Take Me Out To The Ballgame By Public Transit

I'm in Washington D.C. preparing for tomorrow's Supreme Court argument in the ATA v. City of Los Angeles port trucking case.  While here, I've taken in two ballgames at the Washington Nationals' park, a very comfortable venue to watch baseball.  I took the D.C. Metro to and from both games -- a 15 minute ride following a 15 minute walk from my hotel to the nearby Metro stop. 

Got that, LA Dodgers fans?  Not a 2 hour drive in stop-and-go traffic from the West Side.  No -- 15 minutes by subway, with a station half a block from the ballpark.

Why oh why can't we have this in Los Angeles? 

And speaking of what we don't have in Los Angeles, one of the games I saw was vs. the Chicago White Sox, who have former Dodger Paul Konerko.  Dodger fans will remember that then-GM Tommy Lasorda traded the then-22 year old Konerko for reliever Jeff Shaw in 1998.  Shaw was out of baseball after the 2001 season with a 9-17 record for the Dodgers.  Konerko is still playing for the Sox; he has hit over 400 home runs for them, has over 1300 RBIs, a .285 batting average and an OPS (on base plus slugging percentage) of .865.  I saw him hit one deep into the bleachers against the Nats' no. 2 starter.  Thanks a lot, Tommy.

OK, end of rant.  One positive development in L.A. is that there is now a dedicated bus lane on game days from downtown Union Station to Dodger Stadium.  When the Expo Line is extended to Santa Monica, I'll be able to take it to 7th Street downtown, then catch the Red Line to Union Station, then the bus to the ballpark.  Maybe an hour each way?  Not as good as 15 minutes in D.C., but way better than today.