Here’s an odd story with odder timing.
According to Sam Strong of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, hundreds of Dodgers fans arrived in Chavez Ravine around 7 PM on Saturday, hours after the team had completed a 1-0 defeat of the visiting Padres. Those fans were unaware that FOX had selected the game for its national broadcast and moved first pitch to the early afternoon. They were issued ticket vouchers for a future home game.
As noted by the Press-Telegram, an advertiser for HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” might have also been thrown off, as an airplane carrying a promotional banner for the show was making loops above an empty Dodger Stadium just before 7 PM.
It all represents the sudden lack of interest in Frank McCourt’s sinking ship.
According to Jon Weisman of ESPN Los Angeles, less than 80 people gathered on a block near the stadium an hour before the actual 1:10 PM first pitch to protest the bankrupt owner with homemade signs and a megaphone. These days in Dodgerland, not even the protests are well-attended.
