{"id":15799,"date":"2011-04-04T18:42:23","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T01:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=15799"},"modified":"2017-06-10T11:11:31","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:11:31","slug":"the-peterson-principle-4411","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=15799","title":{"rendered":"The Peterson Principle 4\/4\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Tim Peterson<\/p><\/div>\n

Opening Day at Dodger Stadium was a bust. It was a total disaster. Oh it was memorable all right. It will be remembered as the day a horrific event took place. The problem is it seems like it\u2019s starting to be common place.<\/p>\n

The weather was great, the Dodgers won and I\u2019m sure the Dodger Dogs were fantastic. The dignitaries were there and Vin Scully painted a beautiful picture of the game on radio as he always does. Everything seemed to be in order for a perfect beginning to the 2011 baseball season.<\/p>\n

Then something happened that was so out of order that it completely wiped out any of the positive things that had happened. Opening day was a bust because a 42 year old Giant fan was nearly beaten to death out in the parking lot by two Dodger fans after the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bryan Stow, a Santa Cruz paramedic who is the father of two, was simply walking out to his car following the Dodgers victory. Stow was with two other fans who were wearing Giant apparel when he was attacked by two men wearing Dodger clothing.<\/p>\n

The other two escaped injury but Stow was knocked to the ground and hit his head on the pavement. He is now hospitalized in a medically induced coma. Doctors said they are hopeful that the brain swelling will go down but if it doesn\u2019t he might have to have one of his frontal lobes removed.<\/p>\n

Stow\u2019s crime? He was wearing Giant gear at a Dodger game. So now you have to be careful what you wear to Dodger Stadium? Anybody who makes an argument that Stow should not be wearing Giant colors at a Dodger game is admitting that it\u2019s not safe to attend a game in Chavez Ravine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m beginning to wonder if it is. Think about it. Would you want to take your wife or girlfriend to a place where violent criminal acts like this take place? How about bringing your young son or daughter to a place where you feel like your life is at stake when you walk to your car after the game?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the past few years I\u2019ve witnessed a few scuffles myself. One year a Dodger fan wearing a Mike Piazza jersey nearly came to blows with a Giant fan sporting a Barry Bonds jersey.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not always Dodger- Giant stuff. I\u2019ve seen Dodger fans brawling with\u2026well\u2026Dodger fans. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Another time I saw Dodger fan hurl beer at a group of fans sitting below. They weren\u2019t Giant fans though \u2013 they had on Cubs merchandise.<\/p>\n

The element at Dodger Stadium has changed significantly over the past few years. I don\u2019t know what changed or when it exactly changed but it has and Frank McCourt or whoever he has hired for security needs to get busy.<\/p>\n

The culprits aren\u2019t actually fans. They claim to be but if you ask them who Don Drysdale was they stare at you with a confused look on their face.<\/p>\n

They are thugs – plain and simple. They\u2019re criminals dressed in Dodger Blue. To them the game is insignificant. A baseball game is simply a place to wreak havoc, commit crimes and attempt to show off their testosterone.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time it has happened. Two years ago a Giant fan was stabbed. In 2003 another Giant fan was shot and killed after getting in an argument while exiting the stadium.<\/p>\n

We know McCourt won\u2019t dole out money for players but apparently he won\u2019t pay for proper security as well.<\/p>\n

No arrests have been made as of yet for last Thursday\u2019s attack but it\u2019s been reported that the LAPD has significant leads.<\/p>\n

Hopefully they\u2019ll be caught and locked up and there will be two less thugs off the street. But you can be sure there are plenty more lurking out there – especially after a few beers at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

So if you do make the trek out to Chavez Ravine, don\u2019t forget your glove, Dodger hat and bullet proof vest. As for me I\u2019ll be covering a high school game. It\u2019s a lot safer.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my principle.<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening Day at Dodger Stadium was a bust. It was a total disaster. Oh it was memorable all right. It will be remembered as the day a horrific event took place. The problem is it seems like it\u2019s starting to be common place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12817],"tags":[5077,5075,5031,373,5078,1728,5079,5076,458],"class_list":["post-15799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview","category-petersonprince","tag-barry-bonds","tag-bryan-stow","tag-chavez-ravine","tag-dodger-stadium","tag-don-drysdale","tag-frank-mccourt","tag-lapd","tag-mike-piaza","tag-vin-scully"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59544,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15799\/revisions\/59544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}