By Keith Thursby
Times Staff Writer
The
Dodgers’ one-night return to the Coliseum has the team wrestling with a
familiar problem—parking.
The Dodgers are offering round-trip shuttles
from the Dodger Stadium parking lot to the Coliseum for their March 29 exhibition
game against the Boston Red Sox. That wasn’t an option in 1958 before the
Dodgers’ first game in Los Angeles.
The Times
reported on April 8 about a press conference involving local police and
transportation officials who cautioned baseball fans to take advantage of mass transit, which in 1958 meant buses. The
officials warned that drivers would face traffic jams and increased
neighborhood parking fees. There had been talk of local lawn and backyard lots
charging up to $6 a car for certain games.
The officials said the Coliseum
parking lot would continue to charge $1 a car.
Meanwhile,
at least one high-ranking baseball official didn’t think much of the Dodgers’
decision to start their Los Angeles years in the Coliseum.
Phil Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs
and referred to in an April 10 Associated Press story as the man who opened the
West Coast to the Dodgers, said the Coliseum "just isn’t suited for
baseball."
"When
people go to a baseball game, they expect to see it played in a baseball
park," said Wrigley, who sold his Pacific Coast League franchise in Los Angeles to Brooklyn.
Of course, Wrigley had an idea where they
should have played—the cozier Wrigley Field.
That
eventually became the first home of the Los Angeles Angels, who played there
before sharing Dodger Stadium with the Dodgers until their own new stadium was
built in Anaheim.
*Update: A reader notes that there were more options available than buses. What I was
referring to was the press conference, in which the officials said buses should
be the mode of transportation for mass transit. But point
taken.
ladailymirror.com 
In 1958 Los Angeles, mass transit didn’t just mean busses. There were still a few streetcar and interurban lines at that time. The red cars of the old Pacific Electric and the yellow cars of the old Los Angeles Transit Lines still operated some lines in the area under the oversight of Metropolitan Transportation Authority–the first MTA. The last of those lines ran in 1965.
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The Hollywood Bowl does a perfect job of traffic management with buses scattered throughout the city, why Hasn’t Frank Mccort adaopted this ?
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Mark R., great point! I’ve ridden the Hollywood Bowl buses, which are clean and convenient. I’d gladly pay what the stadium charges for parking, to ride a bus from a remote location and not have to battle stadium parking. Plus, it’d keep that many cars off the small roads in the residential areas surrounding Dodger Stadium, and off the freeway ramps. Must be some kind of financial disincentive for not doing it.
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