Post by Ella.
Some of you know, April 1st is Grubb’s birthday and our anniversary. So we decided to go all out on the celebration yesterday.
Van loads of police in full body armor, the crush of fans in team colors, the heavy continual pounding of drums. All part of the experience we voluntarily signed up for.
I felt some trepidation reading the instructions. “Dress down and then dress down again”, “don’t bring a handbag or rucksack”, “you must bring photo ID”, “make sure you zip your phone and wallet into your pocket”. At least the temperature was cooperating because there I was in my windbreaker with everything zipped away. Cellphone and wallet with only my drivers license in the top pocket, 10,000 ARS (US$10) in another pocket, glasses and a packet of tissues (for the banyo) in yet another pocket, and small notepad and pen (for writing addresses to show taxi driver in case we had to hail a cab) in another pocket. All firmly zipped.
We called for an Uber and were dropped at the appropriate street corner in Palermo. Other folks showed up. 15 in total. Three guides appeared. I guess they felt us tourists needed to be closely monitored. The usual introductions. We hailed from Michigan, Oregon, England (Nottingham) and of course New Mexico.
We were herded onto a public bus for a 20 minute ride to the vicinity of the stadium. This was a local home game: Platense, aka Calamar aka Squid vs Godoy Cruz from Mendoza. So a small stadium. Then into a local sports bar for pizza and beer (yep, even in Argentina). Lots of talking and trading stories. Grubb discovered that the guy from Oregon had grown up within one block of him in Chicago.
More instructions now about entering the stadium. Francisco says two stops, one for a pat down and search, the next to show ID. Easy, he says. Much harder to get into the big stadiums.
And voila, we were inside standing on concrete risers at the goal end of the field. Rooting for the Squid in their brown colors. The crowd clapped and chanted in support, roared when the ref made a “wrong” call, gasped when two players collided forcefully in mid air, jeered at the ref when he red carded one of our guys. No fights broke out in the stands because, as Francisco explained, no tickets were allowed to be sold to the visiting team.
Who won? And who were the opponents. And did you learn any chants? And were there snacks inside? Etc
The other guys (Godoy Cruz) won 2-1. It was 1-1 until almost the end. Then the Squid goalie made an awesome save but Godoy came right back with a little bop in. Didn’t learn the chants. It sounded like Orono ro ro (to the boom of the drum). Snacks? Well I know the British guy in the crowd was searching out beer. And a guy was walking around selling little tubes of sugared peanuts. This was a bare basics stadium. Not even a scoreboard.
Wondering if it’s normal to not let visiting team fans in?
It’s the new normal since some violent fights broke out between opposing fans, even endangering the players.
They should try that at Dodger Stadium.😄
I havent been to a Dodgers game since the 1950’s when my dad took me.