it's time for dodger stadium

tomorrow marks the beginning of the 52nd season of dodger stadium, if i did my math right.  it opened in april of 1962 and went through some major renovations during this past offseason.  most of the improvements won't necessarily be noticeable from the field - they upgraded concourses, entrance plazas, restrooms, clubhouses, etc. - but i'll still be interested to see what people think.

first, let's look at some cards featuring some dodger stadium backgrounds.  the corrugated fiberglass bullpen walls are now covered with greenery, but they were exposed in the 1980's as evidenced by nolan ryan's 1982 fleer card

and kelly downs' 1989 topps card

greg brock's 1984 donruss card

and bill madlock's 1985 donruss card

show us the outfield wall and the railing at the front of the outfield pavilions, while darryl strawberry's 1985 donruss card

shows the dugout and the field level, plus a classicly attired dodger stadium usher.

back to the pavilions - we see the roof structures on randy myers' 1988 donruss card

as well as the padres leaders card from 1988 topps

also from 1988 topps, former dodger candy maldanado takes a cut in dodger stadium

while the astros' chuck jacskon is most likely playing catch

1990 score features at least four astro cards with dodger stadium backgrounds - here's jim deshaies

and the old field level scoreboard with the unocal logo, bob forsch

and dave smith

with the bullpen people behind the gate, and gerald young

with the fence and pavilion railing.  1993 topps gave us another astro - xavier hernandez

with the bullpen gate and the low fence near the right field corner

here's a more recent card - from 2007 upper deck first edition, it's troy tulowitzki

that's the pavilion, but the outfield fence has been bastardized with ads thanks to the mccourts.

the last thing i'll show in this post was in an oddball lot i picked up a couple of months ago.  it's from a release called 1990 publications international hottest rookies stickers, if you can believe that.

the photo is taken from the players' parking lot behind the left field pavilion  a ferrari, a beemer, and some sort of off-road vehicle, among others.

i wish i could be there tomorrow - i haven't been to a dodgers home opener since 1998 which was the year after i moved out of the state.  i won't be going to the twins' opener either, even though i usually make it a point to attend.  temps in the low 30s have a way of discouraging me.