You had to be there! The 50th Opening Day for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I went with a guy from work and his 20 yo son. We got into the parking lot way early. We parked in the season ticket holder area and spotted the biggest flag I have ever seen. It appeared the be the same flag that was used last year for Opening Day. As we hung around checked out the flag a Dodgers worker guy came over and asked if we were helping with the flag. I said no but it would be cool to help so he said ok – here are some wrist bands, go see that guy over there. Say what? That was easy. We prepped by doing a practice run in the lot. The flag wasn’t too heavy even though it was massive. With probably over 100 people helping it was ok. We split for a break and watched batting practice for a little while and headed off to the RV lot. The rest of the crew from work was rallying hard over there. We got in and got out before we got damaged. I think it’s safe to say that there was going to be some sick people very soon. Anyway, back to the flag. We picked it up around 12:20pm and moved it towards the center field access area. As we lined up and got ready to go on the field Duke Snider pulled up in the passenger seat of a golf cart. There was a load of old-timers at the game. We got the word to roll on to the field. We headed towards the third base line and made a sharp left and headed across the field towards the right field line. I was near the front of the flag – upper right hand area. A B1-B did a flyover and a few moments later we got the queue to pull the flag out. Running backwards we unfurled the behemoth quickly for the national anthem. Once that was over we bunched it back up and moved it off the field just as we brought it out. Once back in the parking lot we found the buckles that hold the flag together and quickly unsnapped a large section enabling it to be placed into large containers for transport. We were in the right place at the right time and got to really get a special look at the stadium from the field.
If you’ve ever wondered if players could hear you when you yell at them from the stands the answer is YES!
