Jew

The discount will be the rental fee. So I would guess $15-20 off.

Instead of paying attention in class, I am updating this thread.... Todays update is a Dodgers vs. Braves game from last season enjoyed from the Dugout club. If you are a baseball fan in L.A. with some cash to spare, I highly recommend using craigslist to score some Dugout club tickets for under face value. It's all you can eat and non-alcoholically drink, has a private lounge you can hang out in afterwards, offers the best seats in the house, and offers the opportunity to meet players as they are entering/exiting the clubhouse and dugouts before and after the game. The Critic is an awesome cartoon. The best pitching duo in the history of baseball. The absolute best part of the Dugout Club. Random gourmet food stations. There's also a lounge that stays open for about an hour after the game. Many visiting players choose to hang out here. The restaurant part of the Dugout Club. How could I not take this picture? Random action shot/view of rest of the field The view of home plate from our seats During batting practice, you can practically be on the field and meet any players that are willing to chat. I talked to Mark Texiera for a few minutes...nice guy. Too bad he's a Yankee now. This is how close you can get to the visitors dugout. The Dodgers are so fan friendly they don't let you get this close to the Dodgers dugout (because that means standing around Frank McCourt's seats in the dugout club), but I guess this is a good consolation prize. Some of you may remember that the Dodgers used to have a museum on the club level. They moved most of the cool stuff from that museum down to the dugout club. Including this thing. I really don't know what it is because it's been so long since the Dodgers have been close to winning one. And with McCourt in charge, that's not likely to change. =( Visiting players are not so lucky: they have to use the aforementioned hallway to get to their clubhouse. Brian McCann was awesome. Chipper Jones and most the other Braves? Not so much. James Loney was one of the players who chose to use that door. And actually stayed to talk to everyone and sign autographs. Unlike Mike Piazza, who blew me off as a kid outside the players parking lot before a game because "he was late" while his roommate at the time Eric Karros took time to talk and sign for me. Therefore, James Loney is my new favorite dodger. You enter the dugout club using the same hallway players can possibly use (they have an entrance on the other side too). How exciting. The field level was remodeled to look as bland as possible. Which sucks. This, however, does not. As much as I hate Frank McCourt, this is one of the better things he has done (after being shamed into doing it by the media, but whatever): people can now hang out in the outfield to catch battting practice balls and increase their chances at getting an autograph Dodger Stadium is now the 3rd oldest stadium in baseball. And that guys head totally ruined my picture. Oh well. Obligatory "NOTED" photo.

^Agree on what? Now you're saying the Lakers last two loses are worse than the Celtics losing to the Clippers?

I hate to burst your bubble, but... Amusement parks are businesses. Disney, Universal, Six Flags, Busch, Cedar Fair, etc. certainly aren't operating parks out of the goodness of their hearts because they want to see everyone having fun. It's not fair at all to say that a park would purposely slow the lines down to increase sales of their "line cutting" option because slowing down the line also hampers the ability of the people using the "line cutting" system to get on the ride! Remember, Q-bot bases the ride reservation times based on the wait times! That's a way to really ensure no return visits: charge them a crapload of money for a premium product that turns out to be not so premium.

^There was never any other offer. The Dodgers called Boras bluff, so Manny is stuck only making 45 million dollars over two years instead of the 100+ million over 5 years he wanted. Poor guy.

^Uhm...So the Lakers getting blown out by their likely opponent in the first round without their starting PG isn't at least a slight cause for concern?

Keep sending your guesses in!!! Dan especially loves getting those e-mails at night!

EDIT: rephrased to make Mike happy. The policy of deciding "hey, we're only going to send 2 more trains to avoid sending 'unnecessary' trains" is lame.

Happy birthday Kristen! Hope your second year of life is full of new words to say!

I love the fact you had to wait 20 minutes to leave a compliment.

^^That sounds about right. When I worked RRv, we threw some water on it and then cycled the train empty a few times before loading it again.

The pricing sign doesn't appear to mention the rental fee. That could be good. Or a bait-and-switch. The other thing I wonder about is the no refunds for park hours. I hope that doesn't include days where they decide to shut down early due to lack of crowds...

^They'll have to do a bit better than .500 to make the playoffs in the AL East...

^As I mentioned above, I highly recommend the website www.japanball.com for buying Japanese baseball tickets. I had read that Giants tickets were the hardest to come by, so I had no problem paying a little bit extra for the "service" fee to be guaranteed decent tickets delivered straight to our hotel. The guy was also real helpful in answering any questions I had.

^Sure did!

Everyone is missing the bigger issue here: you're forced to eat food at The Sahara!

Here's the rest of the photos from the 2007 TPR Japan trip... For my second Japanese baseball experience, we (Dan, Jeff, and Non German Tom) went to the "world famous" Tokyo Dome. The Yomiuri Giants are like the Yankees of Japan (not to be confused with the Giants of MLB, who suck ass), so we were told to get our tickets in advance as all their games are sell outs. The stadium itself was pretty underwhelming...the coolest part was them deciding to open a side door for us while exiting, which being inside a pressurized building meant it felt like being shot out of canon (having not been to any of the air-supported dome in the U.S., this was a surprise)... If you are a baseball fan in Japan during the Japan League season, I highly recommend making time to check out a game. It's very different than MLB, with all the fans really into the game and the emphasis more on small ball/fundamentals. I used the website www.japanball.com to do research and buy tickets. Sticking with baseball, next up will be a Dodgers vs. Braves game from the Dugout Club seats. Here's a video of the visiting team (Hiroshima Carp) cheering section. Unlike sports in the U.S. the cheering sections were totally respectful of each other and didn't try to interrupt or anything. It was weird! The video was taken from my digital camera, so the audio quality sort of sucks. [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MVI_9706_egs3[/coastertube] Now on to the photos... Random bonus photo: the exterior of the Nagoya Dome. Dan and I missed seeing a game here by about an hour. The bullpen area The scoreboard The best shot we could get of the view from behind home plate. They were worse than Dodger Stadium when it comes to being in places you don't belong... Random shot of the outfield Of all the teams to steal your name from, why did they have to pick THAT one? On the bright side, these Giants have actually bothered to win a few titles since 1954... (The home team cheering section was the entire right field bleacher section) The visitors cheering section This is the view $50 gets you Welcome to Tokyo Dome City, home of the Tokyo Dome and some roller coasters

