FANS GONE WILD $2 NIGHT AT DODGER STADIUM TURNS UGLY.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

In the middle of the game, in the top row of Dodger Stadium's right-field pavilion, a group of young men plays craps. Dollar bills change hands as the dice hit the ground, and the young men seem oblivious to the baseball game being played before them. A boy, perhaps 5 years old, watches from two rows away.

Abusive language fills the air, within earshot of many children, and it isn't always directed at opposing players. Two young girls briskly walk away from their seats to avoid catcalls from grown men.

These are just some of the scenes from Tuesday night's game at Dodger Stadium, which was the second of the Dodgers' new True Blue Tuesday promotion. As part of the marketing campaign, tickets in the blue reserved level, top deck and pavilions were sold for $2, discounted from their normal rates of $10 and $6.

The idea has worked well, as the Dodgers drew more than 40,000 fans to each of the first two True Blue Tuesday nights, but fans have reported an increase in troublesome behavior on those nights.

A Dodgers representative said Wednesday night that the team only committed to two of the $2 promotion nights, and that team officials would evaluate whether to hold another one May 17.

While the majority of the stadium appears immune from widespread problems, fighting and abusive language are prevalent in the cheapest seats.

It hit its peak after the fifth inning of Tuesday's game. Two men jumped over the short fence near the right-field foul pole and ran toward center field. Sixteen members of stadium security quickly swarmed the outfield and apprehended the fans, but the problems didn't end.

Fans in the right-field pavilion, apparently angered that security was doing its job, littered the warning track and grass with plastic bottles and other debris, causing a 10-minute delay.

Dodgers center fielder Milton Bradley looked at the crowd and pointed to his head, encouraging fans to think, and fans in the left-field pavilion began a derogatory chant toward the offenders in right field.

``It's too expensive (normally),'' said Angel Ramirez, 38, of Los Angeles, who attended Tuesday's game with his three daughters and three of their friends. ``You bring four or five kids and pay 12 to 18 dollars - there goes an entire paycheck. So we try to make it to the $2 special.

``But this isn't the place to bring a kid, a young kid. It's out of control. We're out here to have a good time. I don't think I ever want to come back, not to the bleachers at least. We've been pelted by rocks, chips, peanuts. ... You go with the flow. What can you do? You act like you don't hear it. It's pretty rowdy. It's one thing to have a good time, another thing to get crazy.''

Other snapshots from Tuesday's fan behavior included:

-- A fight nearly breaks out when one fan hits a beach ball into the back of another fan's head.

-- Another fan reports being hit with ``rocks, chips, peanuts,'' pretty much anything that is able to be thrown.

``To hear things like it, it suggests to me a hodgepodge security setup, a little bit of a helter-skelter situation,'' said Tim Dimoff, a former police detective and SWAT team member who now runs an Ohio-based security consulting company. ``It sounds like they need to make some changes quickly.''

Team officials, from owner Frank McCourt on down, tout the stadium as a family-friendly environment, but that seems increasingly in contrast with reality.

``Here at Dodger Stadium, we are constantly evaluating and adjusting all aspects of the fan experience,'' said John Olguin, the team's vice president of public relations. ``Our fans' safety and their experience here are paramount.

``We hope that the incidents in the last few days are not a trend and we will do everything in our power to make this a safe venue.''

Certain areas of the stadium bring back the worst memories of the Raiders era at the Coliseum, a situation so scary and volatile that NFL owners still, 10 years later, have qualms about allowing a team to play there.

A Dodgers official refused to provide details about the security force at the stadium, saying the team didn't want to make the officers vulnerable by disclosing their location or number. The security staff is entirely private, and made up largely of off-duty officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Dodgers hope, however, to have uniformed LAPD officers present at the stadium by the start of the next homestand, which would bring them in line with most other large sporting venues.

For now, when an arrestable offense is committed, the stadium calls a local police station and a car is dispatched to pick up the suspect. The LAPD could not immediately provide numbers on recent arrests at the stadium.

A visual examination of the stadium showed perhaps 12 to 15 ushers or security members on each level and five or six officers visible in each of the pavilion areas, where most of the trouble occurs.

``It might be the worst crowd (in baseball); for sure it's toward the top,'' Colorado Rockies outfielder Dustan Mohr said. ``I've learned a few new words from playing out there. I don't think kids should be exposed to that stuff, but I don't mind the language so much. I just don't want things thrown at me.''

During the first ``True Blue'' game April 26, a group of fans in the right-field pavilion who were described as being consistently rowdy jumped aggressively on a seating bench and broke it from its moorings.

Another group, sitting nearby, grabbed the bench and held it in the air, with one spectator throwing a small piece onto the field. When security officers escorted the fans from the stadium, they were cursed and pelted with a barrage of trash. Martin Talamantes, 16, said he found himself near the middle of it all.

``It was scarier than I've ever seen it before,'' said Talamantes, a student at Bravo Medical Magnet. ``Opening-day games aren't even that bad. ... I can't even describe how insane some people were.

``It was so crazy that it was almost humorous. The people behind us, I don't think they had even been to a Dodger game before, and the guys in front of us, who were holding (the bench) up, they kind of looked like thugs a little bit. I was kind of worried that some kind of soccer-type riot was going to break out there. I mean, I've seen some crazy stuff out there before, but I've never seen vandalism before.''

``It sounds like they don't have much of a game plan,'' Dimoff said. ``Instead of having 16 people chasing around two guys on the field, they should station security people along the edge of that pavilion, and the first person who so much as throws a Kleenex on the field should get dragged out and arrested.

``Fans have to see that there are consequences for their actions. You have to set down the rules and stay on top of them. If there are no consequences, the situation will continue to get out of hand.

``If there's an area of trouble, they need to double or triple the amount of security in that area. They can put up video cameras to find the troublemakers and tell people that they're under surveillance.''

Alcohol typically is tied to fan-related problems. Beer is not served anywhere in the pavilion seating, but fans get around that by drinking in the parking lot before the game. Dodger Stadium prohibits tailgating in the parking lot, but fans say the enforcement is lacking.

``Obviously, security, they're not doing their job,'' said Julio Rodriguez, 25, of Highland Park. ``That's why there's fights and parking-lot drinking. Only when you come in, that's where all the security is.

``They don't sell no brew (in the pavilions), so we've got to drink up before we come. Why not? That's why we're rowdy here. Parking-lot drinking.''

Staff Writer Josh Kleinbaum contributed to this report.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) A fan, above, taunts security personnel during a game Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium while another fan, below, is dragged from the field after jumping out from the right-field stands.

(3) Two fans step out to the edge of the right-field stands as they prepare to jump onto the field during Tuesday night's game.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer