No one’s making a move in Dodgers’ parking fiasco

IT’S 3:46 p.m., never too early to get to a Dodgers game these days, and a barricade was being put up to prevent anyone from sitting in the McCourts’ field-level seats.

The gates weren’t due to open for more than an hour, but a security guard had been assigned to guard the family box, just in case someone from the media or one of Nomar Garciaparra’s relatives, who like to hang out in the area during batting practice, made an attempt to sit down.

A request to speak to the Parking Lot Attendant about the opening day parking fiasco had been rebuffed two hours earlier. I thought later I might try to get past the security guard, and hop the barricade, but I worried about the sniper they might have in place.

I also asked to speak to the team’s vice president of stadium operations, since several team employees referred to him by name and not in a nice way. The Dodgers said they were not going to let him talk, and this a day after celebrating with Boy Scouts, military personnel and a big American flag that we live in a free country.

I had received tons of e-mail from irate Dodgers fans, and just thought a service-orientated business such as the Dodgers might make the owner available to soothe the disenchanted.

“What could he say?” a Dodgers spokesman asked, and “sorry” might have been a good start.

A SHORT time later, the Tipper Gore Lady grabbed the microphone in the press box and announced a car with a media pass was going to be towed. I’d have started with general admission, but at least they’re trying to clear the lots faster.

It’s the third inning, meanwhile, and no sign of the Parking Lot Attendant in his field-level seats. I wonder if he’s stuck in traffic.

THE TIPPER Gore Lady said the Parking Lot Attendant would not speak about the parking problems at Dodger Stadium. She said she’d be “taking the bullet on this one.” I guess I’m not the only one concerned about a sniper.

She said, with some pride, the Dodgers had squeezed 4,000 more cars into the parking lots on opening day than normal, so 4,000 times $15 a car, and what does the Parking Lot Attendant care about your traffic woes?

The employees were required to park outside of the stadium, and several called The Times to say the vice president of stadium operations had stopped the bus service to the employee lot, forcing as many as 100 employees to walk to their cars. One female food service worker tripped, fell and was sent to the hospital.

“The shuttle never stopped running,” the Tipper Gore Lady said, although she admitted later in the day the buses were probably stuck in traffic like everyone else. I guess now it takes an ambulance to beat the traffic.

“I’m going to withhold my name for obvious reasons,” said one angry Dodgers employee. “We work our butts off and then when it’s time to go home we’re told we have to walk to our cars. More people are going to get hurt.”

Some Dodgers fans were just as ticked.

PATTY HAYES: “I complained to a Dodger executive about increased prices and decreased benefits (a while back) and said the Dodgers appear to no longer appreciate season-ticket holders. He said, ‘Oh, we appreciate you, we just don’t show it.’ I had ample time to contemplate the truth of that statement during my 1 hour and 50 minute exit from preferred parking on opening day.”

JOHANNA REYES: “At 6 p.m. we actually witnessed dozens of parking lot attendants marching past us. We figured they only worked until 6. I have no idea where they were from 4 to 6 -- we saw nary a one. We’ve been to hundreds of games, and have never seen anything like it, including World Series games (remember those?)”

JOHN from Atwater Village: “I have been going to Dodger Stadium since 1976, and I have never, I repeat never, witnessed what I witnessed at the old stadium.”

TIM KEELER: “Some friends avoided the lots by parking outside the stadium. After the game, Frank McCourt and his entourage walked down the street.... I bet he decided to walk out of the parking lot and catch a cab to Beverly Hills.”

W. THOMAS: “I’m canceling my season tickets next year if they don’t fix it, and I’ll be selling all of the remaining tickets for this year if it’s not fixed soon.”

GLENN SIPES: “I wanted to see if I was still upset 24 hours after sitting in ‘gridlock’ less than two miles from the stadium listening to the opening day activities, which I have viewed these past many years.... Well, enough of this.”

JOSE CRISTOBAL: “As I sat in the morass that was the post-opening day Dodger Stadium parking lot, Vin Scully sat there too. As he crept along, one of the human beings hired with my extra $5 for parking realized it was Vin and offered him the chance to use a closed lane. But in a gesture that has defined his career, Vin chose to forgo the special treatment and sat among us regular folks. Now if only the Parking Lot Attendant and the Screaming Meanie could take a page out of Vin’s book of class.

“I checked with Vin, who said with a laugh, ‘I love traffic,’ while continuing to take the high road. ‘I’m no noble hero or anything like that; I wanted to go right and the closed lane wouldn’t have helped.’

“I mentioned how upset fans seemed to be about the changes in parking, and Scully said, ‘I assume they talked to a parking expert.’

“I thought the guy who owned the team was a parking expert.

“Now I wonder just what his expertise might be.”

STEVE SOBOROFF and Marty Adelstein e-mailed to say they will match Dodgers Manager Grady Little’s $100 donation to Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA for every win this season -- making it $300 a victory for the benefit of the kids in the cancer ward, who probably haven’t given a lot of thought to the parking problems at the stadium.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.