FROM SKIN CANCER CENTRAL — If only my dermatologist could see me now, and she certainly will once Sunday takes its full effect.
I went online and bought a $100 ticket for the Dodgers' first game in the middle of the Sahara, a beautiful spring training shrine rising in the middle of nowhere, but still the desert.
Dodgers owner Frank McCourt kept referring to the grand opening of Camelback Ranch in a morning news briefing as a "celebration," but frankly, it was the lure of sitting behind home plate with a cellphone to my ear, waving to Plaschke back home and a free scented towel that brought me here.
And the answer to your obvious question is mango. The soaking wet, freezing, white towels feature a hint of mango, L.A.'s Larry Goldstein sitting in front of me but looking more like Lawrence of Arabia by the third inning, covered in washcloths.
The first thing they did here in Phoenix for the rich, besides charge $5 for parking like everyone else, was pass out yellow wristbands to separate you from the unwashed.
As much as I liked feeling privileged, I might never remove it, although I worry it might not carry the same impact at home.
However, I'm a little perturbed -- wandering back and forth as I did between my $100 seat and a special eating area designated for the rich, but still forced to use the same bathroom facilities as someone who could afford only to sit on the grass.
They also gave everyone who paid top dollar a gift, a Joe Torre bobblehead, a godsend really, because it could have been his book.
I have an editor in Russ Stanton who collects Dodgers bobbleheads, which ordinarily wouldn't bode well in these difficult newspaper times for a columnist who has been known to refer to the Dodgers as "choking dogs."
I figure if I bring Russ back another doll to play with, we probably won't hear from him for a good while.
You would have thought they'd sell out this celebration, the first game to be played here, but they drew 11,280. Does Manny sell it out? Sorry, couldn't help myself.
They can seat 13,000 in this new, good-looking joint -- 202 of those seats the top of line, yet only 70% or so were occupied for the first game despite a free buffet, water, soda and sunscreen, which didn't work given the oven burns on my face.
Everyone has to pay for alcoholic drinks, which didn't seem to stop anyone in the crowd. You watch the Dodgers enough, and you'd understand why.
