This is why I'm no longer a Dodgers fan
When the Dodgers decided to invite the Sister of Perpetual Indulgence to their Pride Night in 2023, they figuratively took a giant dump on a fan base that live in a city that is 65% Christian.
If you’ve known me for any significant amount of time, you’ll know that I was a HUGE Los Angeles Dodgers fan. I had some form of a ticket plan for seven years, not including the four years I was a season ticket holder. I never missed a game. And when I say never missed one, I mean never missed a game.
I loved the Dodgers!
Then a few things started to happen that changed that.
The move from Prime Ticket to Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA, now known as Spectrum Sports LA, was the first slap in the face. The channel was the result of a 25-year deal with Time Warner Cable in 2013 valued at $8.35 billion. The only problem was that Time Warner had no deal in pace with any of the local TV providers to broadcast the channel. It wasn’t until 2020, When Spectrum and AT&T, owner of DirecTV, came to an agreement to broadcast the channel, that the majority of homes in the Greater LA area had access to see Dodger games. Some fan were shut of seeing Dodger games for seven whole seasons. Incredible moments like Clayton Kershaw’s no hitter, Josh Beckett’s no hitter, Vin Scully’s final game, and countless others were only seen by a small minority of the fanbase. But lets turn the other cheek.
Dodger Stadium used to be a very affordable place to go to. You could easily take a family of four and spend less than $200 including tickets, parking, food, and souviniers. Good luck nowadays getting getting a family of four into that stadium for anything less than $450. And that’s not including parking, food, or souviners. My pair of season tickets used to cost me $1200. That’s two tickets for 81 home games. Insane to think about nowadays. Can $1200 even purchase a mini plan in 2025? I doubt it. But lets turn the other cheek. Running out of cheeks here.
The Dodgers organization took a metiforical shit on the entire fanbase when the invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to their pride night. The “sisters” are a San Francisco based drag group where the men dress as nuns to mock Catholicism, and Christianity in general. I understand that 29 or the 30 MLB teams hold these pride nights, but what are you actually promotiong by inviting a group who’s sole purpose is to perpetuate hate towards Christians? All out of cheecks to turn.
According to the Pew Research Center, the Los Angeles metro area (the Greater Los Angeles Area, which encompasses five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, with the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County at its center, and Orange County to the southeast) is about 65% Christian. Of this 65% of Californians who live in Dodger fan territory, 32% follow the Roman Catholic Church, 30% belong to various Protestant denominations, and the last 3% adhering to other Christian persuasions.
This is a huge portion of the fanbase that the organization essentially flipped the double bird to and told them to take a hike.
So I took a hike.
I’m a proud Texas Rangers fan now and have have been since 2023. Before anyone wants to accuse me of being a bandwagon jumper since they won the World Series that year, I have the reciepts to prove I’m not.
The All Star break hadn’t even occured when I stopped being a Dodgers fan. And I picked a team that hadn’t won a World Series in its 62-year franchise history. You can’t really jump on a bandwagon of a team that has a rich history of losing.
I stopped being a Dodger fan at a time where being a Dodger fan is at its easiest. The Dodgers payroll currently sits at $374 million, and with an expected $120 million luxury tax, that’s nearly a $500 million team payroll. No other team spends like that.
With that said though, I'll stick with the Rangers.
So that’s why I’m no longer a Dodgers fan.
I didn’t break up with the Dodgers. The Dodgers broke up with me. They told me to take a hike and I did.