I grew up near L.A. and went to hundreds of my brothers’ Little League and American Legion baseball games, learned how to score a baseball game at my mother’s knee, and love the game, but I’ve never been to a Dodger game at Chavez Ravine. Until today.

Of course when I was growing up, there was no money for professional entertainment. But a few times my dad got Dodger tickets at work from a vendor, and I know at least once he got four tickets and took my 3 brothers; Peps remembers that he may have gotten 2 tickets other times and took Mike, who was a huge fan of the Dodgers, especially Maury Wills. I don’t think it occurred to anyone that I might like to go, and it’s ironic that now I’m the only one in the family who follows baseball.

As a follow-on to the reunion, I organized a small group to go to a Dodger game the next day, six of us to be exact: Cheryl, Vonnie, Jim, Jim’s college friend John (whom we called the “player to be named later” until we met him today and learned his name), Patrick, and me. John is visiting all the major league ball parks, like we are, and is a good baseball guy; we graciously overlooked the fact that he’s a Yankee fan.

Dodger Stadium is now the third-oldest baseball park in the country (after Fenway and Wrigley), opened in 1962. Its setting is stunning, nestled into Chavez Ravine near downtown L.A.

To construct the stadium, the tops of local ridges were removed and the soil was used to fill in two other ravines to provide a level surface for the stadium and the parking lot. An elementary school that had served the mostly Hispanic residents who were evicted to build the stadium was simply buried and sits beneath the parking lot northwest of third base. The way you get to the stadium is by way of a sort of corkscrew drive winding up the outside of the ravine; a unique terraced-earthworks parking lot behind the main stands allows fans to park at roughly the level of their seats, minimizing use of ramps once inside. The stadium was also designed to be earthquake-resistant, and it has withstood several serious earthquakes. The views of the field from the concourses are surprisingly fan-friendly for such an old park.

Food and drink report: the much-touted “Dodger dogs” are below average, and there’s almost nothing else to eat; hamburgers, pizza, and snacks were all we found, and we weren’t in the cheap seats. Vonnie, a long-time St. Louis fan, was disappointed not to find any brats. At Safeco Field we can choose from Asian food, clam chowder, salmon fish & chips, carved roast beef & turkey sandwiches, Shiskaberries (chocolate-dipped strawberries on a stick), healthy organic food, tacos & burritos etc., pasta, salad, numerous barbeque dishes, cheesesteak sandwiches, hamburgers, dogs of many kinds, pizza, and of course various snacks like pretzels, ice cream, wine, nuts, candy, and espresso; in addition there’s the sit-down Hit It Here Café in right field, where you can sit for a short time or for the whole game, dining from a chef-prepared menu. I would rate the food at Dodger Stadium as lame.

But there was one drink option that we had heard of and sought out: frozen-foam-topped Kirin beer. A plastic cup of ice-cold beer is topped with a swirl of frozen beer foam, which seeps into the beer below, keeping your brew cold. The foam is beer, pure beer, agitated in a machine and flash-frozen to 23 degrees to act as insulation, designed to keep the liquid beneath cool on a hot day at the ballpark. I can attest that it was a hot day and that my beer stayed absolutely cold down to the bottom, and then there was this nice, cold beer foam to suck up. I thought it was great! but at $11 a cup, I don’t expect to drink another one soon. I think Jim, being more of a beer aficionado than I am, was less enthusiastic.

This being a California ballpark, there were beach balls loose in the stands for much of the game.

Somewhat annoying, but not as bad as those incessant Jedi-light-sabre-like clackers at the Oakland Coliseum.

Oh, and the game? The Dodgers lost 3-11 to the Mets. Too bad for the fans, but the Dodgers are still in first place in the National League West and we didn’t care much anyway; none of us has a dog in that hunt.