Rays on the Road: A Fan's Experience at Dodger Stadium
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The Los Angeles road trip didn’t leave the Tampa Bay Rays feeling glad all over, but it gave this Rays writer the chance to watch them in person.
On Tuesday, I ventured to one of America’s most coveted and beautiful ballparks, Dodger Stadium. OK, technically Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, but I don't see that one rolling off the tongue too well.
Tuesday night’s game was a theme night! Basically, every night is a theme night for the Dodgers, who hold an absurd 25 bobblehead giveaway games. To put that in reference, the Rays have 10 bobblehead giveaways. The Dodgers are seemingly printing money right now, making every home game some kind of special event.
This time around, Dodger-themed soccer jerseys were given out to coincide with the World Cup fever gripping the country. For being mass-produced and made out of the cheapest-feeling polyester, they were actually pretty snazzy, featuring a collar and an ironed-on badge. I have a feeling it will get a surprising amount of wear.
Dogers giveaway against Rays was World Cup-inspired
Truly, the greatest part about this stadium is the picture-perfectness of it all. Resembling a painted Hollywood set background, the sun setting behind palm trees and shading the landscape with a deep dusky hue makes it perhaps the best baseball view in the world.
But enough pontificating about natural beauty, there was baseball to be played! The Tampa Bay lineup was announced and met by neither cheers nor boos. I think the average fan was just generally confused, as I heard one nearby ask their friend, “Who is Austin Slater?” That’s a good question, and welcome to Rays baseball, my friend.
The game began and from there on was played with a dizzying, breakneck pace. If you had heard baseball described as a leisurely game that allows space for the game to breathe, this game was the antithesis of that. Justin Wrobleski and Drew Rasmussen were in a fierce battle to set down hitters with blistering efficiency.
Seeing that this game was being played like the starters had dinner reservations, I quickly got up to scout food options. An infusion of Japanese branding everywhere in the stadium makes the pickings more diverse than your average stadium.
Chicken katsu, yakisoba, and pork char siu stand alongside your standard hot dogs and nachos. I settled on a Dodger Dog, which my brother and I agreed had a funky artificial flavor to it.
“The Ohtani Effect” in Dodger Stadium is perhaps the most remarkable spectacle to behold. Los Angeles is seeing a tourism spike fueled by Japanese fans flocking to Dodger Stadium at an unprecedented rate.
The pride of Oshu is revered by fellow countrypeople who have dubbed him their national treasure. It’s a sight to see when those first couple of seconds of Michael Bublé’s “Feeling Good” start playing, and phone cameras appear almost everywhere to film baseball’s unicorn.
More so, every year, this stadium becomes the house that Ohtani built, and fans can only revel in the generational greatness that they don’t want to miss a second of.
Fans that night, filming every Ohtani at bat, got the video they were waiting for when he slugged a first-pitch cutter to dead center. It was the only run that would be scored that night as the Rays were silenced 1-0.
I especially felt for Drew Rasmussen, who spun yet another brilliant performance. It was reminiscent of one of those prime New York Mets Jacob deGrom starts where the sour taste of a loss overshadowed his individual excellence.
What will stick with me from this night, years later, is purely the awe that just one player created. You could feel in the moment how historic Shohei Ohtani felt then and there.
This run of incredible hitting and pitching simultaneously will likely never be seen again, and you could tell every fan knew that as well. Every handheld video that immortalized his legacy in fans’ memories will be talked about generations later, and that’s pretty amazing in itself.
As for the Rays, all I can say is get those bats going against the Washington Nationals.
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Sam Hougham is an alumnus of UC Santa Barbara, who earned his degree in Communication. He is a passionate baseball writer and researcher who began his career at Diamond Digest, a platform for up-and-coming voices in baseball writing. Since then, he has launched his own website, The Daily Lineup Card, where he publishes long-form analytical pieces focused on scouting, drafting, and team analysis. A lifelong Tampa Bay Rays fan, Sam’s other sports interests include Aston Villa FC and the English Premier League, the NHL, and the NFL. You can follow him on X, @samuelhougham, or reach him via email at samhougham791@gmail.com.