Ryu vs Choo Dodgers vs Reds 7-27-13

I decided to head out to Dodger Stadium to witness Korean baseball history; Ryu vs Choo when the Dodgers faced the Reds this past weekend. It's been a few weeks since i've been back to Dodger Stadium so I was happy to get a chance to see this great match up and to get a few autographs as well. I also had to meet up with Chris Capuano to give him his batting photo.

When I entered the stadium I decided to take a few photos of the Dodgers warming up. Puig was playing catch with Andre Ethier.

T-Fed was the first to sign autographs. I had him sign a card for me.

I noticed that Cappy was playing catch with Kershaw.

A few weeks ago I had Chris sign a photo for me pictured below.

As he was signing he asked me if I could print one out for him since he liked the photo a lot. Normally pitchers love to see themselves hitting so I wasn't too surprised he liked this photo. Since Chris has been good to me over the years being a great signer and a great person in general I decided to return the favor by giving him the photo. I promised him that I would be back after the All Star break and today was the day I handed him the photo. After he finished playing catch with Kershaw I called him over to give him his photo. Chris thanked me and signed a card for me. I thanked him as well for being fan friendly and for signing a ton of autographs for us over the years.

Chris seemed really happy to get the photo as he was showing off his photo and his home run swing to his teammates.

That pretty much made my day. It's rare that a player asks a fan for things especially since they can afford anything they want in life. It felt good just to return the favor as well. It also helped me the rest of the day since autograph karma kicked in a good way.

Afterwards I noticed that Ricky Nolasco was inside the bullpen. He was sitting deep inside the bullpen and he started signing. Ricky was only signing baseballs since he was deep inside the bullpen so we had to toss the baseball to him. I decided to get my clean BP ROMLB signed by Ricky. Ricky was nice enough to sign my baseball on the SS.

Afterwards he came out of the bullpen and signed for the rest of the fans. I asked him to sign a few cards for me as well and he signed all seven cards I had of him. I guess Ricky was in a good mood since he is glad to be back home playing for the Dodgers instead of the lowly Marlins.

Afterwards I headed out to the autograph corral. There wasn't much action as most of the Dodgers ran into the clubhouse. Thus I took photos of the stadium from my view on the field.

The only Dodger that signed at the autograph corral was Andre Ethier who signed a photo for me.

Afterwards I headed towards the Reds dugout as the Dodgers were done with batting practice. There was absolutely no action on the Reds side. I heard from other graphers that both Votto and Phillips signed a ton on Thursday which was the first game of the series. Thus I didn't expect much since they were probably all signed out. However I still tried graphing the Reds with a glimmer of hope. Brandon Phillips and Shin Soo Choo did indeed sign but only for people with field passes. Arolidis Chapman also signed for a baseball team that had field passes but showed no love for the ones without field passes.

I headed over to the Reds dugout to hopefully get some of the relief pitchers and maybe Aroldis. I figured my chances were low though since he already signed a bunch of autographs already.

The only Reds relief picher to sign was Logan Ondrusek who signed a card for me.

Normally I would watch a few innings and leave to go eat tacos but I decided to watch the game until they called in a reliever for Ryu. I wanted to see every at bat between Ryu vs Choo and so did many other Korean baseball fans as Dodger Stadium was filled with a ton my fellow Koreans to witness history. Ryu ended up pitching seven innings. Afterwards I left since I was hungry and I wanted to go home. My postgame meal is always at Taco Zone which serves the best tacos in LA period. Order the suadero mulitas, they are simply amazing.

When I arrived at Taco Zone the truck was nowhere to be seen. It was around 8pm so I figured the taco truck would be there. I got the times mixed up as I found out that it opened at 9. I still wanted my tacos before driving home but I had an hour to kill. I was listening to the game on the radio and it was already the 9th inning. Since Taco Zone is only a few minutes away from the stadium I decided to head back for some postgame graphing which I originally didn't plan to do.

I have to thank the autograph gods and autograph karma for that decision since I had one of my best postgame graphing night at Dodger Stadium.

The first player to sign was the former MVP himself Joey Votto who i've wanted his autograph for quite some time now. He was excorted by security but told us that he would sign as long as we were not double dipping on him. Joey warned all the fans and graphers that if he caught anyone double dipping he would stop signing and leave. It was nice since none of the graphers and fans broke the rule and everyone behaved. Joey signed my ROMLB on the SS.

Next up was Brandon Phillips who also signed my ROMLB on the SS.

That pretty much made my night since I never expected to get both Votto and Phillips postgame. To celebrate I decided to head back to Taco Zone for some mulitas.