Here's the reason why Manny hasn't signed: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3938665

I hate Frank McCourt. Speaking of wasting talent...the Dodgers just threw any potential Blake DeWitt had by signing yet another washed up veteran that serves no purpose (Orlando Hudson). It's a good thing the NL West is still a complete joke of a division....

Bored definitely wasn't the right term. That more accurately described the state of mind I was in at school when writing the TR. I should have said "No one else was interested in going (everyone else went to dinner that night), so I got stuck with Ryan."

With the hot trend on TPR being on-going TR threads, I figured I would add mine to the fray with sporting events. Aside from being a die-hard USC fan and supporting the other local teams (Dodgers, Lakers, Kings), I just enjoy going to sporting events in general. I love seeing all the different arenas/stadiums and the services they provide (I generally like to "pretend to be rich" and buy premium seats off of stubhub/craigslist/scalpers), and being able to watch great players no matter what team they play for. I'll get things started with photos from the 2007 TPR Japan trip... One night while bored in Fukouka, I noticed that our hotel was within a train ride and small walk from the Yahoo! dome. The nice lady at the front desk translated the schedule, and sure enough...there was a game that night. So off we (sadly, I was stuck with Ryan that night) went. Index: Page 1---Japanese Baseball Yahoo! Dome & Tokyo Dome Page 2---Dodger Stadium Dugout Club Page 3---Camelback Ranch (Dodger's Spring Training) Page 4---Courtside @ LA Clippers Game @ Staples Center Page 6---Miami Heat game @ American Airlines Arena Page 7---USC in the Rose Bowl x 3 Page 7---Petco Park Page 8---AT&T Stadium in Dallas (Jerryworld) Page 8---Ranger's Ballpark in Arlington Page 9---Galen Center @ USC Page 9---Suite @ Staples Center Page 10---Staples Center VIP Level Page 10---Shark Tank in San Jose Page 11---AT&T Park in San Francisco Page 13---Citi Field Page 13---Metlife Field Page 14---The Pond Page 15---Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas Page 15---Amway Center Page 15---Levi Stadium (PAC-12 Championship game) Page 16---More Rangers Ballpark Page 18---Husky Stadium (University of Washington) Page 18---Moda Center in Portland Page 18—-Fenway Park Page 19---T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas Page 20—-London Olympic stadium Page 20—-Chase field Page 20---Oakland Alameda Coliseum Page 21—-Amalie arena Page 21---Guaranteed Rate Field Page 22—Wrigley Field Page 23—Truist Park in Atlanta Page 23–T-mobile Park in Seattle The main reason why Japanese baseball rules: Asian chicks with keg backpacks bringing $5 beer to you! Obligatory random action shot They also had the obligatory wacky mascot dancing Any stadium with a 7th inning stretch that features a giant inflatable coke can popping up from behind center field is OK in my book. Even the visitors had an organized cheering section Japanese baseball fans are HARDCORE. Imagine the craziest college student section you've ever seen, then multiply it by 100x, and you get the "cheering section." They had cheers for every batter and situation. They're so hardcore they made me blur my photo. The scoreboard reminds us where we are We really had no idea where our exact seats were, but this was the view from our $10 ticket section. After a short train ride and a 10 minute walk, we had found the place!

The funny thing is that once the Yankees (and Red Sox for that matter) saw the success other teams were having with young/cheap talent, they invested a ton of money in their minor league system. They actually have some decent talent in the minors now. The problem is they are too impatient to reap the benefits. If you are going to invest in your minor league system, you need to stick with that plan. You can't do what the Yankees do and trade away prospects or keep signing so many type A free agents that they don't have top draft picks. The Red Sox have had the most success sticking to their plan. The Rays broke out this past year. The Marlins always stay competitive sticking to that. The A's stockpile talent for runs every few years. Those are teams that all stuck to their plan of focusing on player development.

^I think it is more accurate to say wanted to capitalize on the housing market by selling to a developer, but quickly realized they weren't going to get enough to make it worthwhile to them. In theory it is a great piece of land for a giant housing tract...until a developer realizes it would have to get the property re-zoned, environmental reports, cleaning up the land to be suitable for development (they'd have to dig up all the footers, remove gas and electrical lines, grade the land, and so on). Plus the only logical buyer is Newhall Land and Farming, so they probably didn't get the bidding war they were anticipating.

For the record, he is by far the best switch hitter in MLB right now. If you are going to sign someone to a huge long term deal, he would definitely be a good choice! I would have loved for the Angels to have signed him to the very same deal the Yankees gave him! He's in the prime of a career that thus far has averaged 36HR, 121RBI, .290AVG, .919OPS, and 101R.

^What's that have to do with the yakuza? Seriously though, as I said, I felt like it became a more subjective when the comment about the commercial came up. That was one of your worst jokes if the intent was to joke! No smiley, no sense of sarcasm, etc. So I missed the humor in that post and it went bad from there. My original intent was just to say "meh...it's in the eye of the beholder. What's all the fuss about?!" and it went downhill from there. Oh well.