League”. We both pointed to the sign excitedly. We got more excited when we saw that to our right we could see a field with a whole bunch of White Sox players exercising! Ooooh we could hardly wait to park the car!
As we approached the gate, we were told that there was mockup game that day. (The team was in Tucson playing the Rockies.) We parked and started toward the gate but noticed that we needed tickets. I went to the ticket window but I was told that it was only for family and friends. I thanked the lady and we were about to walk away when this very nice guy gave us two tickets! We thanked him profusely and we went inside and took in all of the sites from the inside. The grass looked so green and the whole place looked magnificent. They were practicing all the festivities for the pregame. We sat where the ticket said we could sit which was behind home plate after getting our free food. We both tried the Chicago dogs. I never had one before and I really liked it. They gave us the first item free plus a drink and any additional items were a dollar. Beer was regular price.
After enjoying our lunch and realizing that there was not going to an actual mock game but only a few ladies throwing on the field, we walked through the whole stadium taking in the beautiful view, talking to ushers and taking pictures. We noticed two workers with drills still working on some seats. We were all decked out in Dodger blue! One of the ushers told us “I think I saw Vin Scully upstairs” so up we went to check out the suites and see if we could see our beloved Vin but he was no longer there. The only one I saw was Josh Rawich (Dodgers VP of Communication) who was walking by with some people heading to get some food. I yelled “JOSH”. He looked around who was calling him. I yelled “UP HERE.” He said “Hi Emma, you guys are everywhere”. lol. The next day I read Josh post at ITD (Insidethedodgers.mlblogs) saying that he had given Vin a tour of the place so we had just missed him.
We left to check in at the Springhill suites hotel . Later on our friend Erik called us that he had arrived in Glendale and if we could pick him up so afterwards, the three of us headed to find a place for dinner. We were close to this shopping center that had several restaurants. We ask what the wait was at the Yard House and they said between 45 minutes to 1 hour. Ran into 2 Dodgers photographers there and Jon told me the wait was going to be like that everywhere.. We went to a place called Joe’s Grill for drinks and food. Later on we headed to Scottsdale blasting the CD playing “I Love L.A” and singing along to get ready for the season. By the time we came back it was 3:30 in the morning. It did not help that we got lost on our way back and that the gas station where we got off was not open.
To be continue with the Grand Opening day!
Camelback!! Here I Come!!
Woohoo!! In less than 5 hours I’ll get up and drive to Camelback!! Oh, oh. I better hit the sack. Like Vin Scully says “Good night everybody”.
crzblue
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