Every season I see a ballgame at Dodger Stadium with former newsroom colleague and Dodger fan Liset Marquez, generally when the St. Louis Cardinals, my team, are in town. This year they were in town Easter weekend. We weren’t able to attend Easter Sunday, but the Cards lost.
They almost always lose when I see them on the road, most recently in San Francisco, where they took two from the Giants but lost the game I attended.
Anyway, my annual Dodger game with Liset turned out to be the team’s first of the postseason, Saturday’s match-up against the San Diego Padres.
I donned a white and blue T-shirt from Pomona’s Mi Cafecito coffee shop with a logo mimicking the Dodgers’. That was as close to sartorial support as I was willing to go.
While I had no real rooting interest, and inadvertently lost my free rally towel somewhere on the concourse, I clapped politely when the Dodgers did something worthy, like the Shohei Ohtani home run that tied the game.
From our loge seats we had a good view. This included watching two grown men try to run onto the field, then brawl with security before being escorted off in handcuffs. A third man belligerently flipped off security, again and again, until he and a woman were led away too.
Ah, the national pastime: making a jackass of yourself in public. I much prefer the wholesome Dodger fans highlighted on the video screens, the ones dancing or smooching or holding babies.
The Dodgers — you heard it here last — went on to win 7-5. Having backed a winner for a change, I’m still a bit disoriented.
Liset reminded me that this was my second postseason game. We had seen the wild card game in October 2021 in which the Dodgers eliminated the Cardinals on a two-run homer in the ninth by Chris Taylor.
That means I have been present for two Dodger postseason games, both of which the team won.
Another Dodger fan friend, Allen Callaci, texted me after Saturday’s victory.
He wrote: “I guess you are now officially a Dodgers postseason good luck charm.”
That’s something, I guess. No need to dwell on what happened Sunday when I stayed away.
But gee, I’d rather help the Cardinals!
Book fair
People turn out Sunday for the fourth annual Local History Book Fair in Riverside. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Sunday’s Local History Book Fair in Riverside was well-attended by history-lovin’ folks, who bought books, caught up with friends and shared stories. More than 70 people stuck around afterward for Vince Moses’ talk about Fairmount Park, a pretty remarkable turnout for a history lecture.
I sold nine copies of my latest collection of columns, about which I will again promise to tell you more at a later date. (I hope the suspense won’t kill you!)
Writing for a newspaper in 2024 can be a lonely road. You can wonder if anyone is reading. Last week, a mother contacted me to say she hadn’t realized, and no one had ever told her, that I’d gotten her son onto the front page of the newspaper a month ago — sigh.
But then there are events like the book fair, where people made a point of coming up to my table to tell me they read me faithfully and that my work makes their subscription worthwhile.
“You don’t know this,” one woman confided, “but I have breakfast with you three mornings a week.”
That was sweet. I believe she means that metaphorically, but I will be more alert at the breakfast table in case I’ve missed something through inattention.
Many of you said you like when I write more personal columns, like about stair-climbing excursions or my favorite coffeehouse closing. That was a mild surprise. One said she would have liked a whole column about my San Francisco vacation, not just a few paragraphs.
It’s true that I tend to give myself short shrift here in favor of community stories, of which the world could use more. And so you never got to read here about, say, my vacation last May to Palm Springs, or about my Metrolink trip after work on Oct. 2, when rides were free on Clean Air Day, to eat dinner at Grand Central Market.
In short, in my zeal to report stories, often I am squeezed out of my own column. Have I struck the wrong balance? Well, the Local History Book Fair is a small sample size, but I will take the requests for more about me, me, me under advisement.
The most thoughtful comment about my column was from Riverside reader Doug Barrie, as follows: “It’s like reading a letter from a friend. He’s sharing what he’s been up to, but also telling you something you didn’t know.”
I thank him, and the rest of you, for your support.
More Fairmount
Fairmount Park: It’s not a mistake or a name change, despite some who swear they remember it as “Fairmont” Park. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
After my column Friday on Riverside’s Fairmount Park, a reader phoned to ask when the name changed.
“As I was growing up in Riverside, it was our beloved Fairmont Park,” she said. “I don’t know if it was legally changed or if someone just messed up and spelled it wrong and it went on from there. I didn’t see any mention of its earlier name.”
There’s good reason for that. But after Vince Moses’ talk Sunday, I confirmed with that eminent historian of Riverside that Fairmount Park has been Fairmount Park since its creation in 1924.
In fact, Moses told me, “they were calling it Fairmount Park even before it was a park,” because it was a popular picnic area next to a housing tract named Fairmount.
Nancy L. Cox, who contributed to the new book “The People’s Playground: Riverside’s Fairmount Park,” told me she understood the verbal confusion.
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“It’s Fairmount, but people pronounce it ‘Fairmont’ unless they’re from the East,” Cox explained. And probably because it’s generally said without the “u,” Cox has seen the name spelled without the “u” in this newspaper and even once on an official city sign, which was quickly replaced.
I trust this settles matters. I would hate to see confusion mount.
brIEfly
The video screens at Saturday’s Dodgers game now and then showed a video clip of a celebrity actor encouraging us to get loud. Samuel L. Jackson, Bryan Cranston and Issa Rae were among them. So was Cheech Marin, who was wearing a cap and T-shirt with the logo for The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture. Riverside was in the house!
David Allen goes quiet Thursday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on X.