LOS ANGELES — Exactly 18 months after they last left Dodger Stadium following an extra-inning Game 5 loss in the 2019 National League Division Series that bounced the Dodgers from the postseason, Angelenos streamed back into Chavez Ravine as human beings forever changed by a devastating pandemic. They also returned as Dodgers fans eager to celebrate an improbable World Series championship won last fall in the MLB bubble in Texas.
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When the Dodgers lost 7-4 on Oct. 9, 2019, to end their season in the first round of that year’s playoffs, no one could have known the pain Dodgers fans felt that night would soon be eclipsed by a global event that would keep fans away for a year and a half. If the Dodgers could do it over again, of course, they would choose to win their first title in 32 years in front of a packed Dodger Stadium crowd. Watching the Dodgers play in front of cardboard cutouts and amid fake crowd noise in 2020 felt as invigorating as waiting in line to visit the dentist.
Still, a championship is a championship, and flags fly forever. The Dodgers and their fans never have to speak of 1988 again. For Andrew Friedman, Dave Roberts and Clayton Kershaw, it seemed as if relief trumped elation last October.
On Friday morning, that relief gave way to unbridled joy.
The stadium parking gates opened to fans at 10:40 a.m. Rudy Juarez, 39, of Fontana, was the first Dodgers fan through the turnstiles on the loge level at 10:43 a.m. A former U.S. Marine, Juarez said he has been a Dodgers fan since he was born in 1981. He remembered watching the Dodgers win the World Series in 1988 when he was 7 years old, and he said he has attended Opening Day at Dodger Stadium eight years in a row. This year, he said he even made the trek to Colorado to see the Dodgers open their season against the Rockies.
Rudy Juarez was the first fan to enter the Dodger Stadium gates.
Wearing a Kirk Gibson jersey and attending the game by himself, Juarez said it was important for him to be in the stadium to cheer on the players as they received their rings.
“Last year was so hard for everyone, but one of the hardest things I had to deal with was not being able to come to Dodger games,” Juarez said. “They’re like a second family to me.”
The Dodgers told fans to be in their seats for the championship ring ceremony at 11:45 a.m. At 11:20, thousands of fans remained stuck in a traffic jam outside the stadium, in part because a few gates were being used for COVID-19 vaccination zones. About half of the crowd of 15,036 was seated at the start of the pregame festivities, with many thousands more filing in during the hour or so it took to introduce the team, hoist the banner and hand out the rings.
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Carey, Rhonda, Cory and Dan Robertson were perched in the shade in Section 2 of the reserve level during the ring ceremony, reflecting on how good it felt to be back. Normally season ticket holders in the top deck, they accidentally clicked on the reserve level when it came time to order their tickets, but they were enjoying the view.
“Even though the food situation is a mess, it’s just so nice to be back,” Carey Robertson said.
He was referring to the app the Dodgers had asked fans to use for food orders. It stopped working for most fans early in the game. When the Robertsons visited the concession stands, they said it appeared so chaotic that overwhelmed workers passed out food at will. (The team announced it won’t be doing mobile food orders anymore.)
Fans endured long lines at the concession stands.
Carey’s father, Dan, was keeping score in a scorebook he brought from home. He was excited to mention he had seen the Dodgers play at the L.A. Coliseum in 1959. “After what happened last year, to be here with my family just means a lot,” Dan said.
Andrew Rissler and his mother Kristen Haywood said they experienced similar headaches while ordering food and lining up for World Series commemorative merchandise outside the team store. But they weren’t going to let the Opening Day kinks get in the way of the joy they felt returning to Dodger Stadium.
“The last time we were here a year and a half ago, Juan Soto was hitting a home run that ended our season, and now here he is again,” Rissler said. “It’s strange, for sure, to look around on Opening Day and not see the stadium full of fans, but just being here in my seat at the game makes up for everything.”
From their seats at the top of the reserve section down the right-field line, Rissler and Haywood could not only see every inch of green below but also the massive vaccination site in the parking lot behind the left-field pavilion.
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“It’s a reminder of the world we’re living in,” said Haywood, who said she has been going to Dodgers game for 54 years. “But honestly, it gives me some hope that we’ll be getting back to normal soon.”
Furn Zavala said he was returning from a birthday trip to Las Vegas on Thursday when his friend Alvin Carrillo texted him that he had tickets to the home opener and wanted to invite him. “I told him whatever it cost I was in. I didn’t care,” Zavala said. Carrillo and his girlfriend, Janelle Snyder, bought tickets from a secondary-ticket-market website as soon as they went on sale in Row B of Section 309 in the left-field pavilion. “We love sitting in left field because it’s always a fun-loving party out here,” Snyder said.
They said they got up early Friday morning and had coffee together as a family. The game was tied 0-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Justin Turner hit a ball in the air that was headed right toward the group. Zavala dropped his helmet nachos and dove to his left over his girlfriend, Talisa Soto. He had brought his glove and “survival instinct just took over,” he said. Zavala scraped his knee but wound up with the souvenir of a lifetime, the winning home run of a 1-0 Dodgers victory. He said he had never even so much as caught a foul ball before.
“I can’t describe how much fun this day has been and how much this means to me,” he said.
Furn Zavala was the lucky recipient of Justin Turner’s home run.
A few rows behind Zavala in the left-field pavilion, Teresa Ventura had a view of his home-run catch. Attending the game with her daughter, her son, a niece and a nephew, Ventura said Friday was her 27th Opening Day at Dodger Stadium. Ventura said she and her family traveled to Texas to watch the team win the World Series last October.
“I’m going to get emotional talking about what it means to be back here, but I’ll try,” Ventura said. “It was cool seeing them in Texas, but Dodger Stadium is my home.”
(All photos by Molly Knight / The Athletic)
