Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC
Yeah, that’s right.
American snapshot: Opening Day
Los Doyers
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American snapshot: Staples Center
Photo by Corey Moore/KPCC
Of all the photos of L.A. Dodgers fans snapped yesterday outside Staples Center by KPCC’s Corey Moore, this is my favorite, the one that just screams “Yeah!”
Or maybe I’m just projecting.
Edward Lizama of Los Angeles was feeling celebratory yesterday at the news that Guggenheim Baseball Management, one of whose partners is Lakers basketball icon Ervin “Magic” Johnson (yes, statue depiction above), has bought the team for $2 billion. Though like a few other fans Moore interviewed yesterday, Lizama wondered if this will mean new jobs.
Maybe. The opening game Tuesday, April 10 at Dodger Stadium is already sold out.
Can Laker morado be as big as ‘Doyer’ azul?
Photo by Juan Barredo/Flickr (Creative Commons)
A Lakers fan and his flags, June 2010
Los Angeles is a town full of Latino Dodger fans, but a Los Angeles Times story from earlier this week got at yet another one of Latino L.A.’s sports obsessions, the Lakers, whose purple and gold flags fly from car antennas in noticeable abundance on the Eastside this time of year.
The story detailed a big score by the Lakers organization in the National Basketball Association’s push to cash in on the “fast-growing Latino market.” In short, the Lakers recently announced a 20-year agreement with Time Warner Cable to create a Spanish-language regional sports network with the Lakers as its centerpiece, beginning next season. It will be the first of its kind in the country.
A couple of Lakers fanaticos were featured in the piece, including this one:
Consider longtime hoops fan Billy Sanchez, a third-generation Mexican-American. When he got his first driver’s license, he knew exactly where to celebrate: at a Lakers game.
“All I wanted to do was just go down to the Forum, find a scalper and buy tickets,” he recalls. “And I did that quite often.”
Two decades and five NBA titles later, the team has left the Forum for Staples Center and Sanchez, 35, has no need for scalpers because he works in sales for his father’s beer distributorship in the City of Industry and they have a luxury suite.
But his passion for the Lakers hasn’t faded. “I’ve been a fan ever since I can remember,” he says. “I watch every single game.”
The L.A. Dodgers organization also markets aggressively to Latinos. Last summer it trademarked “Los Doyers,” a nickname so common it’s mispronounced on purpose. The Dodgers organization had been selling team paraphernalia with the “Los Doyers” logo, including t-shirts and hats. So had private businesses, which soon afterward were asked to stop selling it.
